There is a lot of exciting news from TES that I would like to share…

Our efforts to make the church more “eco-friendly” are becoming more evident, as different commissions and groups within the church adjust the ways they do things to align with our goals.  Some of the examples of this are:

Thanks to the Worship commission for purchasing the Fair Trade Eco-Palms.  According to the literature on Eco-Palms by the PC(USA):

"Jesus' entrance into Jerusalem, accented by the jubilant waving of palm branches, is re-enacted each Palm Sunday in Presbyterian and other Christian congregations worldwide as Holy Week observances begin. Unfortunately for the communities where these palms are harvested, palm fronds do not always represent the same jubilation they do for us.

This year the PC(USA) is teaming up with Lutheran World Relief, Catholic Relief Services and the University of Minnesota to offer congregations the option of purchasing responsibly harvested eco-palm branches for Palm Sunday. The palms come from communities in Mexico and Guatemala where workers are paid fairly and engage in sustainable harvesting in order to protect the local ecosystem."

Thanks to Property and Finance, and the Boy Scouts, the church’s recycling program is off to a great start.  There are recycling bins located in all administrative offices, throughout the Pixie and Sunday School Classrooms, Kern Hall, the Choir Room, and the kitchen.  You will also notice wicker baskets in the narthex, marked for bulletin recycling!  Please try to be aware of the recycling effort and conscious of what is placed in the trash that could possibly be recycled.

Thanks go out to the Deacons for switching from the Styrofoam coffee cups, to the biodegradable coffee cups and recycled sleeves.  The coffee cups sleeves can be reused and should be place in the baskets on the tables at coffee hour.  This in itself would have a huge impact!  However....

At our recent environmental conference, GreenFaith representatives clarified the coffee cup debate.  The coffee cups we are currently using are inded eco-friendly because they are bio-degradable.  However, that does not mean they are recyclable.  The coffee cups are to be thrown in the trash whenever used.  Once paper goods are dirty from food, they cannot be recycled.

Thanks also to the Women at the Well, who have made the switch back to using the church’s china and silverware for church dinners.  At their most recent Anniversary dinner, they actually went back to cloth tablecloths instead of plastic, and used votive candles to cut down on the amount of lights needed.  It should be noted that Deacons followed by example and also used the china and silverware for the Annual Santa Breakfast!

Special thanks go to the Sunday School for their support of our recent Creation Care Conference on March 29, 2008. I recently had the opportunity to visit with the Sunday School and share the story “The Giving Tree” by Shel Silverstein with them.  After reading the story, we talked about how the earth takes such good care of us, and that we should be taking good care of the earth in return.  After all, as we talked about, God gave us the earth as a gift, and you are supposed to take care of, and cherish gifts that are given to you! 

Trinity’s Earth Shepherds hosted the Creation Care Conference on March 29th, 2008.  We were thrilled to welcome approximately 60 participants. The conference featured workshops by GreenFaith, as well as a discussion by the Presbyterian Representative to the United Nations.  We also had materials available regarding other organizations who work to help the environment, resources from the Presbyterian Church (USA), and information from the Monmouth Presbytery’s Hunger Action Enabler and Stewardship of Creation Enabler. 

A Bagel Breakfast was provided, and well as a soup and bread lunch prepared by Women at the Well. 

PerScholas was also on hand for an electronics recylcing event, which was a huge success.  PerScholas works with those less fortunate, to teach them computer skills, and then gives them the refurbished computers for their own use.  They were thrilled with the amount of computers collected!

Have you been reading the Environmental tips found in the bulletin each week?  Well, if you have used one of these tips, or come up with something on your own, to make a change in your life, share your news, we would love to hear all the wonderful efforts that our church family is making to Care for Creation!  There is a  Trinity Care for Creation Celebration Tree located in the Narthex, please fill out one of the slips of paper and add it to the tree!  Lets see if we can fill the tree with eco-friendly activities.

We also have many other things in the works!  One of the things we are looking into is a summer farmers market in our back parking lot.  We are going to be contacting local farmers to see if they would be interested.  This would not be a fund raising proposition for Trinity, but a community service of sorts.  You see part of Caring for Creation is supporting our local farmers.  Not only does it help the smaller farms that are slowly disappearing due to the larger farms making it hard for them to survive, it also helps cut down on the environmental impact that eating imported foods has on our world.  Whenever possible, we should be trying to eat food produced within our local area!  Stay tuned for more details!

Lastly, I would like to introduce the members of Trinity’s Earth Shepherds: Jodi Abraham, Barbara DeCarlo, Marcy DaLomba, Dick Spengel, Ed Wilkens, Rich Zielinski, and Sharon Haflin are the current committee members. Cindy Cook and I are co-chairs of the committee. If you have any ideas for things you would like to see happen, or have questions regarding things that are underway, please just ask one of us.  We are happy to help!

We would like to extend an invitation to the entire congregation to join TES.  Come, be a part of the exciting changes underway!  We meet the 4^th Monday of the month at 7:30pm in either the Deacon’s Rm. or the Youth Lounge.  We’d love for you to join us!

Thank you all for your support in our efforts.  Remember if Trinity works together as a family, anything is possible!

Blessings and Peace to you and yours
Debbie O’Halloran