2009 GREEN COMMITTEE REPORT

The year 2009 saw our parish taking on a challenge issued by the Diocesan Synod to all parishes, to become a ‘green parish’ by improving our insulation, lighting, cleaning products, travel and shopping habits and so on. Our church undertook this challenge with enthusiasm. We improved our insulation, replaced energy-burning lighting with more effective fixtures, changed to green cleaning products, instituted a battery recycling system, planted trees, reinforced our green gardening habits, and joined the Burns Bog Conservation Society. The Sunday School classes undertook a series of environmental themed lessons, and worship services and sermons reflected our concerns and awareness around the needs of the Earth we all share. As a result of our efforts, we have raised awareness, changed habits and practices for the better and we now have the right to proudly fly the green flag in our community and to put up a ‘Green Parish’ plaque in our church.

However, this past year also saw the dismantling of the support structure at the diocesan level as our Green Mentor David Dranchuk was let go for reasons of economy. On the provincial and federal government levels too, the year saw a sacrificing of environmental
concerns in the interests of ‘the economy’. As a parish we have really been just touching the very edges of the global threat with our efforts, where most likely only concerted action globally can really make the changes that are needed. I believe that we all need to face
the fact that political action is vital to our concerns, and we need to become more informed and more vociferous in working in that arena.

On a positive note, when the Diocesan Environmental leadership was revamped, an important point was noted as the new committee was an amalgamation of the Environment and the Social Justice committees. This is important because many third world peoples are suffering badly now because of our habits of wastefulness and our country’s unwillingness to take a leadership role in dealing with the effects of global warming; both our environment and our brothers and sisters worldwide are affected by the way we live.

I personally will be stepping down from the position of Environmental Steward at Holy Trinity, rewarding as that work has been. I thank the excellent committee who worked with me, the Rite Thirteen group for its strong involvement, and everyone in the parish for their support and enthusiasm. And I pray that someone will step forward with the vision and the energy to take up the challenge of leading the parish forward to even greater awareness and action in 2010.

For One Green Healthy Earth under God,

Respectfully submitted,
Helen McFadden