World Environment Day

June 5th is UN World Environment Day and this year's theme is "Your Planet Needs You-UNite to Combat Climate Change".

Today is also the premiere of the documentary movie "Home" which is available to watch on youtube until June 14th. Great photography and environmental message!

A Date with the Planet

On World Environment Day, June 5th, a new movie called "Home" will be released worldwide free of charge on every format: movie theaters, TV, DVD, and Internet.

Earth Day

Last Sunday our church celebrated Earth Day with a theme of "Celebrating and Caring for God's Creation". The 5th grade Sunday School class prepared a Powerpoint presentation about the environmental impact of plastic bags.

Earth Hour

Give the Earth an hour of rest.

Turn your lights off for an hour Saturday, March 28th at 8:30 pm to show your support for action on climate change.

Go to www.earthhourUS.org for more information.

World Water Day 2009

World Water Day is celebrated on March 22. This year's theme is Shared Water - Shared Opportunities and focuses on transboundary waters.

Nearly 40 % of the world's population lives in river and lake basins shared by two or more countries. The world's 263 transboundary basins include the territory of 145 countries and cover nearly half of the Earth's land surface.

Whether we live upstream or downstream, we are all in the same boat.

Caring for Creation Conference

I attended the fourth annual Caring for Creation conference at Lake Junaluska, NC last weekend. This conference continues to grow each year and we had a 20% increase in participation this year.

Eight people from South Carolina attended but they only represented three churches. There is still more work to be done in spreading the word to South Carolina churches. That is going to be one of my missions this year.

Plenary speakers included Matthew Sleeth, author of Serve God, Save the Planet, Dr. Norman Wirzba, professor of Theology, Ecology and Rural Life at the Duke Divinity School, and Dr. Michael Battle, President of the Interdenominational Theological Center and chair of the Sustainable Atlanta Committee.

In an evaluation meeting after the conference the overall feeling of the leadership team was this year's conference was a success. Planning was begun to make next year even better.

The Green Bible

HarperOne recently issued The Green Bible which is printed on recycled paper, uses soy-based ink and New Revised Standard Version text.

Some of the highlights include:

• Over 1,000 verses highlighted in green that are relevant to caring for creation.

• Essays by Matthew Sleeth, Calvin B. DeWitt, Brian McLaren, Barbara Brown Taylor, and others.
  
  
• A Green Bible Trail Guide that leads you through a selection of Bible passages touching on six green themes that appear throughout the biblical narrative.
  
  
• A green subject index
  
  
• A resource guide,"Where Do We Go from Here?", which outlines numerous caring for the creations actions for individuals and churches.

This a great resource for all church groups that are involved in caring for creation.

Here is what Ellen Davis of Duke Divinity School had to say about The Green Bible.