Green Chalice News

A monthly e-newsletter from the Creation Care ministry of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).

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In This Issue

Black Church

WCC

State of the Union

Car Charging Port

Indiana Region

Food

Thought

Talk Climate

Become a GC Ministry

GC Congregations

Climate Video

Green Chalice

is a partnership Creation Care ministry of Disciples Home Missions and the Christian Church in Kentucky.

Our mission is to connect Christian faith, spiritual practice, and creation consciousness in order to demonstrate the fullness of God's shalom.

Disciples Home Missions

Christian Church in Kentucky

Blessed Tomorrow

Green Links

DOC Ecology Resolutions

Facebook

Eco-Palms

Disciples Coffee Project

Facebook

Green Chalice News

January 2016

Black Church Climate Statement

As leaders in the Black Church, we view climate change as a moral issue and one of the greatest public health challenges of our time, particularly for black and other marginalized communities. Breathing dirty, carbon-polluted air, that causes climate change contributes to thousands of asthma attacks, hospital visits, and premature deaths every year. Black and lower income communities are often hit the hardest by climate change in the United States. In Genesis, breath is declared a God given right, yet, almost 40 percent of the six million Americans living in close proximity to a coal power plant are people of color....

We affirm the natural world as God's handiwork and dedicate ourselves to its preservation, enhancement, and faithful use by humankind.... We urge our national, state and local decision makers to craft policies that strengthen black communities.

DRAFTERS: Dr. Samuel Tolbert, Jr. (President, National Baptist Convention of America), Dr. Jessie Bottoms (Vice President, National Baptist Convention USA), Bishop Seth Lartey (AMEZ), Bishop Ronald Cunningham (CME), Dr. Carroll Baltimore (Global United Fellowship), Dr. Leonard Lovett (COGIC)

Click Here to Sign Click Here to Learn More

Caring for Our Common Home: An Ecumenical and Interreligious Concern

Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit
World Council of Churches

General Secretary

"Quick and effective action" is needed to implement the Paris accord, said UN chief Michael M�ller, director general of the UN in Geneva. "The moral leadership of religious communities is crucial."

How does one nurture and stimulate the courage among all actors to make the radical changes needed? Tveit pointed to the quality of hope. "All human beings have a right to hope. Faith in God, who desires fullness of life for all of humanity, is a way to relate to the world as it is with the conviction and the commitment that something more and better is possible than what we can observe immediately. This is one contribution to hope. Therefore we also need to renew a theology of hope. A relevant question in the critique of religion is: are religions and religious leaders conveying hope for all?"

"It is time for those who shape the moral discourse about sustainable values for the earth as our common home and the human family to point more to the possibilities existing presently to do what serves the future of our planet."

Read the Entire Article

State of the Union

Between the President's Climate Action Plan, the Clean Power Plan, and the international progress made just last month in the landmark Paris climate agreement, President Obama has shown tremendous leadership in the realm of climate action and clean energy during his years in office.

However, if Obama is serious about making climate a legacy of his administration, as he indicated in his State of the Union address, he must still successfully confront a few serious challenges in his final year in office. To really seal the deal on his "climate legacy," Obama should steer our country away from all sources of dirty, costly and risky energy - including offshore drilling along our treasured coasts and costly, resource-intensive nuclear power in the Southeast.

Read the entire article here.

-Chris Carnevale | Coastal Climate and Energy Coordinator
Southern Alliance for Clean Energy

Latest Action

President Obama responded boldly on the coal front, announcing a moratorium on all new coal mining on federal lands. This will protect our climate and millions of acres of wildlands. Forty percent of coal comes from America's public lands, so keeping it in the ground will accelerate our move to a clean energy future. The President's action will protect our climate and iconic wildlands from the ravages of coal mining.

Ask him to take the next big step toward a clean energy future by ending oil and gas development on public lands as well.

DOC Car Charging Station

Elder Chuck Mackey, Pastor Ray Blasko and Seminarian Lorenzo Thomas

Bolindale Christian Church in Warren, OH - a Green Chalice Congregation - is the operator of Youngstown/Warren's first public car charging port. The port is a 22 volt power converter which plugs neatly into a wall socket near the front entrance.

The cost was all upfront. Converter units that run between 110, 220 and 240 volts are between $300-$500 dollars. The installation only requires connecting to a three-prong wall outlet. The charging port has been in regular use for a solid month. They calculate that it costs roughly .8 to .10 cents an hour when in use. The car showcased in the picture is Pastor Ray Blasko's own electric car which he purchased for approximately $17,000.00. It costs about .80-.85 cents for a full charge.

List of New Electric Cars

Indiana Green Chalice hosts YES

YES (Youth Empowering Sustainability), a two-day statewide leadership training event, was held this month at Eastgate Christian Church, Indianapolis, IN

This Interfaith Event Featured:

-How to start an environmental group

-Hands on weatherization training

-Real life applications

-Environmental workshops

- Movie & fun!

Christian Food Movement

This new guide aims to be the most comprehensive collection of resources at the intersection of Christian faith and sustainable agriculture in the US and Canada. It has almost 200 resources and links including one about the Green Chalice Gardens program.

Check it out!

AND then Tell us about your Garden

Thought for the day

If you can just appreciate each thing, one by one, then you will have pure gratitude. Even though you observe just one flower, that one flower includes everything.

SHUNRYU SUZUKI ROSHI

Let's Talk Climate

Messages that inform and empower faith leaders to effectively open the conversation on climate change within their places of worship and in the community.

Download the Report HERE.

Report Webinar HERE!

Learn more about Blessed Tomorrow.

Join the GC movement!

Your congregation may already qualify!

All it takes is ...

1. Have an active Green Team.

2. Sign the Green Chalice Covenant as a team or as a congregation.

3. Make at least 3 changes that demonstrate your congregation's commitment to caring for God's creation.

THEN e-mail the following information :

1. Congregation name, City, State, address and phone number;

2. the date the Alverna Covenant was signed;

3. and the changes made by your congregation to walk more gently on God's creation.

Oops!

In the December 2015 GC News, I welcomed United Church of Christ, San Diego to the Green Chalice Family when it should have been

University Christian Church, San Diego!

Same initials, different congregations - my apologies!

Check them out:

University Christian Church, (Disciples of Christ),

San Diego, CA

Green Chalice Ministries

Welcome to the GC Family ---

University Christian Church, San Diego, CA

Johns Creek Christian Church, Johns Creek, GA

Bolindale Christian Church, Warren, OH

Green Chalice Congregations

Arlington Christian Church, Lexington, KY

Bolindale Christian Church, Warren, OH

Burgin Christian Church, Burgin, KY

Butler Christian Church, Butler, KY

Cairn Christian Church, Lafayette, CO
Central Christian Church, Lexington, KY

Central Christian Church, Marshalltown, IA

Central Woodward Christian Church, Troy, MI

Community Christian Church, Tempe, AZ

Crestwood Christian Church, Lexington, KY

Crestwood Christian Church, Lincoln, NE

Desert Dove Christian Church, Tucson, AZ

Disciples Christian Church, Bartlesville, OK

Disciples Christian Church, Cleveland Heights, OH

Downey Avenue Christian Church, Indianapolis, IN

Edmond Trinity Christian Church, Edmond, OK.

Evergreen Christian Church, Athens, GA

First Christian Church, Bardstown, KY

First Christian Church, Beaumont, TX

First Christian Church, Bellingham, WA

First Christian Church, Carbondale, IL

First Christian Church, Concord, CA

First Christian Church, Danville, KY

First Christian Church, Eugene, OR

First Christian Church, Farmville, NC

First Christian Church, Frankfort, KY

First Christian Church, Glasgow, KY

First Christian Church, Harrisonville, MO

First Christian Church, Henderson, KY

First Christian Church, Houston, TX

First Christian Church, Leavenworth, KS

First Christian Church, Lexington, TX

First Christian Church, Little Rock, AR

First Christian Church, Lynchburg, VA

First Christian Church, Mount Vernon, WA

First Christian Church, Ocala, FL

First Christian Church, Owensboro, KY

First Christian Church, Paducah, KY

First Christian Church, Paris, KY

First Christian Church, Pasadena, TX

First Christian Church, Puyallup, WA

First Christian Church, Rockwall, TX

First Christian Church, Scottsdale, AZ

First Christian Church, Torrance, CA

First Christian Church, West Palm Beach, FL

First Christian Church, Wilmington, NC

First Christian Church, Wilmington, OH

Florence Christian Church/Harmony Place, KY

Harmony Springs Christian Church, Uniontown, OH

Harbor Christian Church, New Port Beach, CA

Heights Christian Church, Shaker Heights, OH

Hood River Valley Christian Church, Hood River, OR

Johns Creek Christian Church, Johns Creek, GA

Journey of Faith, Ann Arbor, MI

Lake Washington Christian Church, Kirkland, WA

Lakewood Christian Church, Lakewood, OH

Lee's Summit Christian Church, MO

Marshall Avenue Christian Church, Mattoon, IL

Midway Christian Church, Midway, KY

Midway Hills Christian Church, Dallas, TX

Mt. Zion Christian Church, Richmond, KY

Nicholasville Christian Church, Nicholasville, KY

North Christian Church, Fort Wayne, IN

Northside Christian Church, Knoxville, TN

Norwalk Christian Church, Norwalk, IA

Plymouth Creek Christian Church, Plymouth, MN

Providence Christian Church, Nicholasville, KY

Red Rock Christian Church, Boise, ID

Ridglea Christian Church, Ft. Worth, TX

Saint Andrew Christian Church, Olathe, KS
Salvisa Christian Church, Salvisa, KY

Southern Hills Christian Church, Edmond, OK

Southside Christian Church, Kokomo, IN

South Joplin Christian Church, Joplin, MO

South Street Christian Church, Springfield, MO

Sugarbush Christian Church, Guelp, Ontario

The Healing Cathedral Christian Church, Memphis, TN

University Christian Church, San Diego, CA

Valley Christian Church, Birmingham, AL

Waling Faith (Korean-Am) Christian Church, Sunnyvale, CA

Webster Groves Christian Church, Saint Louis, MO

White Oak Pond Christian Church, Richmond, KY

Woodland Christian Church, Lexington, KY

15th Avenue Christian Church, Rock Island, IL

Green Chalice Ministries

Christmount Retreat and Conference Center

Black Mountain, NC

Green Chalice Regional Offices

Christian Church Capital Area

CERTIFIED Green Chalice Congregations

Bridgeport Christian Church, Frankfort, KY

Christ Church Uniting, Kailua, Hawaii

Cynthiana Christian Church, Cynthiana, Kentucky

Midway Christian Church, Midway, Kentucky

Midway Hills Christian Church, Dallas, TX

Salvisa Christian Church, Salvisa, Kentucky

Woodland Christian Church, Lexington, Kentucky

Sharon Watkins on Climate

"Do not come any closer," God said. "Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground."

Holy Ground Video

All of creation waits for us...to step up to preserve our God-given planetary home. How long must creation wait? - Rev Sharon Watkins, General Minister and President of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)

Epiphany Blessings!

Rev. Carol Devine

Minister for Green Chalice

Rev. Scott Hardin-Nieri

Associate Minister for Green Chalice

Contemplative Image by Rev. Chuck Summers

Ours is not the task of fixing the entire world at once, but of stretching out to mend the part of the world that is within our reach.

Clarissa Pinkola Estes