Every day is Earth Day, but All Souls Church (ASC) hosted its annual Earth Day Sunday, April 20th, designed to feed the spirit and provide new information and ways to honor our Seventh Principle.

Here's What We Did:
First, we started collecting used cell phones to donate for the Red Cross!
Next, we held our 2nd Annual Green Transport Day as members came to church by walking, biking, taking the bus, metro, or carpooling.  For our service, Reverend Shana Lynngood gave a beautiful Earth Day sermon with conscientious suggestions on how to give back to the Earth; our Jubilee Singers graced us with their beautiful, earth-themed song & music including a blues duet, with trumpet and guitar and recorded, soulful animal callings; and Reverend Rob Hardies provided a special theme-related Children’s Chapel downstairs. All Religious Education was related to Earth Day.

Our Sunday planet-friendly zero-trash lunch was served - a tradition we began in 2003. Between services and during lunch, we showcased some of our projects and volunteer opportunities. Congregants were able to buy Fair Trade and green household and office products, get informed on environmental justice issues, add their names to our new carpool (RideShare) program, and make their ASC Green Resolution for 2008. Finally, we held a Sunday Social Justice Forum on the connection between the environment and children’s health.

We received many commendations for our Earth Day celebration and thank everyone involved!

Spring Green Resolution 2008

Sign Up Here (Deadline for Sign Up: May 31st)

Global Warming

Click the picture to see the 60 Minutes video clip:
'A Global Warning on Global Warming'

Addressing global warming has become a national priority for the Unitarian Universalist Association as a result of a near-unanimous vote to adopt a strong Statement of Conscience on the topic in June 2006. Seventh Principle Committee members and friends weighed in on the preliminary national discussion about the text of the Statement, while church members and staff made their opinions known on the floor of General Assembly.

Just a few of the things we have done on global warming recently are:

• Our Director of Social Justice preached a moving sermon on the topic for our 2006 Environmental Justice Sunday - see sermon for Feb 26, 2006.
• We hosted a lively education and action fair, “Beat the Heat!” as part of that Environmental Justice Sunday. To get more information about what you can do, click here. To tap more ideas and resources from the Unitarian Universalist Association, click here.
• We offered a class on racial justice and spiritual dimensions of Global Warming in Nov 2006.
• To find out other ways we will address global warming, read our Green Sanctuary Action Plan.

Committee Priorities, 2008 - this section currently being updated

Committee Priorities, 2007

• Launch the primary implementation phase of the ASC Green Sanctuary Action Plan
• Facilitate the creation of Earth Day Sunday, with a special sermon and associated activities
• Facilitate a new Environmental Justice Sunday
• Implement the Green Resolution project with at least 100 participants
• Boost the church's recycling program
• Develop a rideshare program
• Continue the weekly Zero Trash Lunches
• Continue the bi-weekly Fair Trade Sales
  

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Recent Photos and Highlights

December 8, 2008: Polar Bear Plunge! Sponsored by Chesapeake Climate Action Network (CCAN) 4 Green Souls plunged 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)

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: Matt Cohen at mattandeliz@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

GLOBAL WARMING is one of the most pressing issues facing our planet and its inhabitants.

Already, the island nation of Tuvalu has begun evacuating its entire population as sea levels rise. In the Arctic, traditional ways of life no longer sustain communities, as thawing tundra and melting sea ice make hunting more dangerous and less reliable. Meanwhile, around the world, indigenous peoples and other racial-ethnic minorities and the poor shoulder a disproportionate share of the hardship that comes with more frequent storms and droughts. And this is just the beginning.

Now that the national UUA Statement of Conscience on Global Warming has passed, we are committed to helping bring the recommendations to life. Click here to read the Statement. Here are some of the ways we are going about this:

1) Offered an Adult Spiritual Development Class – November 9 and 16
2) Exploring the feasibility of selling compact florescent light bulbs at church.
3) Becoming an active member of Interfaith Power & Light.
4) Working with church staff to implement cost-effective energy conservation measures based on recommendations made in our Green Sanctuary energy audit.
5) Working to increase ride sharing/car pooling at church.
6) Educating our members as to the connections between racial justice, children’s health and global warming, as well as steps members can take to lessen their creation of greenhouse gases.

More:
* 1-Page Review on the Scientific Evidence about Global Warming
* Photo - Greenland's warming ice flows faster
* How you can save energy and reduce your contribution to global warming (PEPCO)
* Cool Cities that take on reducing greenhouse gases. What you can do in your area!

Upcoming:
* 1-page intro on Global Justice Issues and Repercussions of Global Warming
* How communities of color and workers in the US view global warming and actions to take
* Own mutual funds? Check how they vote on global warming proxies and what you can do

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Contact Us! Get more info or tell us where you can help. Co-Chairs Alex Hirtle at AJHirtle@co.pg.md.us or 301.927.2105 Lina Parikh at LParikh@yahoo.com or 202.841.5996

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