Environmental Awareness Team
Abiding Presence Lutheran Church

This group seeks practical ways to live as faithful and responsible members of God's creation. We see God's work in the environment around us, God's promises sealed with the earthly secraments of water, bread and wine, and God's life-giving spirit in our fellow creatures. Yet we acknowledge that through sins of pride and self-centeredness, by things we do and neglect to do, we separate ourselves from the Lord's created harmony, thereby hurting our fellow creatures and ourselves. Our participation in a society that sacrifices environmental concerns for short-term progress and material comfort, further alienates us from creation and our descendents in ways we may not even know. Thus we come together to seek God's guidance and work for change. In the spirit of repentance for ours sins and also in joyful gratitude for God's blessings in our lives, the members of the team look to:

1. Learn more about how our lifestyles and actions affect the environment.
2. Identify and implement practical changes in our church and community to lessen our harmful impact on the environment.
3. Provide educational resources to the church community on ecologically friendly practices.
4. Live more fully in healthy relationship with the rest of God's creation.

One of the current activities of the "EAT" group is looking for ways to make APLC more energy efficient. APLC took part in PSE&G's SMART START program, allowing us program to replace all (260) existing 4-foot flurorescent tubes with more efficient T8 ones - free of charge. The new T8 tubes are 28% more efficient. The "EAT" group is also working on ways to encourage the members of APLC to reflect upon how much energy we use in our individual homes, e.g. by replacing incandescent bulbs with fluorescent "bulbs" for a 75% energy savings for the same level of lumination.

Another way to make our homes more environmentally friendly is to transfer our personal energy companies to those who use more renewable energy sources. Right now in New Jersey the alternative energy provider that uses a majority of renewable resources is Green Mountain Energy.

How about joining the "Over 35 Club" by making your next car purchase one that gets over 35 mpg (highway)! You will get where you want to go with at less expense and save precious energy for future generations.

Check the narthex bulletin boards for more information about "EAT" and what you can do to preserve God's creation.

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