Honoring and Protecting Creation
The mission of the Green Team is to catalyze Creation Care at St. Ambrose, our local communities, and across the Planet Earth. Adults and youth are welcome in the Green Team!
The Episcopal Church believes that “In Jesus, God so loved the whole world. We follow Jesus, so we love the world God loves. Concerned for the global climate emergency, drawing on diverse approaches for our diverse contexts, we commit to form and restore loving, liberating, life-giving relationships with all of Creation” (from the website of the Episcopal Church). The mission of the Green Team at St. Ambrose is to catalyze Creation Care at St. Ambrose, our local communities, and across the Planet Earth.
You are invited to join the Green Team!
Current Events
"Water is Love" film screening:
Cool Boulder and St. Ambrose invite you to a free showing of "Water is Love" on Tuesday evening, April 8, 2025, at 6:00 to 8:00 pm. Learn more about the ecology of water and projects to preserve it (https://www.waterislovefilm.org/). Cool Boulder will provide pizza and soft drinks, so plan to eat supper there too if you like! We ask that you sign up for a free ticket at EventBriteWaterIsLove. Here is a flyer with a QR code and more info: [link to the attachment to this email].
Electrification Study
St. Ambrose has received its report from Resources Innovations on options for new utilities and HVAC equipment at our church. Boulder County PACE funded the study. The study evaluated three options: Conserving (replacing our current older equipment with modern, more efficient equipment), Displacing (replacing our gas furnace/ air-conditioning combos with dual-fuel heat pumps) and Eliminating (using multi-split heat pumps back with electric heaters for extreme cold to eliminate natural gas). They also assessed the solar panel requirements for each scenario and the costs and benefits for those combinations. The Displacing option is estimated to be less expensive than the Conserving Option because of the incentives offered through the county, state, and federal government. Green Team members are currently working on getting estimates on the Displacing and Eliminating scenarios. We have also met with representatives of St. John's Episcopal Church in Boulder about their financing plan that enabled them to install solar panels.
Pollinator Garden
St. Ambrose is starting a pollinator garden this year, in support of both native pollinators and our beehive. We have purchased a Pollinator Playground garden-in-a-box from Resource Central, and we will be adding new soil and drip irrigation to the raised beds handed over by the St. Ambrose garden focus group. The work is funded by the bees of St. Ambrose, through sales of their honey. (And thanks to Phoebe Lamb, our beekeeper!) Cool Boulder is advising us, and we have a work day planned for April 12 to prepare for the arrival of our plants.
Past Events
Season of Creation 2024
Along with many other faith traditions around the world, St. Ambrose celebrated the Season of Creation from September 1 to St. Francis Day October 4, 2024. We engaged with readings and music highlighting the goodness of Creation and our duty to respect all created beings. Our monthly Taize service (first Sunday of every month, at 5:30 pm) also joined in on the theme. We held a blessing of the animals on the Sunday closest to St. Francis Day, October 6. To be inspired by the many resources, check out https://newcreationliturgies.org/seasonofcreation/#_idTextAnchor020
September 15, 2024 Recycling Reboot Event
Thanks to Molly Briggs of EcoCycle for an informative and lively discussion of what items can go into Single Stream recycling, what can be accepted by CHARM, and what must go in the landfill. Lots of discussion on PLASTICS and alternatives to plastics! St. Ambrose added several new single-stream recycling containers provided by Boulder County PACE around its campus.
Earth Day 2024
St. Ambrose collaborated with the City of Boulder (Cool Boulder) and E-town to present the film “Common Ground” at E-town Hall in downtown Boulder on April 21, 2024. Over 200 people watched and discussed this inspiring movie on sustainable agriculture practices that build up the soil for long-term soil health. A panel of local sustainable farmers/ consumers provided more details on local projects in regenerative agriculture.
Discussion on Regenerative Farming
St. Ambrose also sponsored an event on its campus on April 21, 2024: an interactive discussion with Andre Houssney, a nearby regenerative farmer at Jacob Springs Farm. Andre described the principles of natural balance between animals and plants in ecosystems, humane practices in farming, and the wholeness of God’s creation. St. Ambrose organized a tour of Jacob Springs Farm in September 2023.
2024 creation care commitments
Watch the videos below to hear how Saint Ambrose made a commitment to Creation Care for 2024 and continues to live into those commitments in 2025:
More about Creation Care and the Episcopal Church:
The Episcopal Church’s Covenant for the Care of Creation is a commitment to practice loving formation, liberating advocacy and life-giving conservation as individuals, congregations, ministries and dioceses.
The Episcopal Church in Colorado has shared the following about Creation Care:
Caring for creation means living in mindful, ethical, and loving relationship with the earth and all living things, knowing that all life is interconnected and that we share a common home. Climate change is the most important threat the world is facing. As people of faith, it is incumbent upon us to take an active part in the solutions. The time for contemplation on this issue is over. We must act decisively now.
Almighty God, in giving us dominion over things on earth,
you made us fellow workers in your creation: Give us wisdom
and reverence so to use the resources of nature, that no one
may suffer from our abuse of them, and that generations yet
to come may continue to praise you for your bounty; through
Jesus Christ our Lord.
(Prayer for the Conservation of Natural Resources, BCP 827)
In Colorado, we live in a beautiful and sacred part of God’s creation, a place that calls us to reverence, prayerfulness, proclamation, conversation, and action. In the face of the many challenges impacting creation, we seek more than simple solutions that don’t go far enough. We seek to be educated, informed, and equipped, avoiding aggressive and confrontational attitudes and actions that polarize and divide.