St. Andrew Presbyterian Church becomes Earth Care Congregation

New solar panels, cleaning up Highway 12 and a composting plan are just a few of the ways St. Andrew Presbyterian Church has shown its dedication to doing right by the planet. Earlier this month, their efforts earned the church an Earth Care Congregation certification from the larger Presbyterian Church. Led by the St. Andrew Green Team, it’s just the beginning.

They established the Earth Care Congregation certification process with 150 items on the application. Each item is worth points and if a congregation achieve 100 points, they qualify for the certification. Green Team member Eileen Haflich said the items involve things like using more efficient light bulbs and insulating windows. “They also include things like outreach to the community, doing service on earth care and having sermons outside,” she added. “The process is very rigorous and they do a lot of accountability around it.”

They can also earn points for activities that help create a culture of caring for the earth among the congregation so that there’s a consciousness about the cause. Haflich said these acts also inspire the congregation. “It’s easy to feel hopeless with all the bad news but the fact is that we as a congregation have a part to play and I think it’s empowering,” she said.

Haflich and St. Andrew’s Green Team made the big announcement about the certification on the first Sunday in April. The Presbyterian Church’s Hunger Task Force oversees the Earth Care Congregation certifications. “They have a mission to end hunger but it’s hard to separate hunger from climate change,” Haflich said. She explained that several years ago the Hunger Task Force began focusing much of their outreach to their congregations on ways to help the environment.

Haflich said that St. Andrew’s Green Team has 10 inspired volunteers who are passionate about the environment. The team is divided into groups with different goals. Right now their main focus is the April Earth Care month events.

They won’t have a program on Earth Day specifically, but Haflich laughed and said they consider it “Earth month,” with plans throughout April.

“Our pastor, Reverend Nicole Trotter has just been phenomenally supportive of this,” Haflich said. “I couldn’t have asked for a better cheerleader during this process and I couldn’t have done it without her support.”

Haflich will be talking to the congregation about various things they could do as individuals and as a congregation to care for the earth. She said they will eventually be hosting speakers to come and address the congregation on different environmental issues and ways of helping.

They will have children's programs related to earth care. “We have a Sunday School curriculum that we’ll be using,” Haflich said. “We’ve got a pretty healthy cohort of children that go to Sunday School.”

They’ll show the film, “Kiss the Ground” on Friday, April 29, at 6:30 p.m. The film addresses the impact agriculture can have on the environment. It will be open to the public.

Their youth group will sell refreshments during the showing as part of their mission work for Earth Care month.

Haflich said a big push for her this year will be to get young people involved in doing community outreach around climate change. “A lot of the Earth Care certification involves education and community outreach, which I think is important,” she said.

Haflich said the Green Team has a lot of balls in the air, but mostly they’ll be working to ensure that they continue to meet the Earth Care certification, which is only awarded for one year, meaning the church must stay active in their environmental efforts to keep the status.

“I keep reminding the Green Team that this is a marathon, not a sprint,” she said. “We have some things that will have immediate benefits, like the solar. With the other things we have planned, we’ll just keep working on it.”

The Green Team has also been working on an audit of its ecological practices. They plan to make their composting and recycling programs more robust along with education around how to do those right.

They have received approval to Adopt-A-Road, with promise to keep the roadway . “As a congregation we’ve adopted Arnold Drive from the church up to the Sonoma Ecology Center,” she said. “We’ve been working on keeping the road clean.”

They’re also installing solar panels. Haflich said it’s a big part of their certification and their commitment to caring for the earth.

Haflich had to keep quiet about the achievement until the April 3 announcement, which was a challenge, she said. But now that the word is out, they had a banner made to announce their success to the community.

“I am just thrilled,” she said. “I’ve been working on this for a couple of years, just trying to set the stage for it. It’s been a labor of love, so it really feels like a very significant accomplishment.”

The Presbyterian Church website lists all congregations that have earned the Earth Care certification. “I think a lot of people who are looking for churches are looking for a congregation that has some sense of responsibility around that,” Haflich said.