New Posts on Our Web Site
Forest Preservation
as Ministry?
Mennonite Church Manitoba is facing a decision right now regarding 90 acres of woodland at Camp Assiniboia, Headingley, MB. A task force recommends that Mennonite Church Manitoba “commit to the long-term protection and careful environmental management of the Camp Assiniboia Forest.” This is not an easy decision; due to development pressures in the area, this woodland carries commercial value. Click here to read the task force report or the environmental survey it was based on. Mennonite Church Manitoba invites dialog from its constituency.
Solar Water Purification on the Way to Developing World
Chemviron, a company headed by Mark Steiner, Wooster, OH, just invented what may be the world’s first solar-powered water purification system. Employees who had done volunteer work in the developing world were spurred by the suffering they knew was caused by a lack of clean drinking water. “Mark is doing this out of his faith and service commitment,” a fellow Mennonite from Wooster remarks. Read more
Goshen Streets
A group in Goshen gathers three times a year to disperse funds they have raised by taxing themselves on every gallon of gas they buy. Prices at the pump, they say, do not really reflect the true foreign policy or environmental costs of using gasoline. Read about their latest project to provide shade trees for poor neighborhoods.
Green Puzzle Clues:
Look under the “read news stories” link on our congregations page. Also the 100 Shades of Green Directory. Note the layout button on the left side of the Green Directory that gives you multiple pages for the same church.
Please send us questions for our next puzzle!
What is the most interesting, creative or significant thing your congregation
or anyone in it has done in the last two years to care for creation?
Mennonite Creation
Care Network
PO. Box 263 Wolf Lake, IN 46796
PHONE 260-799-5869
FAX 260-799-5875
Luke Gascho provides leadership for MCCN. Jennifer Schrock is the E-newsletter editor.
Privacy Policy Copyright 2008 by MCCN
Hello Members of Mennonite Creation Care Network—
Here at MCCN, we’ve already made our New Year’s Resolutions. One of them is to faithfully put out an E-Newsletter once a month instead of at distant, random intervals. We’ve also upgraded to an html email. If that gives you problems, let us know and we’ll send the newsletter as an attachment.
Did you see our 100 Shades of Green ads in The Mennonite, the Mennonite Weekly Review or the Canadian Mennonite? Our other goal is to find and link 100 congregations that:
1. Have identified a creation care advocate
2. Have reviewed MCCN’s Green Congregation Score Sheet together
3. Are actively engaged in the care of creation, whatever that may mean in your context.
4. Have shared a report of their activities with MCCN for the Green Congregations Directory.
We now have 16 congregations with creation care advocates. Visit our congregations page to find out if your congregation is one of them. If your congregation is not on the list and you are willing to serve as the liason to MCCN, please let us know.
People Feature
The eight members of the MCCN Creation Care Council gather twice a year; once in person and once electronically. At each meeting, we take time to get to know each other a little bit better. We’ll give you this opportunity too. Our Creation Care Council page provides short bios on each of us. We’ll also feature one person in each of our upcoming newsletters.Dave Hockman-Wert is a CCC member from Corvalis, OR, who once pointed out to us that in Genesis, God speaks to the fish before humans ever get a divine word. Find out why fish figure in Dave's life.
Resources
This month's resources all relate to global climate change due to the upcoming Climate Change discussions in Copenhagen, December 7 - 18.
A faith-based look at climate change: MCCN member Greg Bowman, a journalist with Rodale, Bally, PA, recommends A Climate of Change: Global Warming Facts for Faith-Based Decisions, by Andrew Farley and Katherine Hayhoe. Check MCCN’s resource page for a brief review.
Coal Connections Noreen Gingerich wrote in to recommend ilovemountains.org, a site about the consequences of coal mining and mountaintop removal. One nifty feature on this site is a place where you can type in your zip code and see if coal powers your electricity. If it does (likely) you can find out what mines that coal comes from and what communities are impacted.
Hope from all over the globe: On October 24, 2009, author Bill McKibben and the nonprofit, 350.org sponsored an international day of climate change action, inviting people from all over the world to create an action around the number 350—the safe threshold of ppm CO2 required for a healthy planet. Visit 350.org to view thousands of pictures from 182 countries. See actions involving Mennonites.
Who takes the temperature of the planet? If you’ve never visited the web site of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, sorted out their working groups or read their summary reports, now’s a good time.
Green Congregations Puzzle
Which congregation is engaged in each of the following ways of caring for creation?
Find the answers on our web site. Like to get fun surprises in the mail? The first person to send us all the correct answers will receive a prize.
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Mennonite Creation Care Network
PO. Box 263 Wolf Lake, IN 46796
PHONE 260-799-5869
FAX 260-799-5875Luke Gascho provides leadership for MCCN.
Call the # above or email lukeag@goshen.edu.Privacy Policyxxxxxxxx Copyright 2008 by MCCN