Finding Power in the Church's Environmental Mission
Episcopal News Service. February 18, 2000 [2000-044]
Pat McCaughan, Senior Correspondent for Episcopal News, the newspaper of the Diocese of Los Angeles
The Rev. Sally Bingham is on a mission to convert Episcopal churches to green. She hopes to inspire congregations in the Diocese of Los Angeles, for example, to commit to the diocesan year-long focus of "Stewardship for all Creation...for the Next Century" by signing up to purchase Green Power, or energy from renewable sources.
Her message, though, is being carried to the whole church, and there are promising signs that the church is eagerly responding.
Purchasing and using clean energy is a faith issue, said Bingham, who is the environmental minister at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco. She and Steve MacAusland, a layperson from Boston, are co-founders of Episcopal Power and Light, an initiative for the national church to respond to global climate change.
Bingham can already point to impressive converts. The church and the public utilities in Denver, Colorado, are very near an agreement under which the city's convention center will be powered by sustainable resources during the 10-day General Convention, she reported in a recent interview.
"We have been overwhelmed by requests for speakers," she said of the tiny EPL corps of volunteers, plus one meagerly paid staff person who is speaking to churches in the Diocese of Northern California, she said. A volunteer is currently talking with congregations in the Diocese of Central Pennsylvania, and both Bingham and MacAusland travel across the country explaining the advantages of green power to congregations from southern California to Iowa to New York (where a workshop has been scheduled for next fall).
So far about 40 churches have signed up for green power, she said. Most are in the Diocese of California, but Bingham also has been working with other dioceses.
In the Diocese of Los Angeles, the Cathedral Center of St. Paul recently signed up to participate in the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power's "Green Power for a Green L.A." LADWP kicked off its ground-breaking program in May amid endorsements from long-time consumer and environmental advocate Ralph Nader and actor/activist Ed Begley, Jr.
Under LADWP's green power program, 20 percent of the electricity will be generated by new wind, geothermal and other renewable energy sources.
Unlike green power programs offered by the private sector, all of the accounts of participating churches will be aggregated by LADWP and treated as if they were one huge facility. This will enable the churches to qualify for rate discounts that could net as much as a 30 percent cost reduction, provided the 30 diocesan parishes in LADWP's service area participate. There are other incentives as well: energy audits and free energy efficiency products are available to participants to help reduce their bills and offset the $3 per month increased cost of the green power.
"This is what is attractive to the churches and essential to our EPL program," says Bingham of the EPL-negotiated cost reduction.
As a participant, the Cathedral Center will gradually convert completely to recyclable energy, said Michael Cunningham, diocesan missioner for administration. "In the short term, 20 percent of the power we will use will come from green power," he said. Initial cost increases will pay off in the long-term, he said.
"It will cost about three cents per kilowatt hour more (but) we are seeking to invest and to encourage churches to invest in our future so we don't bur fossil fuel. The DWP's program is about construction of power plants that use wind and geothermal and other sources of clean energy.
"When Bishop [Frederick] Borsch says we're committed to the stewardship of All Creation for the Next Century, one of the most effective ways we can do that is to ensure that our children and our children's children are not burning fossil fuels to keep the lights on."
At least one other congregation in the LADWP service area has also signed onto the green power program -- St. John's/Holy Child Church in Wilmington. The other 118 diocesan parishes outside the LADWP service area can participate in similar plans through Green Mountain Energy, said Bingham.
Using clean energy is "more than just a matter of helping people deepen their connection between faith and ecology, it also means commitment to "probably the most serious issue facing the health of the planet," she said.
"The faith community can really make a difference by taking seriously the stewardship of creation. And when you look closely at the issue of global climate change, and you realize that it's happening because of human behavior, you recognize that we've got to make some drastic changes in the way we behave. We can focus on our first and great commandment -- to love God but also to love your neighbor. If you love your neighbor, you won't be polluting your neighbor's air."
Only recently has the church become involved in environmental advocacy, she said. "The focus has always been on saving human souls (but) with the new realization that saving the earth is the only way to save human life, the church is beginning to make environmental issues a central part of its ministry," Bingham said.
That's why she created Episcopal Power and Light (EPL), along with MacAusland of the Diocese of Massachusetts. Both members of the Episcopal Environmental Coalition Network, they began discussing the possibilities of having their own nonprofit ministry/business while hiking during a meeting recess in October, 1998.
"We thought that if we could go outside the church and raise money we might be able to make a difference. And so we did that," she said. They launched EPL in the Bay Area, where approximately 21 churches have already converted to green power.
"The environmental crisis is a spiritual one. If there is hope in the world for healing of the planet and a healthy future for our children, churches must be involved. Unlike corporations, government or academic institutions, we have the ability to reach the hearts and minds of the masses," Bingham said. "This church has always cared about social justice issues. The creation of jobs and the building of new technology that will not pollute the air are social justice issues.
"By commandment, we would love nature, which is our source of food, medicine and energy. We might also consider the generations to come as 'neighbors' and show love towards them by using sustainable methods of energy for fueling our modem society. If we take God's words to heart, the words that tell us we have dominion over all living things, then people of faith must now assume a leadership role in the healing of our planet. And a good place to start this initiative is our places of worship.
"With very little effort we can put our churches on an energy conservation program and replace the generic 'dirty' electricity we have been paying for with clean renewable sources such as new wind turbines."
Ultimately, the Episcopal Power and Light initiative impacts 450 Episcopal churches and 168,000 parishioners in California, and could become a model for action by Episcopal and other churches nationwide.
"Stewardship of the earth has always been a part of a church's mission, but not until recently have ministers entered the advocacy arena. The focus has always been on saving human souls. With the new realization that saving the earth is the only way to save human life, the church is beginning to make environmental issues a central part of its ministry," said Bingham.
And that's not all. Once she's made more progress with renewable energy, she intends to focus more attention on water, says Bingham. "We will work on water issues after the Episcopal Church has become a zero-emission institution."
For more information, contact the Rev. Sally Bingham at (415) 929-1589 or by email: mailto:ecosal@aol.com
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