Care For Creation

St. Francis Pledge: “I pledge to pray, live and advocate Laudato Si.”

Care for Creation Ministry

To answer Pope Francis’ call, the Care for Creation Ministry meets regularly to facilitate individual parishioners and the parish as a whole in living more in harmony with creation. We work with the interfaith community on local issues and on speaking in a unified voice calling for political leadership on this urgent issue.

For upcoming events, please check the bulletin or click here to view the events section of the website.

Why We Care

Read Pope Francis’ encyclical letter – “Laudato Si’: On Care for Our Common Home”.
How it/we are all connected; “Integral Ecology” (click to watch the video).
View an explanation of Climate Change from Dr. Phil Sakimoto.
Read Pope Francis’ follow-up encyclical letter to Laudato Si’ – “Laudate Deum: To all People of Good Will on the Climate Crisis”.

What You Can Do with Us

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) Ministry: support a local farmer who provides subscribers with fresh, sustainably produced, organic veggies.
Francis Community Garden: volunteer to help plant, nurture, gather, and donate organic food right on St. Francis’ campus for Interfaith Food Shuttle on Saturdays.
The parish is making a concerted effort to reduce/eliminate plastic usage on campus, to make sure our recycling actually IS recycled and to compost as much as possible both at the parish and at TFS through Compost Now. We are also a member of Interfaith Creation Care of the Triangle, an interfaith effort to care for creation and address climate change. To help or to get involved with our plans for Earth Day, the Season of Creation, Laudato Si Week of any other eco-activity, contact the ministry leader, Pam James, at stfccreation@gmail.com.

What You Can Do on Your Own

Check out “52 Easy Things and 52 Hard Things” you can do to better our planet!
Check our Deacon Steve Andrew’s presentation on “A Mindset for the Care of Creation“.
Check out our Zero/Low Waste Shopping Sheet, a list of trusted shops and products of sustainable brands that positively impact our planet.
Build your own nest box! Did you know we have installed 12 Brown-Headed Nuthatch boxes around our campus?
Take part in our Reflective Tour around the St. Francis Campus.
Donate unused or unneeded household items to these local organizations.

Spirituality

Laudato Si’

Basic info laudatosi.org/laudato-si/laudato-si-goals (7-year goals)

Laudato Sí’ Action Platform laudatosiactionplatform.org/

Home page to sign up laudatosimovement.org

Franciscans and Laudato Si 2020 Caring for Creation: Celebrate Earth Day at 50 and Laudato Si Week – Franciscan Action Network

37 second video Laudato Si´ Goals – YouTube

Video about VA church’s Laudato Si approach youtu.be/afu8v6enmr4?si=YIaU64gNKX9AreYG

Laudato Si’ Action Platforms

sdcatholic.org/…/dioceses-action-plan

Laudato Si’ Action Plan – Archdiocese of Washington

adw.org/living-the-faith/social-concerns/laudato-si-action-plan

Spiritual

Amanda Gorman poem youtube.com/watch?v=92XFwAoJn6w

Spiritual approach to eco-living livingthechange.net/tlc-resources

Franciscans franciscanaction.org/issues/care-for-creation

Ten love letters to mother earth emergencemagazine.org/essay/ten-love-letters-to-the-earth/

(also see spiritual folder)

Laudate Deum poem maryknollmagazine.org/photo_meditations/laudate-deum/

Catholic organizations

Interfaith Creation Care of The Triangle interfaithcreationcare.org/

Inter-Faith Power and Light interfaithpowerandlight.org

Ignatian Solidarity Network ignatiansolidarity.net/ (more than eco issues)

Society of Catholic Scientists catholicscientists.org/

Catholic Climate Covenant catholicclimatecovenant.org

Diocese of Raleigh Care for Creation dioceseofraleigh.org/human-life-and-dignity/care-creation

Strong Catholic Family Faith catholicfamilyfaith.org/care-for-gods-creation.html

Creation Justice Ministries creationjustice.org/blog/52-ways-to-care-for-creation

Greener Lent (Lenten eco project) greenerlent.org/

Global Catholic Climate Movement (GCCM) (same as Laudato Si’)

Campaign Nonviolence wagingnonviolence.org/cnv/

Vatican anti fossil fuels cnn.com/2020/06/19/business/vatican-fossil-fuel-ban/index.html

Youth, race, Catholics and climate americamagazine.org/politics-society/2022/10/06/catholics-hispanics-young-people-climate-change-poll-243910

Recycling and Composting

Composting- Durham durhamnc.gov/4625/Food-Waste-Collection-Pilot

Composting – Wake County http://bit.ly/binstf2021

Compost Now – https://www.compostnow.org/

Composting Raleigh http://bit.ly/dropsf2021

Recycling Raleigh https://www.newsobserver.com/news/local/article272579955.html

Raleigh Recycling report newsobserver.com/news/local/article271363852.html

Recycling Raleigh raleighnc.gov/trash-recycling-and-clean/recycling-residents Raleigh recycling info

Recycling Durham click on “quick reference flyer durhamnc.gov/866/Recycling-Guidelines ”

Expanded recycling .terracycle.com/en-US/

Durham composting durhamnc.gov/935/Composting

Composting https://chatham.ces.ncsu.edu/extension-gardener-workshop-composting/

Recycling general https://deq.nc.gov/search/ncdeq?keys=recycling+markets

Composting https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/guides/how-to-start-composting/

Electronic recycling https://kramden.org/

Earth911 https://earth911.com/recycling-center-search-guides/

Local Resources

County extension agent site wake.ces.ncsu.edu/

Resources for local gardening growingsmallfarms.ces.ncsu.edu/growingsmallfarms-pollinatorgarden/

Local ecumenical organization focusing on food and faith lifearoundthetable.org/etf/

Local green businesses greenishneighbor.com/green-directory

Package free store pnpdurham.com/

Package free store mindfulmerchantnc.com/

Protecting rivers Ignatian soundrivers.org/

Battery mowers best-battery-lawn-mowers-4176050 battery mowers

Car maintenance cars24.com/blog/engine-maintenance-tips/ car maintenance

Gardening for pollinators gardeningknowhow.com/garden-how-to/beneficial/shade-plants-for-pollinators.htm

Develop pollinator gardens to care for bees, birds and butterflies with NCSU: growingsmallfarms.ces.ncsu.edu/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/2020-Top-25-Pollinator-Plants.pdf

North Carolina Wildlife Federation ncwf.org

Environmental Defense Fund edf.org/offices/raleigh-north-carolina

NC Pollinators http://bit.ly/polptsf

Learn

Books

In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan (also PBS show)

The Overstory by Richard Powers

Ecological Footprints: An Essential Franciscan Guide for Faith and Sustainable Living by Dawn M. Nothwehr OSF

Listening for the Heartbeat of God – A Celtic Spirituality by J. Philip Newell (church library)

Solar Storms by Linda Hogan

Ask the Beasts by Elizabeth Johnson

Black Nature edited by Camille T. Dungy

When the Trees Say Nothing: Writings on Nature by Thomas Merton

Regeneration — follow up to drawdown – Paul Hawkens

The Nature of Nature—Eric Sala

Drawdown—Paul Hawkens

Braiding Sweet Grass – Robin Wall Kimmerer

Sharon Delgado’s — The Cross in the Midst of Creation: Following Jesus, Engaging the Powers, Transforming the World
Harriet A. Washington –“A Terrible Thing to Waste: Environmental Racism and Its Assault on the American Mind”

Movies

The Pope, the Environmental Crisis, and Frontline Leaders | The Letter: Laudato Si Film – YouTube THE LETTER

Dear Parents, do You Love Your Kids (2023) – YouTube – 5 minutes

(715) Laudato Si’ animation | CAFOD – YouTube Introduction video to Laudato Si

My Octopus Teacher

Our Planet youtube.com/watch?v=GfO-3Oir-qM

Remothering the Land: (10 Min) https://www.patagonia.com/regenerative-organic/

Just Faith option justfaith.org/sacred-land-food-and-farming/

“The Tree of Life” 2011 Brad Pitt; Sean Penn; Jessica Chastain

“The True Cost” documentary on the fashion industry

“Our Planet” (8-episode documentary) ourplanet.com/en/

“The Story of Plastic” (unavailable?)

“Under Contract” Chicken industry in NC youtube.com/watch?v=yS5GJYlHkp4

bullfrogfilms.com source from Larry P. Earth Day Festival-in-a-box special if you place an order for multiple titles at once. Three titles: $250 Five titles: $400 Seven titles: $550

Talks

NASA guy – great climate change explanation: youtube.com/watch?v=vc6ewwJvunI

transportation: cnn.com/videos/us/2022/01/25/carbon-footprint-climate-change-orig-me.cnn

nytimes.com/2022/08/09/opinion/lawns-water-environment.html?smid=em-share lawns killing us (5 min)

How to talk to people

ted.com/talks/john_marshall_3_strategies_for_effectively_talking_about_climate_change

Street gardens ted.com/talks/pam_warhurst_how_we_can_eat_our_landscapes

Greta Thunburg youtube.com/watch?v=TMrtLsQbaok

Problem with Plastics ted.com/talks/patricia_villarrubia_gomez_the_problem_with_plastics_and_how_they_re_changing_the_environment?mc_cid=e3027d2a12&mc_eid=5327ef67bd

Drawdown presentation https://us02web.zoom.us/rec/play/lB48Bb2g7NjKxMeQC3Bkz7Os-RAOuYYx756Uw4emb6mn9loF2uPnG9C5ELSEjle–wzCbhLTKM0p-xQ3.-zmNWvwhpJsCHwE8?continueMode=true

Colleen on veganism Colleen on impact of Vegan Diet and https://youtu.be/Mkknr6Cbq4s (5 min version)

God’s Creation Needs You catholicclimatecovenant.org/resources/gods-creation-needs-you-a/