This week’s tip is to consider giving up single-use plastic for Lent, and our quote is from Pope Francis.
Think having a green corner in your church 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, 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: Reduce food waste
Lent is just around the corner, beginning on Ash Wednesday, March 6. Many Christians dedicate themselves during Lent to spiritual disciplines of “prayer, fasting, and self-denial.” As you ponder what you might do for your own discipline this year, consider giving up as much plastic as you an!
The Rev. Rachel Mash writes for Green Anglicans on Facebook, “On Ash Wednesday when we are signed with the cross, the priest will say ‘Turn away from sin and believe the good news.’ This Lent we are challenged to turn from the sin of damaging God’s planet and hurting our neighbors by our over use of single-use (throwaway) plastic.
“By 2050, there will be more plastic in the oceans than fish. Plastic is already entering into our drinking water. Plastic clogs our rivers, leaches into our soil, and is one of the greatest challenges the planet faces.
“The good news is that there are alternatives. We can break our dependency on throwaway plastic. This Lent, begin a journey to explore other ways of living, to limit your damage to the Earth and to inspire others.”
Green Anglicans has created a 40-day Lenten calendar with daily suggestions on how we can cut down our plastic use. Find it here: http://www.greenanglicans.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Final-Calender.pdf
Episcopal Climate News quote of the week: Pope Francis
“Each creature has its own purpose. None is superfluous. The entire material universe speaks of God’s love, his boundless affection for us. Soil, water, mountains: everything is, as it were, a caress of God. The history of our friendship with God is always linked to particular places which take on an intensely personal meaning; we all remember places, and revisiting those memories does us much good. Anyone who has grown up in the hills or used to sit by the spring to drink, or played outdoors in the neighborhood square; going back to these places is a chance to recover something of their true selves.”
– Pope Francis, writing in the “Laudato Si: On Care for Our Common Home,” passage 5.IV.84. The document of climate and environmental theology is available for free online.
Episcopal Climate News 
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