Happy New Year’s Eve! To celebrate tomorrow’s holiday, this week’s column reprints two of our greatest hits: Our August 20 tip to switch to reusable water bottles, and our October 8 quote from former Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori.
Think having a green corner in your parish newsletter or bulletin is a great idea, but don’t have time to research or write one? Episcopal Climate News is here to help! Every Monday, ECN offers a free green-living tip and a theological quote that your parish can use. Just copy/paste the text below into your parish communications, and feel free to edit/shorten as your space requires. Share this week’s column on Facebook.
Living on God’s Earth
By Episcopal Climate News, facebook.com/EpiscopalClimateNews
This week’s earth-friendly living tip: Switch to reusable water bottles!
The plastic water bottles that Americans use every year create an enormous amount of carbon pollution: The same level of fossil-fuel emissions as 535,000 cars. That’s equivalent to the energy it takes to power more than 250,000 homes! The world is also plagued by plastic pollution, which threatens more than 250 different species of wildlife every year. Even the water that fills these bottles is often taken out from under marginalized communities that need it more than the corporations that purchase it.
Imagine the difference it could make for God’s earth if we stopped using extra plastic items like water bottles, straws, and shopping bags. Changing our habits to avoid plastic water bottles doesn’t have to be hard. Put a reusable metal water bottle in your purse, car, or backpack and you’ll have one with you everywhere you go, ready to fill up at the next water fountain. At home, drink tap water: Use a water filter if needed. You can put a filter on the faucet, or get a pitcher with a built-in filter to keep in your fridge. (Bonus for the pitcher: You can add a couple lemons or limes for natural flavor!) These steps will save money, and help save God’s earth.
Episcopal Climate News quote of the week: The Most Rev. Dr. Katharine Jefferts Schori
“Individualism is basically unbiblical and unchristian… Salvation cannot be complete, in an eternal and eschatological sense, until the whole of creation is restored to right relationship. That is what we mean when we proclaim in the catechism that ‘the mission of the church is to restore all people to unity with God and each other in Christ’ and that Christian hope is to ‘live with confidence in newness and fullness of life and to await the coming of Christ in glory and the completion of God’s purpose for the world.’ We anticipate the restoration of all creation to right relationship, and we proclaim that Jesus’ life, death and resurrection made that possible in a new way.”
– Oceanographer and former Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, from the August 27, 2009, sermon “Salvation’s Goal: Returning All to Right Relationship.”
Episcopal Climate News 
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