Earth Day events provide opportunity to serve God, His creation and others

by Meredith Skowronski
Looking ahead to Earth Day weekend, we are grateful for the many opportunities the Lord has provided us to serve His creation and one another.
We are blessed to welcome our guest preacher, The Reverend Fletcher Harper, Executive Director of GreenFaith, an organization built to inspire, educate and mobilize people of diverse religious backgrounds for environmental leadership. Rev. Harper will  preach at the 8:00 and 10:00 AM services on Sunday, and will present the Rector’s Forum at 9:00 AM, where he will share stories about both the growth of the religious-environmental movement and GreenFaith Circles – local, multi-faith environmental action hubs.

Additionally, this Saturday, April 21, CCC parishioners will once again volunteer their time to work with “Keep Growing Detroit,” an organization enabling beginner gardeners to become engaged community leaders and food entrepreneurs through the planting and maintenance of community gardens. This is an amazing way to empower others to become stewards of God’s creation! See sign up for more information.
Also this Saturday, CCC is facilitating the “Just Water” conference hosted by Hartford Memorial Baptist Church in Detroit, around building better faith-based approaches to stormwater runoff.

This day-long conference focuses on recent changes to the drainage fees assessed to Detroit congregations by the Detroit Water and Sewage Department (DWSD). Participants include pastors and religious leaders from Detroit congregations who are looking for ways to minimize their drainage fees while maximizing their church missions. The conference includes:

• • Information on steps from the DWSD to help minimize the cost of water drainage including transition credits, Green Stormwater Infrastructure credits, and $5 million in capital partnership resources for participants. All of this will help educate, inspire and mobilize the faith community on the relationship between water, faith and other local water issues.
• A discussion focused on appropriate and cost-effective stormwater management practices using groundwater system modeling.
  • Information and networking opportunities with city representatives and private foundations (including the Kresge Foundation and Fred A. and Barbara M. Erb Family Foundation) for finding, funding and developing new stormwater runoff practices.

    The overall goal of this gathering is to teach ways to reduce the amount of runoff facilities produced, as well as opportunities to build a relational foundation for an ongoing, Detroit-based multi-faith hub that will empower faith communities to address environmental stewardship and justice issues. All for the good of God’s creation.