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OUR PROGRAMS (2008-2009)

This Fall, our main priorities are to:

• Green Sanctuary: Complete our Action Plan and submit our final application for accreditation
• Foundations: Continue weekly Zero Trash Lunches & bi-weekly Fair Trade Sales
• Green Building: Brief the Board on a A Green Look at our Building + hold educational events
• Spirit & Connections: Continue events that facilitate Spirit & Connections (see above)

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Accomplishments (Some Photos & Highlights)

Oct 4, 2009: Green Souls Supports New Orleans JazzFest Evan Christopher's Clarinet Road and master drummer Shannon Powell wow'ed the crowd at All Souls Church. Proceeds went to non-profits in New Orleans. This was a Green Souls service event - we ran the will-call table and greeted people at the reception.
Sept 27, 2009: Creative 'Green' Visioning for 2020 Participants enjoyed an afternoon using playdough, music, dance, and a 3-D mockup of our building to create a 'green' vision for our building and programs. Ideas created, literally: community garden, solar panels and windmills, and a bus that brings those to church who may not otherwise be able, and more!
August 2009: Gordon 'Unplugged' "Unplugged" performance of our very own music virtuoso, Gordon Kent. He wooed us with his amazing voice and diverse instruments at Banana Cafe.
April 2009: Gardening Day Green Souls encourages a day of gardening to help beautify the grounds of All Souls. Held on Earth Day Sunday Service - see below). All Souls holds regular gardening days during the Summer.
April 2009: Recycling Jingle Is a Hit! In our Earth Day Service, Green Souls performs a hilarious recycling jingle to promote our big recycling boost at church. It received many laughs and a standing ovation from the Congregation!
April 2009: Blessing of the Bikes All Souls Senior Minister gives a Blessing of the Bikes, at our Earth Day Sunday Service.
2008: We're Named Green 'Congregation of the Year' All Souls congregation is recognized for our work to promote environmental and social justice and to create a world where human actions are in balance with a healthy environment. Presented by Greater Washington Interfaith Power & Light, a non-profit that promotes the reduction of human impact on the environment through dialogue and cooperation of diverse faiths.
December 8, 2008: Polar Bear Plunge! Sponsored by Chesapeake Climate Action Network (CCAN) 4 Green Souls plunge into the icy Chesapeake with 200 other brave souls - to express a call to action on climate change. Green Souls had their banner at the event, and our own Pamela Sparr was interviewed on Fox News TV!
April 15, 2007: Champagne and Chocolate! Held for the first 30 participants of the new Green Resolution initiative at All Souls. The honorees enjoyed tasting 6 different kinds of Fair Trade chocolate as they sipped on organic bubbly. A great time was had by all.
December 17, 2006: Silver Souls Going Green! The Annual Holiday Luncheon was served in real platters and china - all bought by the Silver Souls in an effort to make a beautiful dining setting AND help the church's green goals of Zero Trash events.

October 8, 2006: Green Sanctuary Signing Ceremony
We celebrate having our application approved and becoming an official candidate church in the national UU Green Sanctuary program and to launch Phase 2 – implementation of our Action Plan. Beginning with special words from the pulpit by Rev. Louise Green we moved into a fancy Zero Trash lunch complete with organic “I Love the World” cake made by our own Marc Ferrara; special activities for children, youth and adults. Click here to see our 2-year Action Plan.

September 10, 2006: Zero Trash Goes Weekly
We raise the expectations bar as high as it will go, and now arrange Zero Trash Sundays WEEKLY. Help us live up to this wonderful aspiration. Volunteer 2 hours once a month. Click here to contact the coordinator: Matt Cohen at mattandeliz@yahoo.com

July 16, 2006: ASC Board affirms Green Sanctuary Application
By unanimous vote, All Souls Board of Trustees affirms our Green Sanctuary application and action plan. This is the final step before submitting the application to UU Ministry for Earth for evaluation and approval.

June 25, 2006: Global Warming Statement of Conscience
The Unitarian Universalist Association meeting in St. Louis votes for a strong Statement of Conscience on global warming, guiding national advocacy, congregations and individual actions. All Souls members' ideas made their way into the final document and they played key roles in St. Louis.

Feb 26, 2006: Environmental Justice Sunday
We sponsored a special sermon and a “Beat the Heat” information and action fair for Environmental Justice Sunday Feb. 26th, 2006. The focus was global warming. To hear or read the popular sermon by our Social Justice Minister, Rev. Louise Green, go to the Feb. 26th sermon on the sermon page.
For information and action materials distributed at the "Beat the Heat" fair, click here.

Environmental Audit
We worked for 18 months with church volunteers, staff, and committees as well as two paid technical experts to assess our church’s environmental impact and how well we integrate the Seventh Principle in all that we do. We have gone beyond the national requirements and have pioneered an environmental justice analysis of our church’s “environmental footprint”. The audits are done and are now being compiled, synthesized and analyzed. Stay tuned for highlights of our environmental and environmental justice audits.

Church Growth
We are working with ASC’s anti-racism and multicultural groups to influence plans for church growth to address church culture and institutional practices around inclusion, diversity and connectedness. As part of this, we launched an ongoing discussion about what a “theology of place” could be.

Fair Trade
We sold over $3,500 worth of Fair Trade products in 2005. This brings our cumulative total sales to more than $12,000 since we began this project in 2003. (2005)

Some of Current Projects

GREEN SANCTUARY

As a flagship UU church in the nation’s capitol and with many members passionate about Creation and environmental justice, we decided to seek to obtain “Green Sanctuary” status from the UU’s Earth Ministry project. This is a special credential congregations can receive after meeting a variety of educational, operational, spiritual, and advocacy requirements.

To receive the Green Sanctuary accreditation, we must go through three main steps:
   1. Conduct a thorough assessment of church programs and operations for their environmental        impact and connection to the Seventh Principle. Done!
   2. Develop and submit an action plan which is approved by the national project. Done!
   3. Successfully implement the action plan Began Sept 10, 2006

    ZERO TRASH

    We are committed to reducing waste at our church -     through Zero Trash lunches and events.

Question: How many disposable forks, knives, plates, cups, and napkins get saved at a ZT lunch?
Answer: Approximately 750 items at EACH Zero Trash lunch at All Souls!

Zero Trash Lunches involves using real dishes instead of disposables. The Result? A prettier place setting and a smaller footprint on the environment. Zero Trash Highlights *WOW! Went to weekly Sunday ZT lunches!!! (Fall 2006) *Boosted ZT lunches from once per quarter in '03 to twice a month in '04 and '05 *Saluted the efforts of our chefs in a Hail to the Chefs lunch (Dec 2004) *Established a volunteer program (2004) *Church members made home-made napkins for ZT (2004)

VOLUNTEER to bring out the real dishes. Contact: Sarah Mullins at smullins9@yahoo.com

FAIR TRADE
Our committee seeks to help build a world that is not only ecologically sustainable, but also is economically just.


One way we do this is through supporting "Fair Trade". Fair Trade refers to the fact that the growers or producers of a product have received a "just" price (generally significantly above the market level) and often are supported in other ways (favorable credit terms, free technical assistance, grants for community-related projects, etc.) by the vendor. We partner with the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee to sell fair trade and organic coffees distributed by a worker-owned and fair trade certified company - Equal Exchange. We work with another religious organization, SERRV, to sell organic and/or fair trade teas, chocolate and olive oil. We have new products from South Africa and Palestine! Come sample them!

Fair Trade products are normally sold in Pierce Hall after the service on the first and third Sundays of each month. (See calendar below for dates.) We are also exploring the possibility of hosting a fair trade study tour to one or more Central American countries. VOLUNTEER to help sell these products. Contact: Marc Ferrara at marc_ferrara@yahoo.com

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Contact Us! Get more info or tell us where you can help. Chair Lina Parikh at Lina7P@gmail.com

UU Ministry for Earth
Click the link above to find out what UUs are doing nationally on the Seventh Principle.