Classy eating & drinking

For a while now, our church has been consciously making the effort to use ceramic plates, bowls, mugs, and silverware. We've slowly worked our way out of the piles of paper plates and plastic utensils, towards a more mindful method of serving our goodies during coffee hour. I for one am pleased to see that we've taken the initiative (thanks to all who contributed to purchasing the lovely plates and bowls), and have moved forward steadfastly. Not only do I feel good for not wasting more paper plates, or for not throwing out plastic forks, but eating off of proper dinnerware and dessert plates creates a greater sense of etiquette.

Last week, we served porridge in ceramic bowls. The porridges were good, but they tasted even better being served out of proper dinnerware instead of paper bowls. We looked more elegant, too (that is, if you could ignore my noisy slurping of the porridge!).

For a while now, I've been carrying around containers for my drinks (hot and cold). I invested in a great thermos to put in my office at work, and when I go out and about (especially to church), I carry my mini thermos cup with me and I'm good to go w/ french vanilla coffee throughout Becky's sermon.

I also noticed that several others carry around containers for water and drinks, and I am proud to be a part of a community so mindful of the preserving and protecting the earth. We're taking little steps, but they are good steps in the right direction...

UniKeep it safe, folks!

An article on environment friendly products from UniKeep

Quest for Impermanence

A very interesting article on biodegradable products: Quest for Impermanence

I can't wait until I too can pop those cornstarch popcorn pellets into my mouth!

Ecological Footprint Quiz

If you're interested in finding out the shape and size of your ecological footprint, visit Earth Day Footprint Quiz and you'll know whether or not you'll need to relocate to another planet in order to sustain human life.

As for me, I took the quiz and was warned that if everyone lived like me, we would need 3.9 planets. Either shape up and clean the planet, or start looking for 2.9 other planets, folks.

Oh, what little green steps we take!

This past Sunday, PAM gathered to draft a proposal of greening CCUMC. The effort of "greening" our church must begin somewhere, and though our steps are small, they were taken with tremendous energy and determination. There couldn't have been a more dedicated and focused group of folks gathered together. The proposal was a short document, but it incorporated grand hopes. Because our church is a small, intimate faith community, we began by proposing small things like phasing out non-biodegradable, non-recyclable products (e.g. paper cups, styrofoam cups, plastic utensils, etc.) and then moved slowly but steadily towards proposing increasing usage of electronic forms of communication in lieu of paper products. Other recommendations included the installation of electrical hand-dryers in the bathrooms, writing resolutions to the California-Nevada Annual Conference of the UMC, partnering with sister churches, researching the feasibility of installing solar panels (in conjunction with the roof project), etc.

An important question that we have yet to articulate is WHY we choose to do this. It must be for more reasons than just b/c we must be good stewards of the resources that have been gifted to us. I think it is a good question to ask now and continue asking, so that we keep fresh in our mind the motivation and necessity for greening our local, regional, and global communities. What can improve if we continue taking these small steps? What is at stake if we do not take them at all?

One small step to take is to inform ourselves. An interesting and informative website that we might visit is EcoIQ Urban Greening.

The EcoIQ.com Urban Greening website is for everyone interested in making smart choices about the green and living environments of communities -- the trees, parks, trails, gardens, rivers, beaches, lakes, harbors, wetlands, watersheds, and so on -- choices that are both economically and ecologically intelligent.

Celebrate launching...

Greetings All-

Congratulations to Pan Asian Ministry and a big Thank You to Hoang-Anh for launching its new blog, while coinciding with celebrating Earth Day April 22, 2007.

Since this is my first time ever with this new 'toy', I'm also going to add a cartoon I caught recently, so here goes...









WOW....

Well, now I'll have another source of fun for my 3 AM study periods. Seriously, I've got a lot of catching up to as far as blogging is concerned.

Back to the drawing boards,

-Burt

Connecting to TREES?

TREES: (student-led group at PSR) Theological Roundtable on Ecological Ethics and Spirituality.

TREES, a student-based, inter-religious organization at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, seeks to raise awareness of the issues that surround the ecological demise of the earth. We focus on raising awareness at the Educational/Philosophical, Institutional/Physical-Structural, and the Communal/Bioregional levels. By raising environmental awareness, we hope to provide a grassroots catalyst for change towards a more sustainable way of life for all life on the planet. We actively promote the concept that "the environment is not just an issue among issues, but the context for all issues."

Renowned theologian Rosemary Radford Ruether has been serving as faculty mentor, but she's not based in the Bay Area any longer. Note their "Communal/Bioregional" component, which outreaches to religious communities for collaborative educational efforts, and links to resources.

Connecting to APEN?

APEN: the Asian Pacific Environmental Network

APEN seeks to empower low-income Asian Pacific Islander (API) communities to achieve environmental and social justice. APEN believes that the environment includes everything around us: where we live, work and play. And we strive to build grassroots organizations that will improve the health, well-being and political strength of our communities.

APEN currently works on three levels: Direct Organizing in local communities, building a Network of API organizations and working in multiracial Alliances to affect regional and national social change.

The direct organizing is at the center of our vision of environmental and social justice. Our two local San Francisco Bay Area projects are the 5-year old Laotian Organizing Project (LOP) in Richmond, which also houses the Asian Youth Advocates program for young women, and the recently launched Power in Asians Organizing (PAO) that works with a pan-Asian immigrant community in Oakland.

Reflections on PAM activities

Please send to Hoang-Anh responses/reflections about various events in which we’ve participated so that we can post on a link or website during the month of January. Burt will discuss with Matthew about options for the PAM website or for the PAM link with the CCUMC website.