Wayne Presbyterian Church is an Earth Care Congregation

In February 2019, the Presbyterian Hunger Program of PC-USA certified Wayne Presbyterian Church (WPC) as an Earth Care Congregation.  This certification was the result of a nearly year-long effort by numerous committees and individuals to integrate awareness of and attention toward earth care ministry into all aspects of church life, including worship, education, facilities, and outreach.  While first-year certification is an honor, it is also only the beginning of a commitment to humble and careful stewardship of God’s earth.  Certification must be renewed annually by documenting continued efforts to care for Creation in a holistic way, including via the institution of ever-more environmentally sustainable practices throughout the church. 

To support our application to become an Earth Care Congregation in 2018, we accomplished the following: (1) obtained a professional assessment of our church’s energy use; (2) ensured that at least a portion of the electricity consumed by the church had been generated via wind power; (3) converted church lighting to efficient LED bulbs; (4) organized an adult education class, “Our Call to Care for Creation,” on three Sundays in October; (5) organized an artistic wall exhibit and a flower table to emphasize both the spiritual and practical aspects of caring for God’s beautiful and magnificent Creation.

In 2019, we have been working on a number of new projects: (1) planting a pollinator garden of native plants on church grounds; (2) joining other local houses of worship in a collaborative venture to encourage earth care; (3) hosting a showing of The Burden, a documentary addressing the effects of climate change on national security, which was followed by a panel discussion; (4) working with one of the youth of our church to give a Minute-for-Mission on Youth Sunday about our congregation’s commitment to earth care; (5) purchasing fair trade, shade-grown coffee for church events, including each Sunday’s fellowship hour; (6) re-instituting, after many years, the use of glass cups and plates, thereby decreasing our consumption of single-use paper items; (7) adding books to the church library on climate change and other environmental issues; (8) organizing an artistic and informational wall display on earth care.           

For more information about WPC’s earth care program, contact Rutger Boerema at   or Pamela Jensen at  .  For more information on the PC(USA)’s Earth Care Congregations program, visit www.pcusa.org/earthcarecongregations. 

Please join us as we seek to strengthen WPC’s commitment to sustainable practices and care for all of God’s Creation.