AHUMC Green Ministry

Almaden Hills strives to be a church that cares about all aspects of our faith. Part of our faith includes caring for the earth and creation around us. Almaden Hills is a certified Green Business. Our Green Ministry focuses on "greening" the church through Worship, Education, Building and Grounds, Discipleship and Advocacy. We encourage you to get involved. For more information about this specific team please email Donna Green.

 

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Greening Our Celebrations

The Green Ministry has prepared a set of guidelines for keeping our celebrations and other events "green." Click here for details!

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A Bit About Compost (Feb. 2012)

Composting is basically nature's way of recycling. If a pile of leaves is left alone, it will eventually decompose, but if mixed together with a little moisture, the process speeds up and we get compost, that wonderful soil amendment that's rich in nutrients.

Composting doesn't need to be complicated. There are plenty of myths, rules and adages but the truth is, compost happens, whether you help it or not. There is no "right way" to do it. Composting can be as hard or as easy as you want it to be. For instance, the rule of "two parts brown to one part green" may be helpful but isn't absolutely necessary. Keeping the ingredients balanced -- in our case, dead leaves and cut grass -- is just an optional formula.

Turning the compost pile on a regular basis is also an option. You can do it to satisfy your own curiosity but turning the pile to increase oxygen content is not really necessary. Unless the pile is overly wet, oxygen gets into the pile just fine. Turning does help mix materials and break them into smaller pieces, so go ahead, grab a pitchfork and dig in.

"Hot" compost is also not necessarily better than "cold" compost. The temperature of the compost doesn't affect the final product. In fact, some say well cured compost contains a more diverse bacteria count than its super-heated coun- terpart. Most "experts" would also say that compost is ready when you can no longer recognize the original ingredi- ents. Yet many plants thrive in trenches and holes filled with compost-in-progress and immature compost is great for layering on neglected soil.

So, the point is, compost happens and it doesn't have to be messy or complicated or time consuming to get a usable product.

Thanks to trustees Wayne Sawdon, Bill Messerly and Clyde Bingham, our church has its own compost bins. We are now able to compost all the fallen leaves and plant materials the gardeners collect in their weekly cleanup.

Green Ministries Turns to Networking (March 2011)

One concept of Green Ministries' mission at Almaden Hills is to “develop ties with other faith communities and environmental organizations.” This year, Green Ministries is working on taking this to a new level by integrating ideas and solutions with other congregations in our circuit and beyond. Some things to be explored: sharing stories of successful stewardship, hosting cool congregation workshops, incorporating environmental ideas into weekly worship and becoming “green” leaders in the community.

One step in that direction has been taken. Green Ministries, with the Church Council's blessing, recently joined California Interfaith Power and Light, an organization of diverse faith communities whose common cause is the stewardship of Creation. Through the promotion of energy conservation, energy efficiency and renewable energy, CIPL advocates a diversified religious response to the issues of global warming and climate change.

We are very excited about the networking possibilities with CIPL. In the letter, God’s Renewed Creation, the United Council of Bishops asked all United Methodists to make God's vision of renewal a goal and “to make common cause with religious leaders and people of goodwill worldwide who share these concerns.” More information on CIPL can be found at www.interfaithpower.org.

Dirty Business (Nov. 2010)

Gather, sort, stomp and crush. Load, then drive. Unload and wait -- amid noise and stench and, sometimes, long lines. That's what it takes to turn the monthly cans and bottles into cash.

Cans for the Gap has become an extremely successful enterprise for our church, bringing in an average $120. But it does take an incredible amount of work, and it would be even more daunting without the help of those who sort their own bottles and crush their own cans before dropping them off for collection. We are so grateful for that.

We would like to ask that each of you consider sorting and, if you can, crushing those bottles and cans. Sorting is really easy. Set up at home for clear plastic, aluminum cans, green, brown and clear glass that go into separate bins. Bring them in and drop.

Of course, if you just can't do that, we understand. We'll take them anyway.

With such a successful collection program in place, we have run into another quandary -- what to do with all the extra plastic bags? We wash and reuse what we can but every month, the pile grows larger. So, during the next few months, we're going to try a new setup. Hopefully it'll make things easier for folks and cut down on the accumulated trash. We plan to have clearly marked containers for plastic bottles, aluminum cans, brown, clear and green glass. Just pull up as usual and either we'll help empty your bags or you can do it yourself.

With just a couple of changes to the monthly routine, we can continue to enjoy the fruits of this campaign.