Going green by example

The Anglican Church of Canada is launching a green revolution it hopes will sweep across 1,700 parishes nationwide.

The Partners in Mission and Eco-justice (PMEJ) of General Synod is compiling a national database of approximately 100 Anglican parishes. These parishes have completed energy audits and taken steps to become better stewards of the environment.

It is hoped that sharing their stories will help other parishes to do the same, says Ken Gray, a former member of the eco-justice committee and the Canadian church representative to the Anglican Communion Environment Network. “We’d also like to…track their progress over time and encourage [them] to take the next step. By publishing the data, we’d also like to encourage other parishes to take initial steps.”

The database is part of the Greening Anglican Spaces project initiated by PMEJ in response to a 2010 General Synod resolution on climate justice. To help parishes go green, PMEJ has enlisted the help of Faith & the Common Good (FCG), a national organization based in Toronto that encourages interfaith action on social and environmental concerns. FCG pioneered the Greening Sacred Spaces program in Canada, which provides faith communities with resources.

Dr. Ted Reeve, executive director of FCG, says about 500 houses of worship have participated in the Greening Sacred Spaces program. FCG’s goal is to increase this number to 3,000 by 2013.

See full story at anglicanjournal.com