What are you doing for Earth Day? Celebrating care of creation of course!
We have some great resources available to help your faith community celebrate Earth Day. And we are holding a sermon contest for all of those great sermons on Earth Day about global warming, care of creation, and our moral responsibility to respond to this modern crisis. To enter, email the text of your sermon to Allison@gwipl.org by May 2.

VA: Take Action - Dominion Means Stewardship, Not Destruction

Tell Dominion CEO Tom Farrell, Dominion Shareholders, and Governor Kaine that we need a clean energy future and no new coal plants in Virginia.

• Sign-on to the "mile-long" petition - Add your name today
• Be a petition leader and collect signatures from family, friends, and your faith community - Visit our public policy page for background resources and a copy of the petition.
• Stay tuned for more details on our interfaith mountain top removal forums coming to NOVA at the end of April. Dates and locations will be posted on the GWIPL website soon.

Congregation in the Spotlight
In March, many of our communities celebrated Purim or Easter. Here are two ways communities “greened” their events:

1. Har Shalom in Potomac, MD, Greens Up Purim: At the annual Purim carnival, kids stomped on used aluminum cans with Haman’s name and then recycled the cans. The little kids loved it. Everyone also enjoyed decorating clay plant pots to “fill Esther’s garden and make the air better to breathe.” Also, members of the congregation took action and asked for Congress to act to stop global warming.

An usher distributes eco-palms at Foundry United Methodist Church.

2. Eco-Palms for Palm Sunday: Mt. Olivet United Methodist Church in Arlington, Foundry UMC in DC (pictured at right) and other local congregations used “Eco-Palms” on Palm Sunday. These palms came from rural farm cooperatives in Mexico and Guatemala, with practices to decrease over-harvesting and waste by selecting only the highest quality palm fronds. In turn, the farmers receive a better price for their quality palms, thereby improving their livelihoods. Approximately 300 million palm fronds are consumed in the United States annually, and a congregation of 1,250 members orders approximately 700 fronds for Palm Sunday services, according to information from the Eco-Palms Project. Pre-order your 2009 palms today: http://cinram.umn.edu/ecopalms/

Highlights of Last Month

At March 10 press conference releasing letter to Gov. Kaine.

1. 66 faith leaders from throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia asked Gov. Kaine to support a clean energy future and oppose the building of a new coal-fired power plant in Southwest VA. Read about it on the Interfaith Power and Light blog: March 10 press conference and Richmond Times-Dispatch editorial and responding letter to the editor.

2. Thanks to everyone who came to our green building tours and best practices sessions at Eastern Village Co-Housing and Walter Reed Community Center. Special thanks to our tour leaders: Lindsey Paige Savoie, Rabbi Jason Kimelman-Block, and Joan Kelsch. We were able to see many green building practices like bamboo floors, wheat board walls and dyed concrete floors and everyone was able to mingle and share their great programs!

Touring Walter Reed Community Center in Arlington, VA.

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