Green Sanctuary Covenants

At it's October 2010 meeting, the Parish Committee, on behalf of the First Parish in Needham congregation, endorsed the following responsive reading as our Green Sanctuary Covenant. Written by intern minister Molly Housh Gordon, this reading was part of a service in October, 2009, that marked First Parish in Needham's application to be a candidate for Green Sanctuary.

Green Sanctuary Covenant
of First Parish in Needham, Unitarian Universalist

Setting ourselves to the task of Greening our Congregation, together we promise these things:

Most simply, we will each do our small part to care for the earth around us.

We will start with one step forward toward the thriving world that we envision.

Then we will step again, and again, setting forth together in this community.

Deep problems call for religious answers. Recognizing the depth and urgency of the environmental crisis, we must answer the earth’s call to our spirits.

We will bring the concerns of the earth to live deep in our hearts and in the heart of this congregation.

Realizing that we have been too concerned with consuming things now, we must turn our attention to the future.

We will take up the needs of the generations to come: clean water to drink, sweet air to breathe.

Acknowledging the earth most basically as our home, we must set about the task of restoration.

In this our congregational home, we will find small and large ways to remember the environment in our worshipping, our learning, our celebrating, and our justice-making.

Aware of the urgency and complexity of our environmental crisis, we end by promising simply this:

As people of faith, we pledge ourselves to work toward a planet transformed by our care.

~ Molly Housh Gordon

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The following Children's Covenant to Green Sanctuary, written by our Director of Religious Education Irene Praeger, has also been used in our regular services, as welll as in Children's Worship.

Children's Covenant to Green Sanctuary
of First Parish in Needham, Unitarian Universalist

With the goal of making our congregation green, we the children of First Parish promise:

We will do whatever we can to care for the earth around us.

We will start by taking one step forward toward healing our earth.

Today we will join hands to care for our beautiful building and grounds and all the creatures who share this space with us.

We know that we have paid more attention to what we want rather than what we need.

We promise to pay more attention to those things that we really need, so that we can give ourselves and the children who come after us clean water to drink and sweet air to breathe.

Big problems call for UU kids to take action.

We must act now using open minds, loving hearts and hands that serve.

Knowing that the earth is our home, we pledge to do our part to respect the circle of life.

In our church home we will always look for ways both small and large to honor and celebrate the wonder and beauty of our natural world.

        ~ Irene Praeger, DRE, CRE

       

 

 

© 2005 First Parish Needham Unitarian Universalist