This Fall every couple of weeks, green team members and supporters will be sharing some personal stories and insights on what embracing values of sustainability means to them in their own lives and as members of the Hamline Church community.  We invite you to learn and become inspired to take further action in your own life or as a member of our community.

by Barbara Deming

Barbara Deming

I’ve been walking to church from the start. My family lived next to, or a few blocks away from the church when I was growing up, and I remember speed walking with my mom as we were inevitably late leaving the house. Slow kicking home through the leaves with my sisters and brother. Picking up some friends to walk home with for lunch afterward. When I returned to church as an adult in Saint Paul I walked to Hamline and Church of the Good Shepherd, which lacked a parking lot, and then Hamline again, once pulling kids on a plastic toboggan after 12 inches of snow had fallen. The habit dies hard.

Now I mostly bike or walk alone, as other family members are out of town or not church-going. During those 15 – 45 minutes I am where I want to be: outdoors, moving my body to get somewhere else I want to be, listening to podcasts (I’m not completely unplugged!) or occasionally singing when no one is around. Sometimes I see another walker, usually connected to a dog, but mostly I’m alone out there on Sunday mornings. The rugged individualist in me is fed and I am able to show up at church ready to join in.

Sometimes I hop on the light rail or bus if it gets me there faster, thanks to the miracle of our shared community commitment to helping each other move around.

After six days of speeding around on four wheels to get to work, school and everywhere else, being on foot or bike puts me in a different place mentally, physically, spiritually, emotionally. Maybe it’s a check-in with my privilege, reminding me of who I am when alone on two feet. Sure, I’m still burning the energy from good food and wearing the warm boots I am so lucky to own, but walking is a small pin-prick of a reminder of what’s underneath the busy schedule, house full of stuff and hefty ego.

I invite any of you who are able to join me (in body or in spirit) in the slow church movement on Sunday mornings!

Did you know?  According to the Union of Concerned Scientists, our personal vehicles are a major cause of global warming. Collectively, cars and trucks account for nearly one-fifth of all US emissions, emitting around 24 pounds of carbon dioxide and other global-warming gases for every gallon of gas. About five pounds comes from the extraction, production, and delivery of the fuel, while the great bulk of heat-trapping emissions—more than 19 pounds per gallon—comes right out of a car’s tailpipe.  Consider what you are not putting into the atmosphere when you choose to walk or bike!

This Fall every couple of weeks, green team members and supporters will be sharing some personal stories and insights on what embracing values of sustainability means to them in their own lives and as members of the Hamline Church community.  We invite you to learn and become inspired to take further action in your own life or as a member of our community.

Mary Kay Olson

It has been both exciting and a true pleasure to support the further development of Hamline’s Green Team this past year.  From the beginning, there has been sustained interest from our team members as well as from leadership and the congregation.  Add to this so much support from outside Hamline Church with our new partnership with the US Green Building Council and the resources they have procured on our behalf has been amazing.  From the initial MN Annual Conference grant to experts provided for our January launch to a local engineering firm that has volunteered to create an energy model of our church to aid in potential future HVAC decisions, we are grateful recipients of this support.

Our green team began its efforts this Spring with a roll out of expanded recycling that now also includes organics.  All the paper towel waste as well as new compostable plates, utensils and cups for our weekly hospitality and other events at the church will be recycled.

As we begin our “Sanctuary for the City and Beyond” capital campaign this Fall, many of the proposed projects have a “green” element to them.  First and foremost, the greenest building is the one already built, so keeping up our historic structure is in itself an act of sustainability.  The We are considering major building “envelope” work (tuckpointing, possibly window replacement) which will protect our Sanctuary’s interior beauty for years to come.

Our first approved project initiated by our green team is new solar panels on the education wing roof!  We hope to offset about half our current electricity consumption with this 34kW array that will be producing renewable power by Spring 2018.  Thanks to a Made in Minnesota State Solar Incentive program, the panels will pay for themselves in about 10 years.

Our sustainable sites team has been busy envisioning campus outdoor space changes that embrace the spirit of our HCI process of being a “Sanctuary for the City”.  The scope of work will depend upon the amount of campaign funds raised.  On the north lawn, a new patio for the bread oven is envisioned.  Heading to the south side, imagine if you will next to the SPROUT garden a natural play area and outdoor Sunday School for our children instead of dumpsters and dirt.  If you walk along the east side of the church, you will be among a meandering new sidewalk with new landscaping, trees, and sitting areas which will be doubling as a solution to our basement water infiltration problem.  Roof water runoff will be captured in a new rain garden to the north, and piped to a storage tank to the south to water our SPROUT garden.  With this one project, we will be both beautifying our campus and saving money!  We will also be helping our community by keeping storm water on our property in situ instead of sending it out through the storm sewers, lowering the demand on our city’s water treatment infrastructure.

As we hope you can see, so much of what we are contemplating is being “green”.  For those of you who already recycle, bike or walk instead of drive, use energy efficient lighting in your homes, and who have brought that spirit and practice to our Hamline Church community, we invite you to consider these improvements as an expansion of your “green” values and will join us in supporting the campaign with your time, talent, and treasure.

If you would like to join Hamline Church’s green team, contact Diane Krueger at dkkrueger@comcast.net.