Newsline: Christian Citizenship Seminar considers our relationship with carbon

[CoBNews <CoBNews@brethren.org>]

Newsline: Church of the Brethren News Service, News Director Cheryl 
Brumbaugh-Cayford, 800-323-8039 ext. 260, cobnews@brethren.org

Christian Citizenship Seminar considers our relationship with carbon

(May 7, 2012) Elgin, IL --Fifty-two Church of the Brethren youth and adult 
advisors met for the 2012 Christian Citizenship Seminar (CCS) on April 14-19 in 
New York City and Washington, D.C. The theme focused on "Stepping Out: Our 
Relationship with Carbon."

The 41 high school youth and 11 advisors came from 11 congregations in eight 
districts across the Church of the Brethren denomination. Staffing the event 
were CCS coordinator Carol Fike, a Brethren Volunteer Service (BVS) worker in 
the Youth and Young Adult Ministry; Becky Ullom, director of the Youth and 
Young Adult Ministry; Nathan Hosler, advocacy consultant for the Church of the 
Brethren and the National Council of Churches, along with past advocacy 
consultant Jordan Blevins; Jonathan Stauffer, BVS worker in the Advocacy and 
Peace Witness Office in Washington; and Jeremy McAvoy, BVS recruiter.

The group experienced four sessions on different aspects of the theme. Session 
1 addressed the "Personal Carbon Footprint" led by Emma and Nancy Sleeth, a 
mother/daughter team and authors of "Almost Amish," "Go Green, Save Green," and 
"It's Easy Being Green." The Sleeth family have given up a comfortable, wealthy 
lifestyle to live simply as better stewards of the earth, and shared about the 
simple things that they are doing in their everyday lives to reduce their 
personal carbon footprint.

A second session on the "National Carbon Footprint" was led by Tyler Edgar of 
the National Council of Churches, who works with a variety of environmental 
issues for the NCC including mountain top removal.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) hosted the CCS group for a session in 
one of its large meeting rooms in a downtown Washington building. Shakeba 
Carter-Jenkins and Jonathan Stauffer worked together to set up the meeting. 
Included in this presentation was Dru Ealons, director of the Office of Public 
Engagement for the EPA; Gina McCarthy, assistant administrator, Office of Air 
and Radiation; Jerry Lawson of Energy Star; Marcus Sarofim of Climate Science; 
and Ullom as the Church of the Brethren representative.

"Many of the advisors said that this (session with the EPA) was the best agency 
presentation that they had ever been a part of," Fike reported. She added that 
others who met with the CCS group were impressed by the level of understanding 
among the students. "Tyler (Edgar) was blown away by the questions that our 
youth asked," she said.

Other CCS activities included viewing the documentary "The Story of Stuff," and 
exercises to help youth learn about carbon and its effects in items of daily 
use, such as foods, and how to calculate a personal carbon footprint. 
Participants also gathered in congregational groups to come up with three new 
things they will do on their return home, and one thing they will encourage 
their church to do, in order to reduce carbon's effects on the earth's 
environment (see listing below).

The event closed with participants visiting and talking with a governmental 
representative in Washington. The group from California, for example, had 
breakfast with their senator. Participants from Indiana met with staff of both 
of their senators, and the group from Illinois and Wisconsin District was able 
to talk with staff of senators from both states.

Daily worship was an important part of CCS, led by Ullom and Fike, and included 
an anointing service. Scriptures used for worship included Ezekial 34:17-19, 
Job 12:7-9, Esther 4:14, Romans 8:18-21, and Matthew 25:25-29.

>What are you going to do to be pro-active?

Youth and advisors who attended Christian Citizenship Seminar were challenged 
to come up with new ideas of things they can do to curb the effects of carbon 
on the environment--personally and in their churches. The Youth and Young Adult 
Ministry hopes to offer an insight session at Annual Conference this July 
reporting back from these youth initiatives:

Black Rock Church of the Brethren, Glenville, Pa.: place timers on air and 
heat, teach lessons about small things that churches members can do to help the 
planet, talk about long-term investment in solar panels, go styrofoam free, 
clean out the kitchen and get rid of appliances that aren't needed.

Glade Valley Church of the Brethren, Walkersville, Md.: host an Information 
Sunday, lead a children's story about carbon, print bulletins on recycled paper.

Goshen (Ind.) Church of the Brethren: install light motion sensors, turn down 
the water heater.

Highland Avenue Church of the Brethren, Elgin, Ill.: speak at church, have a 
dumpster diving event.

La Verne (Calif.) Church of the Brethren: host an eco-friendly worship and 
lunch on May 20, wash dishes by hand, have some carbon activities, make carbon 
footprint placemat, change light bulbs at the church.

Manchester Church of the Brethren, North Manchester, Ind.: plant prairie 
grasses at their church, rather than grass that needs mowing.

Middlebury (Ind.) Church of the Brethren: the church already hosts community 
gardens, start a youth garden and donate the food to local pantries, host an 
Environmental Sunday, host a recycling campaign at church, start a community 
compost site.

Palmyra (Pa.) Church of the Brethren: lead a Sunday school class for adults, 
hold a fundraiser, sell reusable bags and mugs, have a youth room project to 
"be more green," update the church kitchen to install Energy Star appliances.

Richmond (Ind.) Church of the Brethren: hold a Sunday school class for 
children, with visuals.

The Church of the Brethren is a Christian denomination committed to continuing 
the work of Jesus peacefully and simply, and to living out its faith in 
community. The denomination is based in the Anabaptist and Pietist faith 
traditions and is one of the three Historic Peace Churches. It celebrated its 
300th anniversary in 2008. It counts some 123,000 members across the United 
States and Puerto Rico, and has missions and sister churches in Nigeria, 
Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and India.

(CCS coordinator Carol Fike contributed to this report.)

># # #

>For more information contact:

>Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford
>Director of News Services
>Church of the Brethren
>1451 Dundee Ave., Elgin, IL 60120
>800-323-8039 ext. 260
>cobnews@brethren.org