The Rev. Lynne Weber, Rector of Church of the Atonement in Tenafly, is quoted in this article.
[Religion News Service] At an interfaith summer camp in northern New Jersey, two dozen children explored a swamp to learn how creatures depend on safe water.
In Southern California, a Unitarian Universalist congregation installed a dry well so water from its church rooftops drains into underground pipes to replenish the water table.
In Vermont, members of a Lutheran church removed cars and appliances that had been dumped in a nearby stream and restored its banks with local willows and oaks.
Across the country, water has become more than a ritual element used in Christian baptismal rites or in Jewish and Muslim cleansing ceremonies. It has become a focus for worshippers seeking to go beyond water’s ritual symbolism and think more deeply about their relationship to this life-giving resource.
GreenFaith, a New Jersey-based national organization that aims to transform people of faith into proponents of environmental stewardship, has introduced “Water Shield” with pilot congregations across the country’s most densely populated state. In late October, it will become a national initiative to certify houses of worship from Texas to Wisconsin that hold a “Water Weekend” including a water-focused worship service, educational programs for all ages and a commitment to take steps at home and in their houses of worship to save water.
