Environmental Justice at Saint Mark's
About the Creation Care Ministry
The Creation Care Ministry of Saint Mark’s Cathedral strives to faithfully address the crisis of climate change. As stewards of the life-giving goodness of God’s creation, we will work with the Saint Mark’s and broader world communities to educate ourselves and take action together to preserve our shared planet and sustain life for the generations to come.
Carbon Emissions Reduction
The Vestry has adopted the goal for the entire Saint Mark’s campus and community to have a net zero carbon footprint by the year 2030. We encourage parishioners at Saint Mark’s to sign up with the Episcopal Church Carbon Tracker at www.sustainislandhome.org, a tool to help our community measure its collective carbon footprint and take action to reduce that footprint.
Click here for more detailed instructions about how to use this resource, or see the video of the training event here. Why is measuring your carbon footprint is important? Listen to this excellent podcast about why our collective actions really do make a difference!
The Creation Care ministry has researched several carbon offset programs and suggests that parishioners donate to the Carbon Offset Fund here at St. Mark’s when making offset contributions. These funds will then be directly passed through to either the Carbon Offset Cooperative Mission | The Episcopal Diocese of Olympia (ecww.org) or to COTAP.org.
For an update and more information about the Carbon Offset Cooperative Mission partnership between the Olympia Diocese and the Diocese of the Southern Philippines, view this short webinar here.
Environmental Justice
We recognize our commitment as a unique opportunity and responsibility in our time to address the many social justice issues tied to the climate crisis. And through engaging in collective action that makes an effective impact, we will grow into the joy of transcending our fears and sense of powerlessness around the issue of climate change. Saint Mark’s is a member of Earth Ministry (earthministry.org) and Earth Day NW 2020 (earthdaynw2020.org) If you are interested in being a part of this work at Saint Mark’s, please contact ministry leader Marjorie Ringness.
NEW: Creation Care Ministry meetings have now been rescheduled for the third Tuesday of each month. Upcoming meetings in 2021 will occur on, August 17, September 21, October 19, November 16, and December 21.
NEW: On September 7, three of the world's top Christian leaders—Pope Francis, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew and Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby—issued a press release and joint statement warning of the urgency of environmental sustainability, its impact on poverty, and the importance of global cooperation. Read the full statement here.
REFLECT: Be sure to check out these thoughts from parishioner Doug Thorpe and consider how so many issues facing the world today are interrelated. Doug includes this from Tom Friedman - ‘Afghanistan is one of the most vulnerable countries in the world to climate change, and one of the least equipped to handle what’s to come.’
The Intergenerational Hike to Twin Falls on September 12, 2021, featured an outdoor, Creation-focused prayer liturgy. Check out the Order of Service here.
If you missed the recent Carbon Tracker Training, a complete video is available below.
During Lent 2021, the Creation Care Ministry posted virtual prayer cards once a week to the cathedral's Instagram account. Check out the complete set here (click to enlarge):
