IPLog

More Photos of the Rev. Canon Sally Bingham Receiving Honorary Doctorate

Sewanee Convocation
October 7, 2008

Read more about the event.

Photo credit: Lawson Whitaker

Good News for All Creatures: Earth Day Faith Message Contest Held

Oregon Interfaith Power and Light recently chose winners for its first Earth Day Faith Message Contest. Rev. Kent Harrop of First Baptist Church of McMinnville is the grand prize winner for a sermon titled “Open Our Eyes to the Sacred.” The prize was a gift certificate from Powell’s Books and energy efficient light bulbs from ShopIPL.org, where congregations can find discounts on a variety of energy-saving products.

The contest was open to both clergy and laity for a sermon, homily, or other written and spoken faith messages on the topic of caring for the Earth.

Runners up include Rev. Barbara Campbell (”Earth’s Disciples”) and Terry Buchholz (”And God Said That It Was Good.”).

You can download each of these faith messages at EMOregon.org.

From “Open Our Eyes to the Sacred”:

In recent years, Biblical scholars have re-translated the Hebrew word for dominion, to stewardship. To be a steward is to practice restraint, to use the land with an eye to one’s own needs and those to come.

A Native American approach to decision making, is for tribal elders to be concerned not only with how the decision will affect those now living, but also for the next seven generations….Such is the practice of stewardship.

Farmer’s understand this, they tend their soil and crops carefully, with an eye to providing fertile soil, not only for this year’s harvest, but with an eye towards many harvests to come.

This theology of respect and restraint is summed up in a bumper sticker: “If you love the Creator, take care of Creation.

From “Earth’s Disciples”:

Together, all the earth and all humanity wait for adoption and redemption, as if groaning in labor. We wait together, not for the redemption of our souls, but the redemption, as Paul writes, of our bodies, our earthly existence. We wait together to be redeemed. Neither of us can be redeemed, saved, healed, completed, without the other. The earth cannot be healed until we are made whole and we can not be redeemed until the earth is healed.

From “And God Said That It Was Good”:

If a loved one were diagnosed with a medical condition that needed special treatment – wouldn’t we go to the ends of the earth to get them the treatment? Doesn’t God’s creation need special treatment and care? I would argue that our “call to action” has nothing to do with proving that Climate Change is occurring or not – Our call to action has to do with the responsibility that God has given each of us to “Care for His creation” the creation that God saw was good.

In the news:

OregonLive.com, Sermon Contest Reflects Creation’s Care

Photo credit: smiling_da_vinci

How Cool Is Your Congregation?

Interfaith Power and Light has developed a brand new online tool designed to help your congregation respond to global warming.

We’re challenging you to get together with your faith community and make some adjustments that will reduce the size of your carbon footprint. These changes will save you money and help save Creation.

We’re even offering $5,000 each for the congregation who has the lowest footprint and to the one who can reduce theirs the most!

Use our Cool Congregations Calculator to estimate your congregation’s carbon footprint. It offers a snapshot of your carbon footprint, allowing you to look at the best places to lower your footprint and become more energy smart. We break your carbon footprint down into four sub-components:

• Energy use: we estimate the carbon emissions from your congregation’s use of electricity, natural gas and other fuels.
• Transportation: carbon emissions from congregations and staff travel.
• Goods and services: carbon emissions associated with food, office products, cleaning products, and everything else your congregation purchases.
• Waste: emissions from landfill waste (mainly methane) converted into carbon equivalent units.

Visit CoolCongregations.com to get started!

Faith Leaders Trained to Present Al Gore’s Famous Slide Show

This week, 135 faith leaders were invited by The Climate Project to come to Nashville and attend the first ever training session for religious leaders. Al Gore led the session, training attendees to present a version of the slide show featured in An Inconvenient Truth, this time with a focus on talking about climate change in faith communities.

In the photo: Susan Motes (Alabama IPL), Betty Goebel (Colorado IPL), Bee Moorhead (Texas IPL), Mary Walker (Alaska IPL), Rev. Harry Rix (Rhode Island IPL), Al Gore, the Rev. Sally Bingham (The Regeneration Project), Rev. David Turner (Hawaii IPL), and Rev. Charlotte Myers (California IPL). Other Interfaith Power and Light leaders were present as well.

President and Founder of Interfaith Power and Light Receives Honorary Doctorate

Join us in congratulating Dr. Sally Bingham!

On Tuesday, September 7, the Rev. Canon Sally Bingham, President and Founder of Interfaith Power and Light, received an honorary doctorate from Sewanee: The University of the South.

The photo shows the Rt. Rev. Henry N. Parsley, Bishop of the Diocese of Alabama and Chancellor of the University of the South at the Founders’ Day Convocation in All Saints’ Chapel conferring the degree on the Rev. Cn. Bingham.

GWIPL’s Allison Fisher on Green Jobs

Click on the image below to go to Medill Reports and watch Allison Fisher of Greater Washington Interfaith Power and Light discuss the importance of Green Jobs at Bethlehem Baptist Church in the D.C. area.