Grace Church Celebrated Earth Hour

On Saturday, March 26th, Grace Church joined with people from 131 countries to make a statement of support for addressing climate change by turning off our lights for Earth Hour 2011.

Below are pictures from the church with the lights on and off.

Grace Church - Lights ON

Grace Church - Lights OFF

And another view from Earth Hour 2011

Grace Church - Lights ON1

Grace Church - Lights OFF

Maybe next year we should have a candle lit party at the church...

Peace!

Join us for the Screening of the Work of 1,000 with Marion Stoddart

On Wednesday, March 30 beginning at 6:45pm we will be showing the 30 minute documentary The Work of 1,000 directed by Sue Edwards and featuring Marion Stoddart and her work to save the Nashua River in NH.  Following the screening, we are very excited to have both Marion Stoddart and Sue Edwards for a discussion.

Nashua River, NH before
The Work of 1,000

This is the third of five parts of our Green Faith Series on Environmental Stewardship at Grace Church (160 High St).  A community dinner is served at 6pm.  All are welcome!

Check out http://gracemedford.org/greenfaith for a complete listing of the events and further details.

Here is some more information about the movie and Marion:

Marion Stoddart, a young mother of three, lived next to one of the nation's most polluted rivers. At a low point in her own life, she took on its clean-up as a personal cause-for herself, for the community, and for future generations. She had no special skills or training, but what she did have was a vision for what was possible. And, an unwavering resolve to save the dying river. Marion's historic success in cleaning up the Nashua River-recognized by the United Nations, National Geographic, and chronicled in books and now a movie-is an inspirational lesson about the impact one person can have in the world.

http://workof1000.org/

The screening is free, though we will be taking a free will offering to help defray the costs.

Come watch a 30-minute film about her, and meet Marion Stoddart as we discover together how we might turn our vision of change into a reality.

All are welcome!

Jon

Earth Hour this Saturday!

Do you turn off the lights when you leave a room?

Why do you turn them off?

Do you know what Earth Day is?
How about Earth Hour?

Earth Hour is a global initiative where individuals, businesses, governments and communities are invited to turn out their lights for one hour to show their support for environmentally sustainable action.

When? Saturday March 26, 2011 at 8:30 to 9:30 PM (local time)

What? Turn off non-essential lights

Why? To show your support for environmentally sustainable action.

What else? Register at http://www.earthhour.org/ to be counted.

Grace Church is participating by turning off our exterior lights for Earth Hour this year.

The Greening Grace team encourages all members of the Grace Church Community to turn off their lights and to sign up with the Earth Hour website to show your support for this action.

Who else? The City of Boston and the State of Massachusetts are participating. The City of Boston list includes the following local participants and more:

• MA State Buildings
• Boston Hostelling
• IBEW 103
• The Lenox Hotel
• Westin Copley Place
• Museum of Science
• Boston Children’s Museum

Other places you may have heard of that are participating in Earth Hour 2011 include:

• The Empire State Building, New York
• Times Square, New York
• Christ the Redeemer statue, Brazil
• National Monument, Indonesia
• London Eye
• Eiffel Tower, Paris

Please join us in turning off your lights for Earth Hour and let us know by leaving a comment below!

Alicia

for the Greening Grace Team

Greener Earth: Leading Green Projects Locally and Internationally

Join us as we welcome Joseph Asaya from the Greener Earth campaign dedicated to the full rejuvenation of the earth’s green nature by giving opportunities to people in the third world countries to have access to Solar Energy. Our discussion will include the benefits associated with living green such as cost benefits, reduction of carbon footprints and health benefits as well as the dangers of continuing in the status quo such as the rise of water level, global warming, death to polar bears and eventually the quick end to earth.

This is part of our “Wednesdays at Grace” Lenten Green Faith Series taking place every Wednesday evening from 6:45-8pm from March 16 to April 13 at Grace Episcopal Church in Medford, MA. Dinner will be served at 6:00pm.

All are welcome!

Eco-Worship with Bishop Bud Cederholm

Tonight we gathered together in the Lords name to learn and worship with a focus on the world that God created.  Bishop Bud Cederholm led us through an Eco-Themed Worship Service covering the aspects of Praise, Thanksgiving, Confession, Proclamation, Offering, & Prayer with a touch on Existing and New Practices.

The evening was filled with songs and poetry, reflection and sharing.


For me the reflection and exploration of the hazelnuts was moving.  I also really enjoyed the music video "Take AIM at Climate Change" and the clear message to start by doing one little thing and then another to make a difference.

The next event in the Green Faith Lenten Series is coming up on Wednesday, March 23rd featuring Joseph Asaya sharing his work in Africa providing sustainable energy to rural areas.  Please join us!

Peace,
Jon

Tread Lightly for Lent - Lenten Green Calendar of Activities

On Sunday, copies of the "Tread Lightly for Lent" calendar of environmentally conscience activities for each day in Lent were made available in the Parish Hall.  This wonderful calendar was put together by the Presbyterian Church (USA) Environmental Ministries and is the best "green" Lenten calendar we found so the Greening Grace Team decided we should reflect on it at Grace Church.

You can pick up a copy in the Parish Hall or download it from the web:

http://www.pcusa.org/media/uploads/environment/pdf/lentcalendarnew.pdf

The activities include a good mix of reflection, action and ideas. 

My favorite action is to

Collect your personal trash and recyclables throughout the day. At the end of the day, survey your waste and think of ways to reduce. On average, Americans create 4.6 pounds of waste a day.
Saturday, March 12th from Tread Lightly for Lent

Please take a look and consider these actions during Lent.  The Episcopal Church has similar resources for many of the programs linked to within the Presbyterian Church.  Please ask us if you need help finding local contact information or have a question about .

Genesis 2:15 (New International Version, ©2011)

 ¹⁵ The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.

Subscribe to Greening Grace Updates via Email

Did you know you can receive email with the latest Greening Grace updates?  We've configured it so that you will only receive email once a day when there is a new post or multiple posts.  We will have a lot of exciting updates and reports to share with the upcoming Green Faith series this Lent and the 2nd annual GreenUp CleanUp so sign up today!

Enter your email address:


Delivered by FeedBurner

Peace!