All levels of education embrace creation care as a central theme impacting all disciplines. Students of all ages are guided in reconnecting to the natural world. Youth are instructed and counseled in value, lifestyle, and career choices that demonstrate stewardship of the earth. Schools practice sustainable building design and transportation patterns.

SCHOOLS IN ACTION

Goshen College Offers Climate Change Conference

For most congregations, looking ahead means passing next year’s budget or deciding which pastor to hire. Rarely does global climate change come up in Sunday morning conversations.

This makes Earth as Ally: Facing Climate Change Together a unique opportunity for Christians who want to grapple with this vexing contemporary issue. The weekend conference will take place at Merry Lea Environmental Learning Center of Goshen College, Wolf Lake, Ind., September 17 – 19.

Earth As Ally: Facing Climate Change Together is this year’s Autumn Hope Conference, a faith-based event that Merry Lea sponsors annually, bringing together students, lay people and environmental professionals. The primary distinctive of the gathering is its emphasis on hope grounded in Christian faith, rather than an attitude of despairing fatalism or denial that environmental problems exist. read more

Golf Cart Rolls with Kansas Sun

NORTH NEWTON, KAN. – During one of the hottest Kansas summers in recent memory, Roger Reimer of Bethel College’s maintenance department has been putting all that sun to extra good use – to drive his solar-powered golf cart around campus.

It all started out as “a little experiment” with his cart. “I am interested in alternative energy,” he explains. He hopes driving the solar cart around Bethel will “create interest in alternative energy on campus.” read more

Agroecology Summer Intensive Reveals Unexpected Possibilities

If there is a common thread among the seven students from five different colleges who studied in Merry Lea’s Agroecology Summer Intensive (ASI) this year, it is one of new possibilities.

“Now I know that there are ways to survive as a small farmer,” observed Emma Regier, a biology major at Bethel College, North Newton, KS.

“This is an exciting time to study sustainable agriculture,” adds Dale Hess, director of the program. “There are indications that the Obama administration has recognized the connections between the way we grow food and eat, and the health-care crisis on one hand and the climate-change and energy crisis on the other.” read more

EMU to Host Signature Solar Power Project on Campus

HARRISONBURG, Va. - Eastern Mennonite University will soon feature another
shade of green on its campus: the site of Virginia’s first
commercial-scale solar photovoltaic (PV) installation in the Commonwealth
of Virginia.

The new installation is part of a proposed revision to the campus master
plan to allow for approximately 600 kilowatts of solar energy panels to be
installed on the campus. The installation is expected to generate about
12 percent of EMU’s total electricity use and save the University an
estimated $2 million in avoided electricity costs over the 25-year
project. read more

More stories about people caring for creation in school settings.

SEND US YOUR STORIES

Mennonite Creation Care Network seeks examples of schools of all levels, from kindergarten to graduate education, where environmental stewardship is taught and practiced. Send stories to lukeag@goshen.edu or jenniferhs@goshen.edu.

Click here to reach our web-searchable Creation Care Resource Library. Search for resources especially for schools, as well as search under a variety of topics.

"As servants of God, our primary vocation is to be stewards in
God's household."
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Confession of Faith in a Mennonite Perspective, 1995 more

Mennonite Creation Care Network

P.O. Box 263 Wolf Lake, IN 46796
PHONE 260-799-5869
FAX 260-799-5875

Luke Gascho provides leadership for MCCN.
Contact him at 260-799-5869 or by email at lukeag@goshen.edu.

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