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COMING SOON!
Onsite composting at Taftsville Chapel. Attend a composting workshop and get your own Soil Saver composter for $35 (retail value $120)
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 REMINDER!
Green Up Day Vermont is this Saturday May 5th. Check with your town for details about locally organized events
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COMMUNITY SUSTAINABILITY
Taftsville Chapel received the Sustainable Woodstock's Energy Award "for the commitment of the congregation to more sustainable practices, including installing solar panels and sharing their credits."
The award was presented at Sustainable Woodstock's annual meeting held Wed, April 25th.
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SOLAR BY THE NUMBERS
This Month
Generated: 1203 kWh
Used: 469 kWh
Donated: 734 kWh
Estimated Value to BBC: $178
Estimated Value to TCMF: $86
Total: $264
Grand Totals
Estimated Value to BBC: $1681
Estimated Value to TCMF: $825
Total: $2506
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KID'S CARE CORNER
Don't throw food in the garbage. Ask about composting options wherever you eat... at home, at school, at church, even at restaurants!
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MEMBER SPOTLIGHT - DAVE BEIDLER
Q: What is something you love about creation?
A: One thing I love about creation is the complexity and inner connectedness and dependency, I see in nature. the more closely we look at the relationships between different plants and animals we see complex relationships and connections. A seemingly small change to something in an ecosystem can have large impacts.
Q: What is something you do to care for creation?
A: I find that in my work I am able to help people make choices that help them save energy and in doing so benefit the environment. I find that while people want to save money and be more comfortable, many people want to take steps to preserve the environment also.
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A NOTE FROM STEVE
During a conversation with a lawyer, Jesus agrees that the heart of the Torah is best expressed in two commands that lead to eternal life (love God, love neighbor). Luke says that "wanting to justify himself" the lawyer asks Jesus a follow-up question, "Who, then, is my neighbor?" Jesus responds in a way that stretches the moral imagination of this lawyer and those in his audience.
Rather than defining a class of individuals who should be regarded as "neighbor" Jesus tells a parable about a victim beaten-up and abandoned on the side of the road, only to find help at the hands of an individual with whom the victim in the story and those in Jesus' audience would have found ethnic-tension: a Samaritan. He then asks "who do you think was a neighbor to the victim?" The lawyer identifies the Samaritan as the true neighbor.
This story does not create a once-and-for-all definition of who our "neighbors" are. But, in its context, Jesus pushed the boundaries of his audience's consideration of who would be worthy of love and care. He even makes this ethnic-outsider not the recipient of care (the victim), but the hero who displays uncommon compassion; it is this Samaritan, says Jesus, that the lawyer should imitate (Luke 10:25-37).
During our Earth Day celebration, Heather left three empty chairs at the front of our sanctuary representing three groups:
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future generations, populations most affected by environmental degradation, and other (non-human) species. If Jesus were to speak among us in our church, I can't help but think that he would stretch our moral imagination to consider ways that these three voiceless groups (and perhaps others?) might not only be worthy of our love and care, he might make them the heroes who end-up caring for us.
The love of Jesus stretches our vision to consider that Creation Care is not simply about making ourselves feel good as heroes, but recognizing that in caring for the voiceless and attending to the forces that affect them, we may find that they end-up being the heroes who have more to give us than we can offer them.
This underscores to me that Creation Care is more than just good "stewardship" or a "duty"; in its purest form it is animated by love; love of neighbor and love of Creator.
If you were to ask Jesus the question, "Who is my neighbor?" how do you imagine he might respond to you?
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CONTACT US
Have ideas, stories, resources you'd like to share related to creation care?
Contact Heather Wolfe,
Taftsville Chapel's creation care liaison
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