By Ann Marie Smith, Bethlehem UMC Green Church Chair
Hello, I’m Ann Marie Smith, chair of the Green Team at Bethlehem UMC in Moneta, at Smith Mountain Lake. At Bethlehem, we see our role as God’s representatives of his creation, enlightening our congregation on how our lives come from, flow through, and are interconnected with all of creation. We use Scripture to promote to the congregation our God-given role as caregivers and stewards of his creation. The UM Social Principles make it clear that, as United Methodists, we are to take our stewardship responsibilities seriously.
To care for humans, we have to also care for creation. We all have to live in the creation God gave us. We have no “planet B”, as they say. And if we don’t take care of this planet, we will all suffer greatly in the future. We care about the world our grandchildren will have to live in. We promote care and love for creation because it is the only way to care for future generations of humans.
Our goals include: Guiding the church ministries to embrace an earth-friendly focus in planning programs and activities; Working to reduce the church’s carbon footprint; Educating the congregation on all things creation care; Encouraging recycling in every way possible at the church and at home; and Offering special events during the year highlighting the beauty of God’s creation and ways to be better caretakers of it.
We use the Green Church Model Resolution and Action List on the UM Creation Justice website and the Green Church Covenant list of Commitments on the VAUMC website for guidance and suggested actions. We have offered specific suggestions appropriate for our congregation to church leaders at Council of Ministries meetings and have shared the responsibility we all have as members of the UMC and the Church Initiative Covenant. Categories include Worship, Discipleship, Stewardship, Evangelism, and Mission. We keep track of things we have done, are doing, or plan to do on the checklist.
Green Teams Toolkit | UMC Creation Justice
VAUMC Green Church Initiative 3.1 2022
We regularly include articles in our weekly church newsletter to educate, encourage, and inspire good stewardship practices and attitudes. We have led environmental classes and had speakers present programs. We have taken field trips to local places that serve creation and shown inspiring films. We have held an annual document shredding event. We organized an Environmental Fair with booths of local organizations and vendors to display their earth-friendly information, services, and products. Our fair included document shredding and electronics recycling collection. The electronics recycling was so successful that we have added it to our annual shredding event.
We have completed energy-reducing projects over the years. We replaced and recycled approximately 575 fluorescent bulbs in the recent church. (I will have a savings figure here.)
Then we replaced seven thermostats with occupancy-sensing thermostats that detect when the room is occupied and adjust the temperature to a comfortable level. When the room is vacated, the temperature returns to a more energy-saving setting. This allowed the church to save 15% on energy use, resulting in savings over the first year.
Last year we installed a solar array that supplies the power to cover our average electricity usage. The system performed better than expected in its first year. We produced 115,404 kWh and saved around $11,200. Our savings would have been more, but our electricity usage increased—time for us to reevaluate our church’s carbon footprint and see where more energy can be saved.
Our power company, Am. Electric Power Co., APCo, generates most of its power from fossil fuels, releasing millions of tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. The 115 megawatt-hours of energy our system generated last year released zero CO2. The amount of CO2 that was NOT released is approximately equivalent to the amount 1500 trees would remove from the atmosphere. That’s the amount of CO2 that 35,000 gallons of gasoline would release when burned, equivalent to how much 61 typical American drivers would use in a year.