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Action:
The 217th Annual Convention of the Diocese of MA passed a resolution last November callign for parishes and the Diocese to reduce the use of toxic chemicals in the care of buildings and grounds. See website to:

• Learn about present practices and substances used
• Understand risks to children, other vulnerable populations, and wildlife
• Make reductions by improving efficiency of present practice
• Determine options of alternative products
• Identify and work with parish functions involving pesticide use
• Target specific grounds/pest/maintenance problems
• Get referrals for contractors using least toxic approaches

CFE has co-sponsored Newton Alternatives to Pesticides Month for several years. The highlight of this year's activities is the program, "GROWING GREEN," on Monday, March 24, at 7 p.m. at the Newton Free Library. The program is designed to raise awareness about safe, ecological solutions to landscaping and pest problems in homes, schools, and community.

Study leading to action
Environmental Partnerships, the environmental linkage in the Diocesan Urban Suburban Linkages program, is beginning an innovative program using GIS (Geographic Information Systems) data to provide parishes a more informed basis for understanding local environmental issues ranging from pesticides to land use.

EP is using maps as a means of explaining in a concrete way relationships between church lands and their neighborhoods. This has new importance because as environmental health issues continue to affect community well-being in urban and suburban areas, being good neighbors - and understanding how nearby land uses affect parish neighbors - takes on urgent additional meaning. EP, Tufts University, and the Mystic River Watershed Association began a collaboration last summer mapping church locations onto land use maps of 21 towns (mostly in the Mystic Valley Deanery). In the summer of 2003 an intern will visit all Somerville parishes. EP is also planning approaching congregations on an interfaith basis with local citizen groups.



Reflection

Excerpts from Global Anglican Congress on the Stewardship of Creation Declaration to the UN World Summit on Sustainable Development South Africa August 2002

...this Anglican Congress calls on people of all faiths to act together by:

Understanding that humanity is a part of the created order, not separate from it;...

Rejecting the destructiveness of the culture of militarism, that spends disproportionate amounts of money on armaments when so many people in the world are still hungry, and stockpiles nuclear weapons and materials at great cost to the environment and to human well being;...

Affirming that the rivers and the land, the sea and the air are a global commons, entrusted to human beings to be handed on faithfully and intact to generations to come...