PLASTICS DRIVE UPDATE
The Church of the Good Shepherd has collected over 330 POUNDS OF PLASTIC since the drive began in November. That’s a lot of plastic that has been kept out of landfills! We are very close to our goal of 500 pounds by April. Keep up the great work!
All posts by lkaltwasser
PLASTICS DRIVE UPDATE
CREATION CARE MINISTRY NEWS
WOW!!! The Church of the Good Shepherd has collected over 250 POUNDS OF PLASTIC since the drive began in November. That’s a lot of plastic that has been kept out of landfills! We are very close to our goal of 500 pounds by April. Keep up the great work!
Where does this “Creation Care” stuff come from?
In 2009 our nation-wide Episcopal General Convention adopted the Five Marks of Mission. They are:
1) To proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom.
2) To teach, nurture and baptize new believers,
3) To respond to human need with loving service,
4)To seek to transform unjust structures of society,
challenge violence of every kind, and to pursue
peace and reconciliation, and
5) To strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of the earth.
Our Creation Care Ministry is our response to our National Church’s call and more important, to God’s call to be good stewards.
TREX® BENCH CHALLENGE!
The Trex® Bench Challenge began this past Sunday, November 3, 2019. Thanks to all of you, we have already collected over 40 pounds of plastic!!! Please place your CLEAN, DRY plastics in a GROCERY-SIZE SHOPPING BAG in the Trex Bin in the Parish Hall. We CANNOT accept larger sized bags.
RECYCLE ANY OF THE FOLLOWING MATERIALS:
grocery bags, bread bags, case overwrap, dry cleaning bags, newspaper sleeves, ice bags, wood pellet bags, ziplock & other re-sealable bags, produce bags, bubble wrap, salt bags, and cereal bags
All materials must be clean, dry and free of food residue!
An Episcopal Vision for Creation Care
An Episcopal Vision for Creation Care
(From the Episcopal Church Website)
As a whole church, we have promised to place the care of God’s Creation at the heart of our common life. Together, we have taken up church-wide action in order to safeguard the integrity of Creation and to sustain and renew the life of the Earth.
Below are goals and a vision for Care of Creation, developed by the Presiding Bishop’s Office and leaders of the Advisory Council on Stewardship of Creation and in alignment with actions by the 79th General Convention.
Goal #1 – LOVING
We will share stories of concern for the Earth and connect with others who care.
Goal #2 – LIBERATING
We will stand with those most vulnerable to environmental degradation and climate change.
Goal #3 – LIFE-GIVING
We will change our habits and choices to live more simply, humbly and gently on the Earth.
For more information, click on the link below.
https://www.episcopalchurch.org/creation-care/episcopal-vision
Join the Good Shepherd Textile Drive!
Good Shepherd and Pitman Public Works are working together to collect your unwanted, torn, stained textiles. Simply place these items in the bin marked “Textiles” in the Parish Hall. Pitman Public Works will collect them periodically.
Donatable textiles include:
| · Clothing* | · Sheets | · Curtains |
| · Shoes* | · Stuffed Animals | · Tablecloths |
| · Sneakers* | · Towels | · Rugs |
| · Quilts | · Bedspreads | · Pillows |
* Please donate items you consider “unwearable”.
Please make sure to wash your items first!
WHY RECYCLE TEXTILES?
- Decreases the use of natural resources, such as water used in growing crops and petroleum used in creating new clothing and textiles
- Decreases the need for chemicals used in manufacturing new textiles and the pollution caused by the manufacturing process
- Protects the environment by keeping these items out of landfills
- Saves trash disposal tipping fees which saves tax dollars
HOW ARE RECYCLED TEXTILES USED?
- Sent to developing countries
- Turned into wiping cloths, which are used in a variety of industries and businesses
- Processed back into fibers and turned into paper, yarn, insulation, carpet padding, and other items
Going Green Status Update
Our efforts to “Go Green” at the Church of the Good Shepherd have been quite successful. Many thanks to our Property Committee for making many valuable changes in that direction before it was even decided to officially “Go Green”! We have new boilers, locked thermostats, new commercial dishwasher, new LED light bulbs, etc.
During our June Vestry meeting, we agreed to form a Green Team to implement environmentally friendly changes at the Church. A lot has been accomplished since that decision was made. We specifically focused our efforts on reducing the use of paper, plastic and Styrofoam during Coffee Hour. On July 22, 2018, we kicked off our campaign by using ceramic plates, cups and serving dishes in lieu of paper and plastic products. Since then, we have started using real silverware rather than disposable plastic utensils. We also switched to using the Church of the Good Shepherd mugs since the old ceramic cups simply aren’t practical as they are very small and difficult to manage.
The response from parishioners has been overwhelmingly positive, and the support and encouragement from our Coffee Hour hosts has been tremendous. We have received several great suggestions to make the Coffee Hour process easier. Please keep those ideas coming! We also created a brand new Going Green logo to make our announcements easier to spot. Many thanks to Katherine Kaltwasser for creating this for us!
We have a significant amount of non-recyclable products already stored in our kitchen. We know that there will be occasions when using ceramic dishware is simply not practical and these may be the times to use the products we already have in stock. Additionally, we currently serve cold beverages using non-recyclable plastic cups (as they are not recyclable in Pitman). We are looking into different options to resolve this.
The support of Good Shepherd as we strive to be good stewards of the Earth is greatly appreciated, although not surprising! Thanks everyone!
Going Green: Did you know…?
The U.S. is the #1 trash-producing country in the world at 1,609 pounds per person per year. This means that 5% of the world’s people generate 40% of the world’s waste.
The Episcopal Church of the Good Shepherd 