Through its Green Congregation Awards Program, Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon (EMO) will recognize religious communities for exemplary achievements in environmental ministry. EMO will announce the Award winners in April 2005. Each year a panel of judges knowledgeable about congregational life and environmental stewardship will choose an overall award recipient. Other congregations will receive Honorable Mention for outstanding efforts in four areas of congregational life:
- Worship
- Education
- Lifestyle (of congregational members and the congregation as a whole)
- Community action and public witness.
A congregation may receive the overall award only once every three years. Honorable mention, however, will be available every year to environmentally active congregations.
The Green Congregation Awards program has been developed by the Environmental Ministries Committee of EMO to encourage an understanding of environmental stewardship as an integral part of congregational life. Many Oregon faith communities already have active environmental ministries–Earth Day observances, energy conservation plans, involvement in actions to slow global warming, etc. EMO hopes that the sharing of ideas stimulated by the Green Congregation Awards will help congregations to imagine new ways to honor and heal the creation.
Nominations for the Green Congregation Award may come from individuals, congregations or judicatories. Nominations should be sent to the Environmental Ministries Committee of Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon, 0245 SW Bancroft, Suite B., Portland, OR 97239 or inec@emoregon.org.
Deadline for 2005 award nominations is December 1, 2004. For nomination forms or further information contact EMO at (503) 221-1054, ext. 278, or inec@emoregon.org.
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