LENT 2022
Caring for God’s Creation

Often Christians give up a habit or take up a new habit during Lent in remembrance of the 40 days Jesus spent in the wilderness fasting. We take on a personal habit which helps us to focus on our actions and be more mindful of our relationship with God which takes precedence over earthly desires. This Lent, St. Luke’s invites you to live more in harmony with God’s creation and to take on a habit that shows Care for God’s Creation. Humans, especially Americans, are using the Earth’s resources at a rate that is not sustainable. Our environment is changing rapidly, and alarming events remind us of how the earth’s inhabitants, human and not, are being impacted by the changes. Wildfires, floods, droughts and powerful storms are no longer uncommon and unfortunately disproportionately are affecting those with less means to overcome them. This Lent let us look into our lives and see what earthly desires are keeping us from living in harmony with God’s Creation.

If you have a question about any of these items or would like to talk to the Green Team or join our group please let the church office know at office@stlukespr.org.

 

Choose a green habit

Adopt a Green Habit from this list:

• Stop using single use products. Single use products must be manufactured, packaged and shipped to stores. After use they are sent to landfills in trucks which burn fossil fuels. At the landfill, decaying materials give off methane, a very potent greenhouse gas contributing to global warming, and other materials don’t decompose for many years, or ever in the case of Styrofoam.
  New habit ideas: Some suggestions for new habits are bringing your own bags to the grocery, stop using paper plates, paper napkins, paper towels, straws, bringing a reusable cup to get coffee, bringing a reusable water bottle instead of bottled water etc. 
• Reduce water use. Water is not in limitless supply even near the Great Lakes. Many areas of the country are eyeing the Great Lakes as a solution to their water issues. The water we use consumes energy through treatment, pumping and heating. Lastly our treated waste water is sent downriver to the Gulf of Mexico.
  New habit ideas: turning off water when brushing teeth or face, running dishwasher and washer with full loads, taking shorter showers, etc. 
• Use less energy at home. When we consume less power, we reduce the toxic fumes released by power plants, conserve the earth’s natural resources, and help protect ecosystems from destruction.
  New habit ideas: turning off lights not in use, turning down your thermostat, turn down thermostat when away from home or at night, air drying clothes, etc. 
• Stop shopping for discretionary items. Consumption has become the earth’s most serious environmental problem. Americans are using resources at 5x the rate they can be regenerated. (The Day the World Stopped Shopping, MacKinnon). If you have a need borrow, rent, buy used items.  
• Drive less. Cars are the least efficient transportation mode!
  New habit ideas: walking to school, taking public transport, carpooling, limiting driving to 6 days a week
• Reduce food waste. Reducing food waste reduces methane emissions from landfills, prevents pollution involved in growing, manufacturing, packaging, transporting and selling food, no to mention hauling it to a landfill.
  New habit ideas: planning meals, eating leftovers or freezing them, or eating what’s in your freezer and pantry,
• Care for the natural world. Our natural world is a complex web that provides us with the food we eat, the air we breathe and the water we need to survive. It is also proving important to our mental health. It is important for our future generations and those of many other species to reduce our impact on our ecosystems.
  New habit ideas: picking up litter on walks or feeding birds.
• Compost at home or through a service. Compost turns waste that would take up landfill space and release methane into a valuable soil amendment. There are many online resources for composting, or you can have a fee based composting service from a commercial compost company such as Collective Resource. They have regular pickup dates and can take items not suitable for home composting.
• Use tap water instead of bottled water. Bottled water is generally no cleaner, safer or healthier than tap water (Food and Water Watch) and according to the Container Recycling Institute 86 percent of plastic water bottles used in the US become garbage or littler.
  New habit ideas: use filtered water or a soda stream, bring reusable water containers when going out.
• Learn more about an environmental issue. Examples: read books, attend One Earth Film Festival March 4-13. Some favorite books: The Day the World Stopped Shopping, Mackinnon; Braiding Sweetgrass (short stories), Kimmerer; Omnivore’s Dilemma, Pollen; The Overstory (fiction), Powers; The Book of Hope, Goodall; Nature’s Best Hope, Tallamy; Prodigal Summer (fiction), Kingsolver; Climate Church, Climate World, Antal; Collapse, Diamond; The Hidden Life of Trees, Wohleben. Project Drawdown at drawdown.org has numerous educational resources including a video series aimed at decreasing greenhouse gas emissions to the point where they are no longer increasing but they are decreasing.