Month: April 2017

Environmental Statement: Evangelical Lutheran Church in America

Picture courtesy of
elca.org/

Caring for Creation: Vision, Hope and Justice is a social statement that explains the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America’s (ELCA)  teachings on ecology and the environment, grounded in a biblical vision of Gods intention for the healing and wholeness of creation. This statement provides a Christian understanding of the human role to serve in creation. The ELCA believes in caring for creation through active participation, solidarity, sufficiency, and sustainability. To learn more about the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America  and their actions to Care for Creation, click here.

School of Sustainable Faith

Picture courtesy of sustainablefaith.com

Sustainable Faith is a collective of spiritual directors and pastors working to create a spiritually healthy culture among leaders and communities. They aim to guide people in honoring the Sabbath and living a healthy, embodied spiritual life.  They have established schools in twenty-four American cities and the Netherlands. They also work to place qualified spiritual directors in local churches and grow the practice of group spiritual direction in churches. To read more on their locations and their work, click here.

Evangelical Lutheran Church in America Downloadable Resource

Picture courtesy of
elca.org/

The Evangelic Lutheran Church in America offers downloadable resources to help encourage others to care for creation. The resources include Hunger & Climate Change, Awakening to God’s Call to Earthkeeping, Poverty and Hunger in a Changing Climate, and more. To read or download these resources, click here.

Profile: Nigel Savage

Picture courtesy of hazon.org/

Nigel Savage, originally from Manchester, England, founded Hazon in 2000, with a Cross-USA Jewish Environmental Bike Ride. Since then, Hazon has grown the range and impact of its work in each successive year; today it has more than 60 staff, based in New York City, at Hazon’s Isabella Freedman campus, and in other locations across the country. Hazon plays a unique role in renewing American Jewish life and creating a healthier and more sustainable world for all.

Hazon is one of a tiny handful of groups to have been in the Slingshot 50 every year since inception, and in 2008, Hazon was recognized by the Sierra Club as one of 50 leading faith-based environmental organizations.

Nigel has spoken, taught, or written for a wide and significant range of audiences.  (A selection of his essays are at hazon.org/nigel). He has twice been named a member of the Forward 50, the annual list of the 50 most influential Jewish people in the United States, and is a recipient of the Bernard Reisman Award. He has given Commencement speeches at Wagner (NYU, in 2011) and at Hornstein (Brandeis, in 2014). In 2015 he was awarded an honorary doctorate by the Jewish Theological Seminary.

Before founding Hazon, Nigel was a professional fund manager in London, where he worked for NM Rothschild and was co-head of UK Equities at Govett. He has an MA in History from Georgetown, and has learned at Pardes, Yakar, and the Hebrew University.  He was a founder of Limmud NY, and serves on the board of Romemu.

Nigel executive produced the British independent movies Solitaire For 2 and Stiff Upper Lips and had an acclaimed cameo appearance in the cult Anglo-Jewish comic movie, Leon The Pig Farmer.  He is believed to be the first English Jew to have cycled across South Dakota on a recumbent bike.

 

Profile: Dr. Job Ebenezer

 

Dr. Job S. Ebenezer is the president of a nonprofit organization called Technology for the Poor.   He is a retired professor of engineering.  He started Technology for the Poor to design, innovate and disseminate simple technologies for less income people.  He designed a dual purpose bicycle that can enable an ordinary bicycle to power small scale agricultural implements and other mechanical devices. He served as the director of the department of Hunger Education and Environmental Stewardship of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).  In 1993, he established a roof top garden at the ELCA building using wading pools.   He established container gardens in several cites in the US as well as in Africa, Costa Rica, Belize, Ecuador and India.  Recently, he is promoting vertical gardening appropriate to slum dwellers and apartment dwellers.  He established container gardens at the Ascension Lutheran church, Faith Mission Men’s shelter, Columbus Academy for Humanities, Arts, Technology, and Science and in a soup kitchen in Franklinton.  He lives in Westerville and has three children and five grandchildren.

Catholic Diocese of Columbus: Creation Care Guide

Picture taken from colsdioc.org

The Creation Care Team of the Catholic Diocese of Columbus has created a Creation Care Guide based on the teachings of Laudato Si’. This guide contains information on energy conservation and efficiency, purchasing and recycling, transportation, and water conservation. Additionally, they have a section on making Laudato Si’ relatable for young people. The inspiration for this guide came from the Archdiocese of Atlanta who wrote a document titled, An Action Plan for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta. To read the Creation Care Guide from the Catholic Diocese of Columbus, click here. To read the Action Plan for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta and see where the inspiration for this guide came from, click here.

Crown Point Ecology Center

Picture courtesy of crownpt.org

Crown Point is an ecology center in Bath, Ohio. Their mission is to demonstrate the applications of ecology and connect them to spirituality, social justice, and environmental protection. They work to be a role model for food security and sustainable land use through farm stewardship, advocacy, and education. Their goals and mission are achieved by integrating their four core values into everyday life. Their four core values include community, justice, spirituality, and sustainability. To learn more about Crown Point and their programs, click here.

Engaged Organization: Dominican Sisters of Peace

Picture courtesy of oppeace.org

The Dominican Sisters of Peace are Catholic Sisters who strive to live a life of peace-making. They work to make the world a place that is more accepting and less violent; more welcoming of others, and more respectful of the planet and less consuming of Earth’s resources. They do this by serving God through education, health care, spirituality, care of creation, and more. The have more than 550 members and congregational offices in many different states, including one in Columbus. To learn more about the Dominican Sisters of Peace and their work, click here.

Urban Agriculture and Container Gardens

 

 

 

 

Pictures courtesy of technologyforthepoor.com

 

Technology For the Poor is a non-profit organization started by Dr. Job Ebenezer. Their mission is to develop, innovate, and disseminate sustainable technologies to the poor all over the world. While Dr. Ebenezer has designed and implemented many different sustainable practices, one of the most notable is his work with urban agriculture and gardens. Using inexpensive containers and suitable soil mix, he has created container gardens in urban areas such as rooftops and unused parking lots in places such as Chicago and Washington D.C. Locally, he has created these gardens at Ascension Lutheran Church, Faith Mission Men’s Shelter, and a soup kitchen in Franklin. To learn more about Technology for the Poor and their work, click here. To read about container gardens and a guide on how to start your own, click here.

Enagaged Orginazation: Technology for the Poor

Pictured above is a dual-purpose bicycle built by Dr. Ebenezer, courtesy of technologyforthepoor.com

Technology for the Poor is a non-profit, charitable organization started by the current president, Dr. Job Ebenezer. Based on the philosophy of George Washington Carver, their work strives to serve communities by providing them with sustainable technologies. These sustainable technologies include human powered energy systems, urban agriculture, and sustainable building technologies. Specific examples of their work includes a dual-purpose bicycle, wind energy generators, low-cost construction techniques, and container gardening. Dr. Ebenezer’s container gardens have made it much easier for urban buildings, such as churches and community buildings, to have their own gardens. To learn more about urban agriculture, click here. For more information on Technology for the Poor, click here.