Sustainability Prayer

See the Sustainability Prayer below (that's my name for it)....


Lord, I already know the best way to alter my life-style to the best advantage for all--live like Jesus. The Christian existence ideally is to imitate what you do. You send the sun and rain on everyone, you want me to get back to the basic facts of life, to love without reservation, to distinguish between life's needs and life itself, and seek first your kingdom knowing you will meet all my other needs.

Still it is easy to trust in the "things" of today and feel like it is up to me to see that humanity survives. Keep me from undue worry and pride. Remind me that life is a gift--not a right, and that my attitude toward the ultimate resources and values in life will determine how the earth's resources will be handled and provided for those who need them. I have already formed many habits of consuming and acting. Guide me in aligning my personal priorities to conform to my awareness of a world hungry. May my life-style become more compatible with our biosphere and supportive of peoples around the world.

Lord, help me choose a simpler life-style that promotes solidarity with the world's poor, helps me appreciate nature more, affords greater opportunity to work together with my neighbors, reduces my use of limited resources, creates greater inner harmony, saves money, allows time for meditation and prayer, incites me to take political and social action.

May all my decisions about my style of life celebrate the joy of life that comes from loving you. Amen.

From Visions of a World Hungry by Thomas G. Pettepiece




It reminds us that our attitude and view of God shapes the way that we anticipate and influence the distribution of resources, not to mention that if life is a gift then we are not only offending the individual when taking it away, we are offending God. It also reminds us that through dependency on God we can learn humility that will shape our ethic toward one another. It also holds in tension our significance along with our insignificance. I found this in "A Guide to Prayer" daily devotional published by Upper Room.

Matt

Sermon from Rick and Ellen Burnette Online

Just wanted to let you all know, plus evoke some discussion, on Rick & Ellen's sermon from Sunday. You'll find the sermon online at Wieuca's website as well as on this blog.

Many thanks to them for their courage, thoughtfulness, and prophetic witness!

Matt

Helping Wieuca's congregation become "more sustainable"

This note was sent by GIPL and forwarded to me, with pressure, by Matt. Acknowledging the long unmet need for our group, I will go to the training this Sunday afternoon.

Can anyone else attend so that we can take in both tracks? Otherwise I am not sure which one would be best for me to catch.

Scott

Join us for our spring Congregational Representative Training on Sunday, March
16 at Epiphany Episcopal Church (2089 Ponce De Leon Ave NE Atlanta, GA 30307)
from 2 pm to 5 pm. We will have two tracks – one for congregations just
starting out and one for going beyond first steps. Feel free to bring
multiple representatives from your congregations and go to both tracks!
Topics covered will include: Starting a Green Team in your congregation, Ideas
for Education, Light Bulb Sales and Swaps, Green Worship, Energy Audits, and
more. We will also have an introduction to our new, improved Power Lite
program and to Cool Congregations – a program for engaging congregational
members in taking measurable carbon-reduction steps at home.

The Story of Stuff with Annie Leonard

Click here for a short and entertaining film about where our stuff comes from. It's a particularly helpful look at consumerism, energy consumption, and waste.