Unitarian Universalist Church of Palo Alto

Always Learning

I am so excited that our congregation has taken on the challenge of becoming a Green Sanctuary Congregation. I am excited that even as we made this decision we began to feel energy building in the wider community as well.

Our concern for the health of Gaia, our planetary eco-system, grows naturally out of our Unitarian Universalist interest in and commitment to the sciences — biology, physics, systems theory and other disciplines. Really, even the laws of accounting show us how crucial it is to have a sustainable ecological plan.

Our concern for Gaia also grows out of our historical Unitarian Universalist love for nature, which goes back at least as far back as Ralph Waldo Emerson’s famous essay by that name. Many of us say we find our true selves and connect to something larger than our selves most easily while hiking a mountain or being still in a grove of trees. We acknowledge Earth-Centered traditions as one of the sources of our UU Faith. And the more we pay attention to and grow in affection for our dirt, rocks, trees, microbes and smallest living neighbors, the more we are moved to act on behalf of the health of the whole.

So how could we as a congregation show this commitment? Here’s what I imagine that could look like. I have a vision that:

We are a congregation that remembers to ask “what impact will our actions have on the environment?”
We use post-consumer paper products
We use green cleaners
We use fair-trade coffee
We hear about our connection to the earth in worship
Our children learn about it in Sunday school
We are involved in environmental justice issues

When you speak your truth about your connection to the earth, your community understands.

To this end the Green Sanctuary Committee is working with the staff and the Board of Trustees to grow ourselves into a Green Sanctuary congregation. Staff tries to conserve and re-use paper. Office volunteers call to stop catalogues and junk mail. We have recycling bins in every room, and use them. The Board is looking at adopting a purchasing covenant clarifying how we can look after the “triple bottom line” (money, people and environment).

Starting this week, we are having a fundraiser to help us bridge the monetary gap from traditional coffee, paper products and cleaners to products that reflect our commitment to a healthier, safer, more sustainable world. (See the notice on page 4 of the Bulletin.) It’s the kind of practice that won’t change the world on its own, but it will help us live our purpose as a church:

“With a legacy of openness and in accordance with the UU Principles, we come together to support one another in our continuing commitment to a free and loving search for spiritual meaning and to the expression of that meaning in our community and in our lives.”

I have found meaning in the very earth herself, and want to practice caring for her in the living of my life. I am proud that we can come together to support one another in so doing.