First-Plymouth is on a Mission 4/1 Earth!
From April 1st to May 19th, 2013, the First-Plymouth congregation is taking on an ecological mission to:
- Generate 7,000 HOURS of engaged earth care time, including clean up, advocacy, education, contemplation and behavioral changes that will impact the environment.
- Plant 100 TREES in our community.
- Gather 1,000 SIGNATURES on three petitions advocating for greater environmental sustainability on the local, state and national level.
This project is part of a denomination-wide Mission 4/1 Earth effort across the United Church of Christ to better connect us with the earth and to understand the important role faith communities can play in working for the environment. Nationally, the project hopes to solicit one million hours of engaged earth care time, to plant 100,000 trees, and to write 100,000 environmental advocacy letters. Our efforts at First-Plymouth will go a long way toward meeting those national goals!
| Goal Progress | ||
| 5879 | 407 | 552 |
| Hours | Trees | petitions |
How Can You Get Involved?
Get A Time Card
Each time you come to a worship service, you’ll be given a timecard in your bulletin. Use it throughout the week to record the hours you spend benefitting the earth. What counts as “engaged earth care?” Switching to fluorescent lightbulbs, taking shorter showers, gardening, using cloth grocery bags, watching a documentary about the environment, riding your bike to work—you name it, it counts. Look for ideas each Sunday in the Weekly Word bulletin insert. Drop your completed timecard in the collection plate the next time you come to church, and get a new one for the next week. Or, submit your hours online here after April 1.
Garden At Church
First-Plymouth & Dimensions Preschool Grounds Work Day – Saturday, May 4th, 9-11:30am. Bring gardening gloves, tools, drinking water and meet in the Columbarium.
Sign A Petition
Changing our own habits is an important piece of the puzzle, but to foster comprehensive change, advocacy work is critical also. We have identified three issues on the local, state and national level that we think are important toward moving our communities toward greater environmental sustainability. Click here (link) to read the petitions and add your name.
Watch A Film
Faith & Climate Change: A Film & Discussion Series
Four Wednesday nights, 6:30-8:30pm
April 17th – Film Screening: “Great Plains: America’s Lingering Wild,” a documentary by Michael Forsberg. Room H.
April 24th – Film Screening: “Ending the Silence on Climate Change,” Bill Moyers & Anthony Leiserowitz, director of the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication. Pilgrim Hall.
May 1st – Film Screening: “Renewal.” Learn how people of all faiths around the country are standing up for the environment. Pilgrim Hall.
May 8th – The Moral Implications of Climate Change – Panel Discussion with John Hansen, President of the Nebraska Farmer’s Union; Dr. Adam Liska, Assistant Professor, Biological Systems Engineering and Agronomy & Horticulture, UNL; Ken Winston, Policy Advocate, Sierra Club; and Rev. Kim Morrow, Minister of Sustainability, First-Plymouth Church. Pilgrim Hall.
Celebrate
Celebrate what we will have accomplished together as a community on Pentecost – Sunday, May 19th with cookies in the main courtyard.
For more information, contact Pastor Kim Morrow at kim@firstplymouth.org or at 402-476-7565, x243.
Watch Rev. Kim's Mission 4/1 Earth kick-off sermon, "For One Earth," in which she describes how practicing attention and affection for the land are key to saving our ecosystem."