Cedars Unitarian Universalist Church

A Welcoming Congregation 

Green Sanctuary Program

Initial Projects Completed by Cedars UU Church

Worship and Celebration

1.  Green Sanctuary Earth Day Sunday Service
Completed: Sunday, April 23, 2006 and Sunday, April 22, 2007.

Action: The Committee organized and presented a Sunday Service for Earth Day 2006.  It was an outgrowth of the completion of the 9-week course in Choices for Sustainable Living, discussing themes covered in the course and focusing on the meaning of Earth Day 2006.  The service was presented by Cedars’ Minister Rev. Drew Johnston, with the Chair of the Green Sanctuary Committee serving as worship reader.  Readings, sermon, hymns, special music, and artistic photography all contributed to the theme of the Sunday service.  A slide show of color photographs of nature scenes of the local area and the greater Northwest were projected on a screen during a musical interlude with original music by Kate Moody, Cedars’ Music Director.

The committee continued the tradition by organizing and hosting an Earth Day Sunday Service in 2007, with readings and a special sermon by guest speaker Ann Lovejoy, a nationally recognized organic gardening author, resident of Bainbridge Island, and member of the nearby Eagle Harbor Congregational (UCC) Church.

Outcomes: For our congregation and our committee, the Sunday services established a spiritual basis for the Green Sanctuary program.  They mobilized greater awareness for the program among the members of our congregation and various individuals from the larger community who attended the services as guests. In addition, they have established a tradition that the congregation appears happy to renew each year.

2. “Great Turning” David Korten Event and Festival Celebrating Earth Day
Completed: Sunday, April 23, 2006

Action:  The Cedars Green Sanctuary Committee was the primary sponsor of a major community-wide Earth Day celebration. We achieved co-sponsorship from 14 civic, non-profit, environmental, arts, educational, and community organizations.  The Sunday evening event consisted of a speech and multimedia presentation by Bainbridge Island author, David Korten, on the subject of his newly published book: The Great Turning: From Empire to Earth Community.  Each of the co-sponsoring organizations hosted tables with literature and members who discussed their activities.  More than 250 people attended.  The Chair of Green Sanctuary Committee opened the meeting with a presentation on the work of the 15 co-sponsors, then assisted David Korten with the fielding of questions from the standing-room audience.

The co-sponsoring organizations included: Interfaith Council of Bainbridge Island and North Kitsap (representing approximately two dozen churches); Earth Ministry (a national organization providing resources to environmental initiatives at hundreds of churches); Bainbridge Graduate Institute (an MBA program for sustainable business), Yes! Magazine (with offices on Bainbridge Island), Trust for Working Landscapes (supporting local farms and farmers), Bainbridge Island Land Trust (preserving open space); City of Bainbridge Island and it’s Mayor; Bainbridge Conservation Voters (political action for conservation); Bainbridge Island Arts & Humanities Council; and the Network of Spiritual Progressives (a local group inspired by Rabbi Michael Lerner’s book: The Left Hand of God).

Outcomes: A new community organization, Sustainable Bainbridge, was founded.  The Earth Day event resulted in a commitment by most of the co-sponsoring organizations to form a coalition with continuing meetings and joint activities.  The group began to engage in periodic luncheon meetings hosted by the Mayor at City Hall, and co-sponsored a Sustainable Bainbridge booth at the community’s July 4th parade and community festival, which was attended by thousands.  Sustainable Bainbridge organized a series of community forums, educational workshops, speaker forums, and special projects. In January 2007, Sustainable Bainbridge was organized as a Washington nonprofit corporation, and elected its first board and officers.  Barry Peters, Chair of the Cedars Green Sanctuary Committee, was elected President, and the organization obtained an IRS 501(c)(3) status later that year.  It has established a community presence, received thousands of dollars of funds from the City and other charitable donors for sustainability projects, established a website at www.SustainableBainbridge.net, a monthly newsletter, and has become the principal organizer of the community’s Earth Day events in 2007 and 2008, recycling events, energy conservation projects, green building initiatives, among other projects.

Religious Education

3.  Interfaith Partnering (A Speaker Event and other related events)
May 18, 2006 and thereafter

Action:  The committee established contact with members of Suquamish Congregational (UCC) Church in North Kitsap County on the Suquamish Indian Reservation.  David Domke, a professor at the University of Washington spoke at Suquamish Church on the subject: Reclaiming the Moral High Ground, an event that the committee and Suquamish UCC jointly sponsored.  The talk bridged the subjects of spirituality, ethics, earth stewardship, the moral imperatives of environmental action, earth justice, and other topics of social justice in the political arena.

Outcomes:  The joint sponsorship of the event led to a healthy co-mingling of members of two congregations. Other joint events were sponsored, including formation of a branch of the Network of Spiritual Progressives (inspired by Rabbi Michael Lerner), and a community meeting at Suquamish Church with the community’s member of the U.S. Congress, Jay Inslee, to discuss what it takes to pursue the moral high ground in the national political arena.

4.  9-week NWEI Sustainability Course
Completed: March 2006, with other NWEI courses following thereafter

Action:  Approximately 18 members of the congregation, plus two members of the community at large, met in two groups of 10 people each, for nine consecutive weeks of readings and discussions from January through March 2006.  This activity was the first Green Sanctuary project, each group using the Northwest Earth Institute (NWEI) curriculum and course book titled Choices for Sustainable Living.  The goal was to raise consciousness about the meaning of sustainability, with edited readings, group dialog, bonding, and individual commitment to lifestyle change.

Outcomes:  Many of the participants in the groups became leading members of subsequent projects of the Green Sanctuary Committee.  The NWEI coursework led many members of the group to participate in subsequent groups organized around other publications of NWEI, including Voluntary Simplicity, Discovering a Sense of Place, and Exploring Deep Ecology.  These additional courses were held in combination with members of the wider community.

5.  Great Stories: Children’s Religious Education (RE)
Spring 2007 and thereafter

Action:  Lisa Ashley, Director of Religious Education, developed an Earth Day program for all of the children’s and teen’s classes.  The program was offered by the RE teaching staff on Earth Day weekend 2007 and the prior Sunday.  One part of the program focused on an awareness of earth’s creatures and nature, the importance of earth stewardship, and the question: What can I do to help?

Outcomes:  The success of the RE program focus on Green Sanctuary topics has led the RE Committee to plan other curricula around Green Sanctuary topics.  Most recently, the RE Committee decided to focus the children's summer program for 2008 on Green Sanctuary topics as a continuing summer season theme.

Environmental Justice

6. Community Service Day: Restoring Wildlife Habitat|
Completed: May 13, 2006

Action: The Social Action Committee (SAC), led by Chair Carol Ann Davidson, partnered with the Green Sanctuary Committee to host a community service day for the congregation at Stillwaters Environmental Education Center in Kingston, WA.  Nearly 20 adults and children from the congregation, plus about 10 friends, participated in the restoration of wetlands and wildlife habitat, and assisted in physical improvements.  In addition, two members participated in a book re-cycling project to benefit Stillwaters Environmental Center.  Cedars members helped create a functioning resource for environmental education for children and others in the community.

Outcomes: The event established a closer connection between Cedars members and the Stillwaters Environmental Center.  It has led to the Social Action Committee’s decision to collect a special offering to help raise funds for further environmental restoration at Stillwaters.  Furthermore, Stillwaters became one of the featured nonprofit organizations that benefits from the very successful annual Alternative Gift Project at Cedars, which publishes a catalog of non-material gifts in the form of donations to worthy causes in the name of the alternative gift recipient.

7: Engaging in Support of Environmental and Energy Conservation Legislation in the State Legislature
December 2006 and January 2007

Action:  Cedars invited Rev. Carol McKinley to provide a guest sermon in December 2006.  Rev. McKinley is based in Olympia, the Washington state capitol, and is the outreach minister who leads UU Voices for Justice for Washington State.  Following Rev. McKinley’s special Sunday service, the Green Sanctuary Committee invited Rev. McKinley to return to Cedars for a January 2007 workshop to engage individuals in support of action for environmental and energy conservation legislation in the January to April 2007 session of the state legislature. This session appealed to members of Cedars and the Kitsap UU Fellowship (KUUF) in Bremerton. 

Outcomes: The session with Rev. McKinley energized members of Cedars and KUUF, and provided a rare opportunity for the two UU congregations to jointly attend an environmental justice workshop.  Members of Cedars subsequently attended Environmental Lobby Day during the legislative session of 2007.  The session also re-energized the efforts of other Cedars members, who have been tireless advocates of environmental justice, for example, through leadership in the Audubon Society of Kitsap County.  In addition, the session led the Green Sanctuary Committee and its chair, Barry Peters, an attorney, to perform research for Cedars on the extent to which it is lawful under the Internal Revenue Code for a church to engage in lobbying activities.

Sustainable Living

8. Workshop: What Are the Alternatives to a Gas Guzzler?
Fall 2006

Action:  The Green Sanctuary Committee and Sustainable Bainbridge co-sponsored an educational workshop for the congregation and the wider community on the subject of fuel-efficient vehicles, including electric cars.  Approximately 60 people attended.  As a result of recent Washington legislation supporting biofuels, more individuals are asking whether their next car should be bio-diesel, flex-fuel or hybrid, and whether plug-in rechargeables or cars using recycled cooking oil are practical.  The workshop in October 2006 featured three experts: one who has a small business that sells highly fuel-efficient and electric vehicles, another who drives an electric car that he recharges from his home solar panels, and a third who operates a small business that recycles waste cooking oil from fast food restaurants in order to be used as bio-diesel fuel for autos.  The session was held at the library of the local high school, and was publicized widely in the community.

Outcomes:  The workshops emphasized that the long-term goal is to reduce CO₂ emissions and pollution by reducing the use of the private automobiles and substituting public transit, bicycling, and walking.  It emphasized that even biofuels contribute to global warming pollution and are not a panacea.  Based on what was learned at the workshop, one of the participants decided to trade in her gas-guzzling SUV and purchase a used fuel-efficient diesel car, and to fuel the car with 99% biodiesel fuel that is sold on Bainbridge Island.  The workshop also had the effect of solidifying the partnership between the Green Sanctuary Committee and Sustainable Bainbridge, and has led to three other workshops that were jointly sponsored by those two organizations from October 2006 through March 2007 (see below).

9. Green Tips: A Series of Publicized Tips for Sustainable Living
Summer 2006 through October 2007

Action:  From Summer 2006 through October 2007, the committee published a series of more than a dozen Green Tips for members of the Cedars congregation.  The subject matter for the tips was informed by the results of the Green Sanctuary survey that the committee conducted at the start of the Green Sanctuary program, and which contained feedback on the subjects and topics that survey respondents wished to know more about.  The content for Green Tips came from a variety of information sources and websites (such as the excellent web information offered by the Union of Concerned Scientists).  Green Tips were published in three ways: by e-mail, on the Cedars website, and in the monthly Cedars newsletter called the Beacon.

Outcomes:  Some of the best of the Green Tips continue to be posted on the Cedars website, www.cedarsuuchurch.org/greening.htm.

10. Environmental Home Center Educational Workshop
March 2007

Action:  The Green Sanctuary Committee and Sustainable Bainbridge organized and presented a no-cost educational workshop by a Seattle-based business (Environmental Home Center), which supplies environmentally-safe cleaning products for homes, and green sustainable materials for home remodeling and improvement.  The Green Sanctuary Committee helped to publicize this workshop in the Cedars congregation and to the community at large.  The expert staff from the Environmental Home Center presented their expertise, with numerous examples of green and healthy home products, as a special educational event amidst a Home and Garden Show that was sponsored by the local Chamber of Commerce on Bainbridge Island.

Outcomes:  The goal of reaching out to a wider community was achieved by cooperating with a community-based organization (Sustainable Bainbridge), and by holding the event at a mainstream community event (a home and garden show) that is attended annually by hundreds of people.

11. Workshop: How to Conserve Water in Your Garden, and Why You Should Care
October 2006

Action:  The Green Sanctuary Committee and Sustainable Bainbridge offered an educational workshop on how to achieve water conservation in your home garden, and why you should care.  The topic is especially significant on Bainbridge Island where water scarcity is an especially critical issue.  Bainbridge is an island with no external supply of piped water and no reservoirs.  It draws all of its fresh water from underground aquifers which are currently being depleted by a growing population at a rate faster than rainwater can replenish the aquifers.  The workshop was hosted by Ann Lovejoy, a nationally prominent gardening author, and Stephanie Moret, a hydrogeologist with detailed knowledge of Bainbridge Island water scarcity issues. 

The event was offered in combination with a “Sustainable Gardens Tour”, which the Green Sanctuary Committee cosponsored with the Natural Landscapes Project (a local nonprofit) and Sustainable Bainbridge. The tour included examples of home gardens with rain gardens and other water conserving features.

Outcomes: The workshop covered a range of techniques and topics, including the use of rain gardens, bioswales, pervious surfaces, drought-tolerant plantings and the importance of composting and mulching.  A rain garden is an area of land next to a home or adjacent to a parking lot in a town center, for example, that is constructed with loose permeable soils and plantings designed to absorb rain and recharge underground fresh-water aquifers.  Rain gardens could play a critical role in conserving and restoring fresh water sources, especially on an island like Bainbridge, which is entirely dependent on the recharging of underground aquifers for the future supply of drinking water. Without rain gardens, a heavy rain tends to cause run-off that surges through storm-water drains and sewers and is wasted by running into the saltwater of Puget Sound.  Water conservation is a top priority for an island like Bainbridge where the fresh water supply depends on a vulnerable and limited aquifer, endangered by salt water encroachment.

12. Workshop on Home Energy Conservation
December 13, 2006

Action:  The Green Sanctuary Committee and Sustainable Bainbridge presented an educational workshop on how a family can conserve significant amounts of electrical energy at home.  The workshop was presented by one of the Puget Sound area’s expert consultants on renewable energy.  The purpose of this project was to make that expertise available in a workshop format to several dozen people from Cedars and the community.  The workshop provided instruction and insights on how, as the US Department of Energy points out, a typical home can reduce its electrical consumption by 40% without impacting the family’s standard of living. 

Outcomes:  This workshop on energy conservation provided an excellent introduction to a series of continuing conversations between Green Sanctuary participants and members of the Cedars congregation on the subject of energy conservation and utilization of renewable energy.  For example, two members of the Green Sanctuary Committee have installed solar panels on the roofs of their homes, and have been able to share their favorable experience of renewable energy with others at Cedars.