At St. Peter the Apostle Parish (SPAP) in Carthage, Tennessee, the Knights of Columbus have replaced plastic foam containers with compostable containers at their monthly pancake breakfasts. Insulation has been added to the parish hall to reduce utility usage.
These efforts are part of the Care for Creation Challenge for Glenmary Missions, says Brother Jason Muhlenkamp who ministers at the parish.
Polly Duncan Collum, director of Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation (JPIC) which initiated the challenge, says, “there are Glenmarians who have made environmental stewardship, also known as Care for Creation, a high priority in their personal lives for decades. This initiative shares that experience and broadens it with our missions/parishes.”
Brother Jason introduced the challenge to the Knights of Columbus and their Ladies Auxiliary in May saying, “we’re all called to continuing ecological conversion. At SPAP we’re raising awareness of simple stuff that makes a big difference in the long run.”
Referencing Pope Francis’ encyclical, Laudato Si, Duncan Collum stresses the need for education and formation to do this as an act of faith. “We want to try to encourage our parishes to initiate realistic, doable goals to engage Care for Creation. Every small effort matters.
“It’s a mindset that we’re trying to instill in our folks in our Glenmary mission parishes. In the context of our Catholic faith, we have to be more intentional in our relationship with the natural world which flows, of course, from the Sacramental aspect of our faith. For Glenmary, where we work in rural communities, we are closer to the land and God’s gift of natural beauty than other places. So, it’s a natural connection for us in Glenmary,” notes Duncan Collum.
Brother Jason adds, “Care for Creation matters because of our Creator and the gift of creation. We’re investing in this care for future generations.”
Duncan Collum goes on to explain that “the focus of a lot of our campaign is to reduce the use of single-use plastic in our parishes.” When a mission parish accepts the Challenge, they receive a one-time $250 grant to help start the process. For SPAP, that meant purchasing a water cooler.
SPAP is encouraging its Bible Study participants to bring refillable containers and utilize the water coolers rather than single-use plastic water bottles. “It will take time to reprogram our thinking, but we need to change mindsets because the Holy Spirit is always changing minds,” notes Brother Jason.
Highlighting our fundamental identity as Catholic Christians, Duncan Collum says, “our Church is calling us to care for creation, especially emphasizing that poor people around the world suffer most from our lack of environmental stewardship. We in Glenmary care about those who are on the margins. We need to do this because our Church calls us to it, our faith calls us to it.”
