Creation Care
Creation care is part of loving God and loving our neighbors.
WHY CREATION CARE MATTERS
The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it.
When we care for the earth, we are stewarding God’s gift.
Creation is part of God’s gift
Creation care is practical
Creation groans for redemption
Throughout Scripture, we learn how creation is part of God’s story and a gift to be tended. The air, water, soil, trees, gardens, and creatures around us are part of the neighborhood God has given us to love.
Genesis tells us that human beings are placed in the garden “to till it and keep it.” The Psalms sing that the earth is the Lord’s. The prophets imagine mountains, trees, rivers, vineyards, and fields participating in the restoration of the earth. The Apostle Paul writes of creation groaning for redemption. The Book of Revelation ends with heaven and earth made new.
At Saint Peter’s, creation care is also practical. It invites us to be mindful to reduce energy use, keep our campus beautiful, reduce waste, and plant local trees, shrubs, and plants.
How Saint Peter’s Cares for Creation
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Solar Energy Project
Through our solar energy project, Saint Peter’s is taking a significant step toward renewable energy. The project reflects both environmental stewardship and financial responsibility, helping reduce our carbon footprint while also stewarding parish resources wisely. The process included research, benchmarking with other churches, vendor conversations, an RFP process, parish conversation, and Vestry approval.
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Energy Reduction Measures
We also reduce energy use through insulation and attention to how our buildings consume resources. Simple steps such as programming thermostats and installing LED lighting reduces energy use.
Care for creation includes the large visible steps and the quieter, less glamorous work of efficiency and maintenance.
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Care for Our Campus
On our grounds, Saint Peter’s cares for trees, gardens, and outdoor spaces. Our labyrinth and our St. Claire Arbor Trail invite reflection, attention, and prayer. Our nature-based playground helps children encounter creation as a place of curiosity, play, and wonder.
We plant native species and remove invasive plants, supporting biodiversity and helping our campus better reflect the ecology of this region. We grow flowers and vegetables, connecting beauty and food, worship and soil, pollinators and people.
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Rain Garden
Saint Peter’s has also created multiple rain gardens to reduce impervious-surface impact, filter stormwater pollutants, and strengthen local biodiversity. This is the kind of work that may look small at first glance but participates in a much larger vision: water held more gently, soil protected more carefully, plants chosen more wisely, and neighbors served more faithfully.
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Reduce Food Waste
We also seek to reduce food waste, recognizing that creation care and food security belong together. What we consume, discard, grow, and share are all spiritual questions.
We have partners who will receive food when we have prepared more than we need for events. Our food scraps at meals are added to the compost.
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Minimize Single-use Products
As part of creation care, Saint Peter’s seeks to reduce single-use plates, flatware, napkins, and cups whenever possible. Choosing reusable, washable, compostable, or lower-waste options helps us honor God’s gifts, reduce landfill waste, and practice mindful hospitality at Christ’s table and at our parish tables.
GOD’S WORLD IS WORTH TENDING
A faith that tends
Creation care asks us to understand ourselves as caretakers, tenants, gardeners, and guests of this world.
To tend creation is to practice humility. We learn that our choices have consequences beyond ourselves. We learn that children are watching how we treat the world they will inherit. We learn that the health of creation is bound up with the health of our neighbors, especially those most vulnerable to pollution, heat, flooding, and scarcity.
This is hopeful work. Planting native plants and trees, installing solar panels, pulling invasives, teaching children to love the outdoors, reducing waste, are all acts of Christian hope. Each act says: God’s world is worth tending.
FIND YOUR NEXT FAITHFUL STEP
Several ways to care for creation
joining campus clean-up, planting, or invasive-removal efforts;
helping tend gardens, flowers, vegetables, trees, and trail spaces;
inviting children and families to enjoy the playground;
composting food-waste at church meals;
delivering extra food from church events to shelters and community kitchens
educating the community about the need for caring for creation
WANT TO TEND GOD’S CREATION?