Going Green

July voice Article
The roots of our faith are the Seven Principles of Unitarian Universalism. Green Sanctuary embodies the Seventh Principle of honoring the natural world by our actions and choices. Our roots showed when people attending a forum decided to schedule the semi-annual clean up at Leif Erickson Park. They chose July 13th, later they organized the forum event on their own, using email to make plans.

This is the essence of the Green Sanctuary process and our seventh principle. Green Sanctuary is change from the bottom up. People like you and me decide that earth friendly is the way to be. This change is driven by the people at our church. The change to be earth friendly begins inside us not somewhere else by “them”. Earth friendly changes demanded by people like you and me transform our institutions and our parks.

Three insights occurred to me:
1. Our faith community is well on its way to the making the earth friendly lifestyle choices envisioned by Green Sanctuary. We are incorporating into our culture care of the earth envisioned by the seventh UU principle. What is more, by folding this activity into a forum we acknowledge that cleaning up the park is a form of worship, too. Worship is not solely a function ritual, music, or words but may also be found in our choices. For the July 13th forum we could have chosen to do many other less active things, like have a discussion. Instead we are cleaning Leif Erickson park. In my opinion, caring for the earth means making a choice that is informed by the roots of our faith. It also called living your values.

2. The speed at which this “Clean up the Park” Forum went from idea to reality was amazing. We know how to utilize technology (email and the Internet) to accomplish our plans.

3. Group decision making, goal setting, and planning like we’ve seen here, make me realize, we are a self-organizing group of people. We have the power to accomplish what we set our minds to.

If anyone wants to add their insights to this chain of events I related here, I invite them to do so at Green Kernels - Going Green Web Log. I have set up a page up which contains this Green Sanctuary article and you may add your comments there. Directions for finding the article are here. The instructions for registration are found here.

Run into problems contact me at 402-404-8235.

Thanks
Bob

We are meeting to talk about Green Sanctuary (G S). This is one way to participate in GS. GS has always been a participatory process. It involves the changing our hearts and minds by changing our world view. For most of us the G S process has been taking place in the wings of our theater, out of our view. However, now we need to move G S Action Plan to center stage. Since there is no more important challenge we as Unitarians face than how we honor the Seventh Principle. ~ Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.

Our June 29th Forum is an opportunity for us to review the process, vote on the action plan, and register for our Going Green Web Log.

This will will not take long but are needed to properly launch our Green Sanctuary Accreditation effort. There you know our purpose at the forum and our agenda.

Register now, if you want or just look around the Green Kernels site. It isn’t much to see yet, but this site has so many possibilities for us.

Thanks for visiting.

Thanks

Bob