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Summertime Worship Schedule

May 30 - September 5 2010
9:00 a.m. Worship, early and late service combined for the summer (attended nursery available)
10:00 a.m. Mini-Coffee Hour
More worship details

Sustainability

About the Sustainability Committee

prairie garden pathprairie garden path

Good Shepherd’s Sustainability Committee believes we play an integral part in being stewards of God’s creation. Our prairie garden on the north side of the church vividly demonstrates our concern for creation. Use the Sustainability link to find out more about our group and what you too can do for creation.

What's Eating America?

Join a fall lecture series on creating a food system in America that promotes health, enhances the environment and makes “good” food affordable. The series begins with the short film “New Thinking About What We Are Eating”. The film will be shown on Sunday October 4th at the main branch of the Oak Park Library. For more information, see the accompanying attachment.

Pledge to go Car-Free September 22nd

Leave your car at home and support a car-free day in Chicago-Land. Walk, bike or use public transit to benefit the planet and yourself. For more information go to www.chicagolandcarfree.org.

Try this Water Use Calculator!

Do you know how much water you and your family use?
Try these water footprint calculators.
waterfootprint.org/?page=cal/waterfootprintcalculator_indv_ext
watercalculator.fieldmuseum.org

MWRD Commissioner Debra Shore Moderates Discussion on Water

The Illinois Humanities Council has been sponsoring a series of programs on Oil and Water. Commissioner Shore will be serving as moderator for the next conversation on Wednesday, July 15 at the Field Museum from 7 - 8:30 p.m. Joining the Comissioner are Marty Melosi, author of The Sanitary City: Urban Infrastructure in America from Colonial Times to the Present and Distinguished University Professor of History at the University of Houston, and Rev. Clare Butterfield, Executive Director of Faith in Place.
For details visit: prairie.org/events/21661/it-all-flows-downstream-following-our-oil-and-water-footprints

What's The True Cost of All Our Stuff?

Find out at a workshop on June 28th at Unity Temple. Co-sponsored by the Oak Park Interfaith Green Action Network. See the attached flyer for details.

VOP Lecture Series on Sustainability begins April 7th

"Green Tuesdays in the Village", an annual public lecture series on various environmental topics and issues specifically relevant to the Village of Oak Park. This years theme, Resettling Oak Park: a Self-Sufficient Village, envisions a self-sufficient approach towards food, energy, and community.

The format for each session is based on participation and dialogue from attendees, who are encouraged to share their individual knowledge and experience to our communal knowledge base.

The weekly lecture series begins Tuesday April 7th. See the posted flyer for more details.

Water Drops

Flushing the toilet uses the same amount of water a person in a developing country uses for washing, cleaning, cooking, and drinking each day.

It takes more than a thousand drops of water to make one drop of coffee.

Producing one ton of beef requires 15,000 tons of water; producing one ton of grain requires 1,000 tons of water.

Cool Congregations Workshop

We invite you to the Cool Congregations Workshop. This workshop is designed to help individuals and congregations learn how to reduce their carbon footprint. As stewards of creation, we are called to reduce our carbon footprint in order to protect our environment. The workshop is held Sunday, Septermber 14th from 2:00 pm to 5:00 pm at Second Presbyterian Church (1936 S. Michigan, Chicago IL). Carpooling will be arranged. Please contact a member of the Green Team (Ginger Vanderveer 708-848-6148) to acknowledge your attendance. The Cool Congregations document has more information about the event.

The Best "Green" Website for Churches

The Synod and LSTC (our seminary) created a fantastic web site, www.webofcreation.org, with many important ways to become better stewards of the earth. This web site is full of detailed documents and easy ways to change your own life and change your own planet. It's the place for you to learn how serious the Lutheran Church is about caring for our planet. David Rhoads, Professor, Author and Speaker said at the first Synod Green Event last fall, "caring for our creation is THE number one concern of the church today."

Receive a Green News Letter from the Synod

The Green Steward, is the quarterly newsletter of the Environmental Concerns Working Group of the Metro Chicago Synod, ELCA.

GET YOUR SUBSCRIPTION by adding yourself to the distribution list. Send a note with your e-mail address to Jim Schwab, chair of the Working Group, at jimjeanschwab@att.net. They will also be happy to receive news or ideas from contributors.

Green Team Attends Synod Green Fair

Good Shepherd Green Team exchanged ideas with other congregations on how to be more green in our ministries and events. After the event, the Synod invited our team to lunch, brainstorming and consulting with us for ideas to improve their efforts synod-wide and also, how to create a working Synodical Green Team. What follows is the May 2008 Shepherd Staff Article to read about our exciting day.

Green Article: Living Green

Five Good Shepherd members attended the Green Fair and Green Discussion that the Synod sponsored at Ashburn Lutheran Church in Chicago. We enjoyed a worship service that included our own Kate King’s rendition of ‘It’s God’s World’ (a song that she wrote to raise environmental awareness).

Create a Prairie Garden to feed God's Creatures

At the synod's Green Event on Earth Day many congregations wanted to know how we created our Prairie Garden. The following are the directions. Contact kappyann@gmail.com for more information.

HOW TO REPLACE LAWN WITH PRAIRIE GARDEN
Choose a space of sun-filled lawn that measures 3 X 5 feet. Remove the sod. Purchase/request donations of the following prairie plants: Crimson Butterfly Weed; Blue Globe Thistle; Little Blue Stem Grass; Wild Petunia.

History of the Green Team

The Green Team evolved from a series of initiatives to reduce energy consumption by our congregation. The first initiative was a fundraiser for the teens of the church. They sold energy saving devices in kits to members of the congregation. The initiative was led by Seven Generations Ahead, a not-for-profit organization that our church has supported.

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"Embracing the diversity of God's creation and celebrating our oneness in Christ"