nancy

Written by Brad Rouse.

I have been a member of Good Shepherd since 2007, and the Green Team has been one of our ministries since before that time. Having a concern for the environment, I was attracted to become a part of that ministry under the leadership of Amy Nicolson, Meg Whitley and other members.  We meet regularly at the church and look for opportunities to be good stewards of God’s creation through our church community.

At a meeting earlier this year we adopted a mission for the Green Team as follows:

Good Shepherd Episcopal Church Green Team’s mission is to follow God’s commandments that we be good stewards of what we have been given and that we love our neighbor as ourselves. We believe that God was pleased when he created this world and that He values nature as well as man. When God gave man dominion, it was so that we could care for and love His creation as much as He does. Further, when Jesus commanded that we love our neighbor as ourselves, he commanded that we go out of our way to do so and that we have a broad vision of who is our neighbor – not just our tribe, our race, our country, or even our time.  A major part of our mission is simply to make ourselves and others aware that these are God’s teachings and that by caring for the Earth, we are following His command.  Further, we must also make ourselves and others aware that as we have been more and more blessed by “be fruitful and multiply”, we have created the condition that our every action has an impact on God’s creation and on our neighbors who live here now and who will live here in the future. The way we act today is simply not sustainable and if we do not change there will be irreparable damage to His creation and irreparable harm to those who will follow us.  We must act and change.

We also recognize that our awareness as individuals is not enough. We must advocate our point of view in our church, in our families, in our businesses, in our communities, and in our state and national politics.

Finally, awareness and advocacy are not enough. Our mission is also to take action as individuals and as a group to make changes that will reduce the risk and heal the damage.

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