The Rev. Canon Sally Bingham will be recognized for her work in starting and leading The Regeneration Project, which seeks to deepen the connection between faith and ecology, and Interfaith Power & Light (IPL), a national campaign with more than 14,000 U.S. congregations and 39 state affiliates working to mobilize a religious response to global warming.

The Audubon Society gives the Rachel Carson Awards to women who are influential leaders in the conservation movement. Past winners include architect Maya Lin; entertainers Laurie David, Bette Midler, and Sigourney Weaver; philanthropist Teresa Heinz Kerry; Yellowstone National Park Superintendent Suzanne Lewis; and oceanographer Sylvia Earle.

The award carries special resonance this year since 2012 marks the 50^th anniversary of the publication of Carson’s Silent Spring, a book that heralded the modern environmental movement and led to a ban on the pesticide DDT.

“It’s an honor to be recognized by one of the leading conservation groups in the nation,” Bingham said. “The prophetic voice of Rachel Carson lives on in the work that our congregations are doing to respond to the threat global warming poses to the integrity of God’s Creation.”

In addition to her leadership of The Regeneration Project and Interfaith Power & Light, Bingham is Canon for the Environment in the Episcopal Diocese of California. She was named one of the top 15 green religious leaders byGrist magazine and is a winner of the Purpose Prize. She also serves on the boards of the Environmental Defense Fund and the Environmental Working Group.

Read more about the award and past honorees.

Join.
7 continents
135 countries & territories
5251 cities and towns
18 billion people
in turning off your LIGHTS
Earth Hour is not about saving an hour’s electricity,
it’s about uniting people to protect the planet.
And the best thing? Every one of us can be a part of it.

Go to Earth Hour 2012 to learn more

Spring has sprung and Earth Day is right around the corner. To help you celebrate the season and protect the Earth, I’m excited to announce that we have created a special Sow a Cool Harvest gardening kit for congregations. It’s available to order now in time for Earth Day activities. Don’t have the space or time for a garden? There are other tips you can use, such as, how to green your pantry or host a local farmers’ market.

This kit is a follow up to last year’s Enjoy a Cool Harvest program. If you missed it, and would rather start with that introductory program, your order will automatically include access to the free organizer’s kit as well. Enjoy a Cool Harvest is our entry-level ‘cool potluck dinner and a movie’ program for faith communities to gently raise awareness about the rather large, but not often discussed, connection between our daily food choices and global warming.

We have also secured companion DVDs DIRT! and Nourish for you at a terrific discount of $15/each. We hope you will take advantage of this offer that has been so generously extended to the Interfaith Power & Light community by the producers. Click here to learn more about the films and offer.

It’s all part of our Cool Harvest food, faith, and climate program for congregations. Did you know that almost one-fifth of climate change pollution comes from the food industry? And as you will learn in this program, the foods that are healthier for the planet are also healthier for our bodies.

The Cool Harvest program will help you support fun and interesting faith-based activities to raise awareness and empower individuals and congregations to be part of the solution. Order your kit right away, and we’ll rush it to you in time for Earth Day.

Happy Gardening and Bon Appetit!

In August 2011, AZIPL received a TogetherGreen grant funded by Toyota and Audubon. We are working with three congregations in South Phoenix:  Southminster Presbyterian Church, New Home Baptist Church and St Matthew Catholic Church and School. Now that the energy audits of their buildings are completed and the partners are finalizing what retrofits they will do, AZIPL scheduled a session called “Meet the Partners and Discover the Resources.”

We met at the Rio Salado Audubon Center, home of our Audubon Arizona partner, and invited pastors and lay leaders from the congregations to join us for a Saturday morning session. Members from the different congregations had a chance to meet and get to know each other a bit while touring the Rio Salado Center and grounds and learning about the free Audubon programs for families available at the Center. Mary Elizabeth Lawrence (AZIPL Co-Executive Director) and Lisa McDaniel-Hutchings (AZIPL Ministerial Intern) are the co-leaders for the Footprints of Faith grant. They shared green preaching resource materials and alerted congregational partners to upcoming green events in the area, such as Earth Hour on March 31, the Solar Cookout on April 21, and “Desert Wisdom in a Time of Climate Change” on April 28.  Karen Schedler (AZIPL Board Member and Program Chair), presented an overview of the Cool Congregations workshop and facilitated discussion on tailoring the program to fit congregational needs.

We all agreed that AZIPL would lead a Green Team training on March 3^rd for the three churches, and then schedule a Cool Congregations workshop for each church which would be open to the entire congregation and neighborhood or denominational partners.

– Lisa McDaniel-Hutchings, AZIPL Ministerial Intern

We are an interfaith ministry devoted to deepening the connection between ecology and faith. Our goal is to help people of faith recognize and fulfill their responsibility for the stewardship of creation.

Specifically, the Arizona Interfaith Power and Light campaign is mobilizing a national religious response to global warming while promoting renewable energy, energy efficiency and conservation. People of faith have an opportunity to put their faith into action and help reduce the devastating effects of global warming.

Our Mission

“Arizona Interfaith Power and Light mobilizes people of faith in Arizona
to reduce the causes of global climate change
through education, advocacy, action and prayer.”

Sign up now for the 2012 Ecumenical Lenten Carbon Fast

By engaging in these activities, you and your church

can reduce your carbon footprint.

Daily email messages will begin on Ash Wednesday, February 22, and continue through Easter Sunday, April 8, 2012.

Why should you consider a fast from carbon? There are at least five reasons:

1. The carbon dioxide we are putting into the environment, in the form of greenhouse gases, is changing the climate of God’s creation, our planet Earth. Scientists no longer debate the basic facts of climate change.
2. The sources of these greenhouse gases are largely produced by human beings and the society we have created.
3. The largest component of greenhouse gases is carbon dioxide, which comes from the burning of fossil fuels during the generation of electricity and from the modes of transportation that we use.
4. Unless we reduce our emissions of greenhouse gases, the impact of these increases will be devastating for our planet, for its people–especially the poor and vulnerable–and for the plants and animals that have lived here for millions of years. Time is critical.
5. God created this Earth, declared it to be good, and expects us to care for creation and to maintain its goodness for future generations.

Engaging your congregation in a carbon-free Lent is a practical and timely way to put faith into action.

Saturday, April 14, 2012

Check-in & Breakfast: 9:00-9:30am

Workshop: 9:30am-12:30pm

Location: St. Mark’s United Methodist Church
1431 West Magee Road, Tucson, 85705

*Learn how to conduct a Cool Congregations program in your faith

community by sending a team of two or more to a training workshop.

*Address the ABC’s of climate change

*Explore how climate change is a moral and spiritual issue

*Measure your own carbon footprint and find ways to reduce it

*Learn about local, state and federal policies on energy

*Discover how to organize Cool Congregations in your own congregation

Registration:
Cost:  $10/person

Sign up by clicking here.

For additional information contact  Rev. Doug Bland.

Carbon Footprint Checklist:  Each registrant will be sent a “Carbon Footprint Checklist,” to collect information on your household energy use for the last 12 months.  Each participant should fill out the questionnaire and bring it along.

Open to all Faith Communities!

The Earth Care Commission of the Arizona Ecumenical Council is proud to present, “Desert Wisdom in a Time of Climate Change”.

The desert has long been the birthplace of faith and wisdom. Jesus, Moses and Mohammed all experienced the Holy in the wilderness. When life in the city became too corrupt and violent, too hectic and meaningless, the Desert Fathers and Mothers of the 4th and 5th century returned to the desert in search of simplicity, truth and insights for living faithfully. Today scientists and philosophers, artists and environmentalists once again turn to desert places to explore ways that we can live richly and sustainably within the limits of our planet.

“Desert Wisdom” will explore the spiritual and environmental insights available to those of us who “live and move and have our being” in desert landscapes. What can desert plants and animals teach us about living more sustainably? What conflicts–drought, wildfire, water shortages, climate change and energy use–must we face in the 21st century? What wisdom might our desert ancestors provide about living more simply and faithfully? We will call upon the insights of desert artists, mystics and scientists to help us discover “Desert Wisdom”.

To learn more about the event and to register please click here.

Keynote Speakers:

Rev. Talitha Arnold, Pastor, United Church of Christ, Santa Fe, New Mexico, workshop leader (“Listen to the Land”), Author of Worship for Vital Congregations

Dr. Gregg Garfin Ph. D, Deputy Director for Science Translation & Outreach, Institute of the Environment, University of Arizona.

Sign-up Today for the Preach-in on Global Warming

Saturday, September 24, 2011
10:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.

(Lunch donated by Chipotle)
Begin: Wrigley Hall, Room 102
End: Tempe First United Methodist Church

Moving Planet is a worldwide rally—a single day to move away from fossil fuels and demand solutions to the climate crisis. The sustainability community, in partnership with Arizona Interfaith Power and Light, will mark the occasion with a “Walk for Climate Justice.”

Beginning at Wrigley Hall with coffee and an 8-minute film by Bill McKibben, we will walk to the Tempe Islamic Cultural Center, First Congregational Church, and Hillel. At each stop, we’ll hear a story (from Sierra Club’s Sandy Bahr and Arizona Audubon’s Sarah Porter, among others) about a different environmental refugee around the world and learn about climate change and its disproportionate impacts on nations and populations. The walk concludes at the Tempe United Methodist Church with a lunch donated by Chipotle and a Sufi folk-dance performance. WHEAT, a local hunger-action group will offer “Hand to Hand” Fair trade crafts for sale.

This event is part of ASU’s “No Impact Week,” a week-long series of events and experiments in low-carbon living. Register to receive daily emails on how to participate in the No Impact Experiment.

RSVP Now >>