Stewardship and Ecology

It’s Time to Make our Parishes Greener

by Archpriest TERENCE BAZ

Before they fell from grace, Adam and Eve were called by God to care for His garden by naming the plants, tilling the soil, caring for the animals, and offering all their efforts back to Him. God loved walking and talking with them in the Garden of Eden. At every Divine Liturgy, we continue offering back to God all our efforts toward our stewardship of creation. It happens right after the Consecration. We also often begin our prayers by calling upon the Holy Spirit, “who art everywhere and fillest all things,” to continue the work of creation. Further, through our baptism, we intercede in a priestly way for all of creation. Many of the Church’s liturgical prayers reflect these sacred tasks. In the same way, Her calendar of saints and seasons is full of references to creation. The Orthodox Church also calls us to maintain a proper balance between our relationship with God and His creation through prayer, fasting, and almsgiving.

During the season of Great Lent, the Orthodox Church calls us to prepare for the great event of Pascha. While, like the virgins of the Bridegroom Service, we should reflect on how our souls may have fallen short in their preparedness to be ready for Christ, we should also not forget to do so in practical ways. One way is to give to those who may be facing hunger because of the pandemic. Another is to strive to be responsible stewards of all of God’s creation because that is no less sacred than the other tasks.

As Orthodox Christians there are practical ways we can be better stewards of God’s creation, whether as members of our households, or our parishes. Remember that every little step helps! In a country where the population is 330 million, if the great majority of people were to amend their wasteful and polluting practices, it would make a significant impact. Here are some practical pointers:

1. Has an energy audit been done on your church building? They are relatively inexpensive, and both New York and New Jersey will apply any savings gained from the resulting energy efficiency toward the cost of the audits. Here are relevant links for each state: • https://www.nyserda.ny.gov/All-Programs/ Programs/Energy-Audit-Programs • https://njcleanenergy.com/main/rebatesand-promotions/rebates-and-promotions.

2. Has your parish council considered installing either solar panels or a more efficient boiler system? Although we may have the resources to cover our parishes’ current energy usage, being good stewards of creation means planning for and achieving reductions in our communities’ energy consumption. A huge inefficient boiler using fossil fuels is not satisfactory these days. What is the alternative plan if it breaks down?

3. Styrofoam cups take centuries to decompose, whereas paper cups take only weeks. Parishes should have stopped using Styrofoam by now.

4. On a personal level, we should all strive to keep the Orthodox fasts. Reducing our meat consumption can greatly reduce our carbon footprint, because producing meat requires far more energy than producing the same amount of calories in plant protein. Recent global surveys have shown that the demand for beef has caused 41% of the deforestation since 2000, as land has been cleared for pastures!

5. Choose carefully when making purchases—not only of major items like cars and heating systems, but also of soybean, coffee, and palm-oil products. Huge tracts of forests are being destroyed to make way for the latter’s production.

6. Invest in reusable shopping bags and try to minimize plastic usage in general. Parishes ought to use water filters instead of plastic bottles. Those bottles do great damage to sea life; there are many short videos about this. Here is one: https:// www.youtube.com/watch?v=IA9O9YUbQew. Minute particles are also getting into the food chain and could be a very serious issue in the future.

7. In colder weather, program your thermostat at 68°F or even 66°F during daylight hours. If that leaves you cold, you can always layer up on clothing. For overnights, lower it further still and grab an extra blanket. When church buildings are not used during the week, set the thermostat at 55°F. Stay on top of managing the temperature when people are away from the building or house. Such steps will save a lot of money and energy. The same holds true for summer air conditioning; keep the temperature no lower than 72°F.

8. For those who like gardening, have you thought about composting (https://www.epa. gov/recycle/composting-home)? These days, composting doesn’t have to generate unpleasant odors or attract animals. Also, be diligent about recycling.

9. Stop using herbicides and pesticides on your lawn unless you have grubs that eat up the grass. Their chemicals leach into the soil and ultimately into local aquifers and river systems.

If we strive to do our best to manage our homes and churches, we can offer those efforts back to our heavenly Father as our first fruits—unlike Cain, who chose to offer God only leftovers.

V. REV. TERENCE BAZ is the rector of Assumption of the Holy Virgin Orthodox Church in Clifton, New Jersey.