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Creation Care is committed to working toward appropriate care of God’s creation. Our aims are to raise awareness of the environmental dilemmas we face, discover what local churches are doing in response, share those stories and connect churches to resources and best practices for developing or strengthening their own Creation Care ministries.

In the News:

TN Interfaith Power & Light (TIPL)has submitted comments to TVA on its 2019 Integrated Resource Plan.  We urged TVA to develop an energy plan that is consistent with the Paris Climate Agreement’s lower emission scenario and to ensure equity within its plan.

Among the four scenarios presented by the International Panel on Climate Change to the Paris
Climate Agreement negotiation process, the lower emission scenario is the only one which
offers the opportunity for civil society, civilization, and perhaps human survival to persist. You can read the comments here.

Upcoming Events and Actions:

Saturday, April 14, @ 9:00 am Centennial Park 
Hosted by March for Science and Climate Nashville

Wednesday, April 18 @ 1pm: Tennessee Interfaith Power and Light take a dive into understanding the Paris Climate Agreement and why we must achieve it. You must register to receive the call-in information and the presentation. REGISTER HERE

Theological Foundation

Creation Cares 4God has given Humankind “dominion” over the works of God’s hands, meaning that God has chosen to share with us his creating power and sovereign caretaking.

-Genesis 1: 26-31 and Psalm 8: 3-6

The Social Principles of The United Methodist Book of Discipline (2012) speak to this gift and responsibility:

We believe in God, Creator of the world; and in Jesus Christ, the Redeemer of creation. We believe in the Holy Spirit, through whom we acknowledge God’s gifts, and we repent of our sin in misusing these gifts to idolatrous ends.We affirm the natural world as God’s handiwork and dedicate ourselves to its preservation, enhancement, and faithful use by humankind. Read more…

The Council of Bishops implores us to recognize environmental degradation has fundamental connections to pandemic poverty and disease, human desperation and conflict.  

 

Creation Cares- Garden

Stories: What Local Churches Are Doing

Hillcrest United Methodist Church

Changes in use of disposable products, energy use, a new community garden and more.

Belmont

Green Team, Reducing Carbon Footprint and more.

South End

Facility upgrades reduced utility bills, rain barrels nourish their garden which produces fresh vegetables for summer children’s programs and summer food ministry.

Edgehill

Green Team and Community Supported Agriculture

McKendree

Rooftop organic garden produces fresh vegetables for their daycare children and for the guests at their community kitchen.

Definitions and Terms
The Definitions & Terms below are related to Creation Care, sustainability, environmentalism and green choices.

Sources: Merriam-Webster.com, Definitions.net, USDA Forest Service Representative Dennis Bradley and EPA.gov.

 

Creation Cares 3Carbon Foot Print: the amount of greenhouse gases and specifically carbon dioxide emitted by something (as a person’s activities or a product’s manufacture and transport during a given period
Climate Change: any significant change in measures of climate (such as temperature, precipitation or wind) lasting for an extended period (decades or longer). It may result from natural factors such as changes in the sun’s intensity, natural processes within the climate system such as changes in ocean circulation or human activities.
Ecological Economics: a policy-oriented perspective that addresses the interdependence and coevolution between human economies and their natural ecosystems
Ecosystem: the complex of a community of organisms and its environment functioning as an ecological unit
Environmental Justice: the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies. aka: Eco-Justice
Fracking: a technique in which a mixture of water and sand is forced down an oil well (or similar) in order to create fractures in the oil-bearing rock and thus release more oil
Glaciers/Ice Packs: a large body of ice moving slowly down a slope or valley or spreading outward on a land surface
Greenhouse Gases: gases which allow direct sunlight (relative shortwave energy) to reach the Earth’s surface unimpeded; as the shortwave energy heats the surface, longer-wave energy (heat) is radiated into the atmosphere; greenhouse gases absorb this energy, thereby allowing less heat to escape back to space and “trapping” it in the lower atmosphere. Many greenhouse gases occur naturally in the atmosphere, such as carbon dioxide, methane, water vapor, and nitrous oxide, while others are synthetic. Those that are man-made include the chloroflourocarbons (CFCs), hydroflourocarbons (HFCs) and Perflourocarbons (PFCs) as well as sulfur hexafluoride (SF6).
Mountaintop Coal Mining: a surface mining practice involving the removal of mountaintops to expose coal seams and disposing of the associated mining overburden in adjacent valleys –“valley fills”
Permaculture: an agricultural system or method that seeks to integrate human activity with natural surroundings so as to create highly efficient self-sustaining ecosystems
Renewable energy: energy that can be replenished at the same rate as it is used
Sustainable: of, relating to, or being a method of harvesting or using a resource so that the resource is not depleted or permanently damaged
Urban planning: the branch of architecture dealing with the design and organization of urban space and activities; determining and drawing up plans for the future physical arrangement and condition of a community
Wetlands: land or areas (as marshes or swamps) that are covered often intermittently with shallow water or have soil saturated with moisture – usually used in plural
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