Inherit the earth

In the beginning, Christians believe, God created the Earth. And on the sixth day, mankind was created to be a caretaker of it.

It's a charge some churches are now taking to heart.

From the beginning, "humanity should have done a better job of caring for creation," said Lisa Davison, Professor of First (Old) Testament at Lexington Theological Seminary. "We must change our behavior and recognize the incredible gift we have been given and treat it with the great respect creation deserves. I commend any church or congregation that is committed to being better stewards of creation and that is willing to make the changes in their behavior that will reflect this commitment."

One such local faith community is the Unitarian Universalist Church in Lexington, where members have set a goal of reaching Green Sanctuary status, as certified by the national denominational headquarters. The Green Sanctuary Program (http://uuministryforearth.org) calls for churches to "build a connection between spiritual practice and environmental consciousness "among their members and in their faith community. Unitarian churches seeking certification are required to form a committee that oversees the process, which includes conducting an audit of the church's compliance with local recycling procedures, energy usage and conservation and religious education programs related to the environment for children and adults.

In pursuit of that goal, the Lexington congregation has implemented a number of changes ranging from using washable china, flatware and napkins instead of paper disposables for church meals to using less toxic pesticides for landscaping and more earth-friendly janitorial supplies to forming partnerships with community environmental groups such as GreenLex. The committee also requested an energy audit by Kentucky Utilities that led to the church's replacing "Exit" signs with LED signs.

At Central Christian Church, the youth group recently teamed up with members of Twin Pines Christian and First Christian in Shelbyville to create a prayer garden near the Catholic Action Center. The project, said Shane Isaac, resident minister at Central Christian, "fits well with our desire to learn more about our responsibility for creation as urban dwellers."

Last summer and fall, Isaac led a Sunday School class dubbed "The Creation Care Class" to teach members how to be better stewards of creation. Attendees have organized a hold a public workshop titled "Let Them Have Dominion: Humanity's Role in Caring for Creation," to be held Feb. 5 through April 8 at the church.

These classes are part of the congregations self-designed program that will also include an energy audit of its facilities, Isaac said.

Southland Christian Church has focused efforts on recycling, placing bins in the office area and other buildings. In addition, the operations staff makes sure lights and heating and cooling are turned down or off when buildings are not in use. Regular lighting was replaced by energy efficient bulbs and energy management systems are used to control the climate in each building.

Senior Minister Jon Weece has preached sermons about environmentalism.

At Second Presbyterian in downtown Lexington, the Earth Care Ministry is shepherded by Dick Shore, known for his dramatic presentation at local venues as 19th century environmentalist John Muir. The church held a service entirely devoted to earth care -- from sermon to musical selections -- and conducted Wednesday evening workshops on practical ways members can protect the environment at home, including improving insulation and lighting and buying food from community-supported agriculture groups.

"An easy place to start, Shore suggested, "is to change all light bulbs to compact fluorescent bulbs. It's such a small commitment to make, but it makes you conscious that you are one of the people who are doing something to help."

The local churches are not alone in their efforts.

One national movement, Interfaith Power and Light (http://www.theregenerationproject.org) works to engage the faithful into environmental activism, overcoming the distrust that has grown between science and religion. Thanks to a the recent spurt in environmental interest, chapters are springing up through the South.

The organization offers tips on low-energy care of church organs and sermon suggestions. It also hands out kits that encourage going green through the holidays. It suggests that people switch to energy-efficient lightbulbs on each night they light a candle for Hanukkah or Advent.

A chapter in Virginia offers tips on how to incorporate environmental concerns into worship prayers. The North Carolina group presents a workshop that tackles global warming and energy efficiency, a message it highlights using Al Gore's global warming documentary An Inconvenient Truth, which it screened to about 100 churches in 2006.

It has also has trained about 150 pastors, rabbis and religious leaders to make politically neutral, scientifically sound statements in the context of their own religious faith.

"The greatest social movements of our time, from abolition to civil rights, didn't seem to take off until the religious community got involved," said Mark Ginsberg, the North Carolina chapter's outreach coordinator.

A Tennessee movement called Cool Congregations holds community workshops to discuss the connection between faith and environment with members, who then spread the word at their own places of worship.

The groups meet every few months to check in on progress.

"A lot of people are catching on with this in a big way," said the Rev. Jim Deming, who leads the organization. "In many ways the Southeast has been behind, but we really can't wait. This is an immediate crisis."

The Associated Press contributed to this article.