Green Sanctuary Program Announcement
September 5, 2008
At General Assembly 2008 in Fort Lauderdale, Rev. Katherine Jesch, Director of Environmental Ministry for the UU Ministry for Earth (UUMFE), and Barbara Ford, Chair of the UUMFE, ceremoniously handed off the Green Sanctuary banner to Rev. Bill Sinkford, President of the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations (UUA), Wayne Clark, Director of Congregational Stewardship Services, and Robin Nelson, Program Manager for Congregational Stewardship Services.
In July, Robin Nelson was appointed Program Manager for Congregational Stewardship Services. In this role, Robin is responsible for managing the Green Sanctuary Program, the FORTH Demonstration Project, and other programs and projects in Congregational Stewardship Services. Please contact Robin with any questions about the Green Sanctuary Program process or with questions about the next steps for your program. Rev. Katherine Jesch will continue working with the Green Sanctuary Program for a few months to ensure a smooth transition. Rev. Jesch can be contacted for resources and activities, and to brainstorm ideas for getting your congregants involved. The UU Ministry for Earth will continue to support Green Sanctuary with materials and programs to help congregations reach their goals.
The UUA has recently launched web pages on UUA.org that provide information about the Green Sanctuary Program. The process for becoming a Green Sanctuary congregation is outlined and access to applications for candidacy and accreditation is provided. The Green Sanctuary Manual is available for purchase online at the UUMFE website; however, in early 2009, the UUA will begin offering it, for no charge, on the UUA website. Since the transition, two review teams have continued to process applications for Green Sanctuary candidacy and accreditation. The team members are volunteers who meet monthly to review applications with Robin Nelson. Each team reviews three to four applications monthly. Because the Green Sanctuary review teams meet via conference call and the applications have to be distributed to each team member, we are now requiring that all applications for Green Sanctuary candidacy or accreditation be submitted electronically.
As part of the transition, we are formalizing the program and bringing a bit more structure to it. In the coming months, we will be in contact with all current Green Sanctuary congregations. We will gather feedback from these congregations while improving communication with them. We also plan to formalize the process of accreditation renewal within the next year. We encourage congregations looking for ideas for projects for their action plans to join the UUA email list Greensanctuary. This email list archives posts and is searchable, we suggest that you first search the archives before posting a question to the list as your question maybe have already been answered.
The UUA is excited to take on the responsibility of managing the Green Sanctuary Program and we look forward to working with congregations to restore the Earth and renew Spirit. We welcome your questions and comments at greensanctuary @ uua.org.
Robin Nelson
Program Manager, Congregational Stewardship Services
Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations
25 Beacon Street
Boston, MA 02108
For more information contact greensanctuary @ uua.org.
Last updated on Tuesday, September 23, 2008.
