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Local religious take on greener habits for Earth Day
Earth ministry promotes good stewardship of God’s creation
By Ambria Hammel, ahammel@catholicsun.org
May 1, 2008
Religious sisters devote their lives to following in Jesus’ footsteps and many are equally committed to making sure their footprint doesn’t destroy God’s Earth.
These eco-friendly sisters make up the diocese’s Earth Ministry. They hail from various religious communities but unite monthly to discuss and implement simple ways to reduce the impact their activities have on the environment.
“We’re using this as a way of getting our respect for the entire universe into the spirituality of our Catholic Christianity,” Sr. Jean Steffes, CSA, said of the ministry.
The dozen or so sisters who are involved in the Earth Ministry represent at least six communities. All have taken personal or communal steps to better care for God’s creation with more sisters taking similar steps nationwide.
“It’s amazing the different religious communities that have gone green or are going green,” said Sr. Mary Elizabeth Lawrence, a member of the ministry and eco-justice coordinator for the Sisters of Charity of Seton Hill.
“I’m working with our sisters on issues related to ecology to determine future steps for our community,” she said.
Sr. Mary Elizabeth is building a resource library for the community. “Each person makes a difference in whatever way they are able to contribute to saving the environment,” she said.
For now, Sr. Mary Elizabeth shares eco-friendly tips with her sisters in the community’s monthly newsletter. The green resolutions for April explain how to tackle spring cleaning the natural way by using a baking soda paste instead of a toxic cleaner.
Past tips have stressed the importance of shopping with reusable bags and unplugging unused electronics and appliances rather than putting them on standby or turning them off.
The eco-justice coordinator also spends time helping second-graders at Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Scottsdale learn how to be good stewards of their resources such as water.
Sr. Mary Ann Mahoney, IHM, embraces the idea of respecting the environment as a part of her calling.
“I feel very bad if I forget to recycle,” she said. Sr. Mary Ann finds herself digging an item or two out of the trash whenever she forgets. She also converted to using fluorescent light bulbs in her home.
Most of her religious sisters are also earth-conscious. The motherhouse for the Sisters of Charity of the Immaculate Heart of Mary considers striving for eco-justice a moral mandate for the 21st century and is hosting a training workshop for contractors this week on green building principals.
The community completed a geo-thermal renovation for its motherhouse in 2003 and last year earned an Energy Star Award from the nation’s Environmental Protection Agency.
Locally, the Congregation of St. Agnes has been doing their part to keep the air clean. They began driving hybrid vehicles in 2002.
In addition to their personal experience, Phoenix sisters in the Earth Ministry often use books and videos to gather new ideas about being effective stewards of all creation.
They just finished Judy Cannato’s “Radical Amazement.” It connects science and spirituality by reflecting on black holes, supernovas and the like. It shows that the universe is expanding and their habits affect how others live.
The sisters agree the book changed their outlook on who they are in relationship to the world.
Sr. Janice Bohn, SSND, said her new understanding of the universe brings out three values: communion, respect for diversity and a person’s uniqueness.
She said those values should appear in every relationship. It’s in those relationships that struggle, Sr. Janice said, that “you’ll find that one or more of those values are being disregarded.”
The Earth Ministry’s next series of discussions will focus on Sarah McFaland Taylor’s “Green Sisters.” The book studies various religious communities throughout the United States and Canada that practice green living.
Most congregations are aware of the “sick” planet and are trying to fix it, said Dominican Sister Jovanna Stein.
She called eco-friendly living “a spirituality made concrete.”
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