Someone sent me an email recently asking me, “Does the Synod do anything about earth care?” While we don’t have any direct ministries to support this vital aspect of Christian discipleship, there are many individuals and churches within the Synod who pursue this enthusiastically. One of them is the Presbyterian Church of Traverse City (MI), so I’m turning over my column this month to Rev. Julie Delezenne, the senior pastor of this congregation in Mackinac Presbytery.
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Surrounded by the beauty of Northern Michigan- water, dunes, forests, and all the ecosystems contained in each- the people of the Presbyterian Church of Traverse City (PCTC) not only have the privilege of enjoying this beauty, but also feel a deep call to care for God’s creation as we are filled with the awe and wonder of it each day.
In 2020, in addition to becoming a Matthew 25 congregation, PCTC also became a certified Earth Care Congregation. In our facilities, worship, education, and outreach we pledged and follow through on that pledge to care for our planet locally and globally which God has entrusted us. Since that time we have engaged in many actions. We’ve replaced and are working on replacing several sections of lawn with native plants, including creating a pollinator garden that was recognized by the National Wildlife Federation Sacred Garden program. This spring we prepped a large part of the front lawn for turning into a Native Pocket Forest and members of the congregation are “babying” saplings over the summer to be planted in the fall. We built an onsite compost bin system for the church kitchen’s waste, strengthened recycling practices, reduced paper usage, and reduced our transportation by switching to Zoom for some meetings and holding meetings after worship when possible. In the spring and fall we clean up a mile stretch of road town with the Adopt a Road Program.
Numerous earth care educational programs have also taken place as we’ve made these changes and encouraged the congregation to participate. Each quarter, our Creation Care Team highlights a different goal to challenge the whole congregation to think and act more intentionally around: winter-reduce carbon footprint, spring-plant a tree, summer-reduce plastic, and fall-shop with thought.
A few weeks after I arrived at PCTC in February 2024, Elder Linda Racine, who helps to lead our Creation Care Team, approached me about another BIG project on which the team was already hard at work: replacing the boilers from 1957 and 1996. This had not been on my radar coming in as the new Senior Pastor AND the boiler replacement wasn’t even the entire vision of the team! The team felt called to reduce our church’s carbon footprint in some more big ways. We now call them the “3 Bright Ideas”: replacing boilers/HVAC systems with newer models with greater efficiency (and potentially even geothermal!), installing LED lights across the building, and powering our church with solar panels on our roof. (Be sure to watch the video linked below created by several members!)
As the Creation Care Team shared this vision with the session and with the congregation, the excitement built! Now in just a few short months, we have +$300,000 pledged from within the congregation. We are a bigger church so have more potential for giving than many smaller congregations, but we were still pleasantly surprised at how enthusiastic our members were to give to this project! We’ve also worked on applying to local grants and have been approved for a $400,000 loan from the Presbyterian Investment and Loan Program (PILP) (with the help of the Presbytery of Mackinac!). Our funding strategy for this project also includes government rebates that are available to nonprofits and churches.
PCTC has lived into our Matthew 25 commitments and sees that caring for our earth means caring for our neighbors. For the past few years, our Racial Justice Working Group has led us in building relationships with our Anishinaabek neighbors, especially from the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians. This past Lent, we had our 3rd annual PLACE series in partnership with the Band and many other organizations in our area. This year the PLACE series focused on The Doctrine of Discovery and the harm caused by the Papal Bull in the 16th century on our earth and our indigenous neighbors, even today.
One member of the GT Band, Joanne Cook, shared with us at the PLACE series these words of challenge: “When you care for the earth, you honor the Anishinaabek.”
Our commitments to earth care and racial justice are intricately connected. We are still learning!
Working with the GT Band, the Creation Care Team will be planting a Healing Garden later this year. The Band has donated a plum tree, an Anishinaabek symbol of healing, to us for the center of the garden. It will feature herbs, teas, medicinal plants, and vegetables. We hope the garden will be a place of connection and healing as we all continue to grow in learning how to care for the earth and for one another.
Leaders at TCPC would be glad to talk with you about how your congregation might adapt some of the ideas we’re pursuing. (communications@tcpresby.org)
Peace,
Julie
Links:
3 Bright Ideas: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cOY-VCDEruA&t=2s
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Your partner in ministry,
Chip
Rev. Charles B Hardwick, PhD
Executive
309-530-4578
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