Unitarian Universalism

The Unitarian Church, founded in 1538 in Transylvania, is a justice-based faith and has long been linked with a love of nature. Among the membership of notable Unitarians are several of America's presidents, including John Adams, John Quincy Adams, and William Howard Taft, and Transcendentalists like Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Louisa May Alcott, Susan B. Anthony. Other prominent members have included Paul Revere and Frank Lloyd Wright (more).

The Green Sanctuary Program

A number of years ago, Mount Vernon Unitarian Church (MVUC) in Alexandria formed a "Green Sanctuary Task Force," which focused on raising awareness at the church about the global environmental crisis and initiating action on multiple fronts. There have been many tangible results over the past few years, benefiting church members individually and as a congregation, the local community, and Fairfax County.

Goals:

• To build awareness of societal environmental issues among UUs.
• To generate commitment for personal lifestyle changes.
• To motivate UUs to community action on environmental issues
.
• To build a connection between spiritual practice and environmental consciousness.
• Make the church a microcosm of what we'd like to see environmentally in our community and in the world.
• Encourage members of the congregation to live their personal lives in an environmentally friendly manner.

The Green Sanctuary Task Force has, for example, written environmental articles for the MVUC newsletter and hosted annual community Earth Day Fairs. The church has also created "Eat Your Values" lunches emphasizing eating whole, local, seasonal and organic foods with minimal packaging. It has distributed fair trade coffee, tea and cocoa, and sold blue bird boxes and native plants to encourage wildlife and watershed-friendly gardening. It has been certified as an official Backyard Habitat. To facilitate both sustainable living and religious growth, the church has hosted environmental speakers, led environmentally-focused church services, and this past March, the task force organized a regional environmental symposium to share information and success stories among Unitarian congregations and leverage regional environmental efforts.

Fairfax County Funding for Watershed Improvements

The Mount Vernon area is arguably one of the oldest, most highly developed, and therefore most environmentally degraded sections of Fairfax County. Starting in 2003, Fairfax County held a series of community meetings in Mount Vernon focused on improving and protecting local streams. The county solicited community input to determine what problems and issues faced the area, and worked with the community to develop an extensive plan to improve water quality and habitat in Little Hunting Creek, the largest local stream, and its watershed. MVUC members participated in these community meetings, where the church became known for its commitment to environmental action.

In 2005, MVUC was selected as one of the first entities to participate in implementation of the Little Hunting Creek Watershed Plan. Fairfax County provided more than $60,000 for projects at MVUC because of the great benefits these improvements would provide the county and its streams. (To see the project details click here.)

Environmental Consortium

Starting with MVUC's participation in the Little Hunting Creek Watershed Plan community meetings, the Green Sanctuary Task Force began cultivating an "environmental consortium" of entities supportive of MVUC's environmental actions. This consortium - which includes the Northern Virginia Soil and Water Conservation District - offers a win/win situation for all of the groups. The consortium facilitates ongoing networking and helps everyone stay informed about the latest environmental developments and opportunities. The connections that have formed and synergies that have developed benefit all.

The church's Earth Day events and recent regional Unitarian Universalist symposium have extended the efforts of the consortium. Representatives from Huntley Meadows Park, Bolling Air Force Base, local hybrid car dealerships, the Audubon Society of Northern Virginia, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, the National Wildlife Federation, the EcoStewards Alliance, and the Raptor Society of Virginia, just to name a few, have become partners and friends that help support MVUC's environmental efforts.

Jeannette Stewart, with the non-profit Lands and Waters, Inc., is one such friend whose relationship with MVUC grew out of local watershed planning efforts. As well as presenting at the recent church symposium, Jeanette has participated in multiple Earth Day Fairs at MVUC where she has provided information about the abilities of green roofs and rain gardens to successfully manage water runoff.

Through Jeannette, MVUC met Bob Slusser from the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation, who linked the church with potential grant funding for the green roof being considered on a church addition and also introduced MVUC to Terry Clements of the Virginia Tech Department of Landscape Architecture. Terry held her landscape architecture class on the church's seven-acre property this spring. Her students' two outstanding design projects included recommendations for environmental improvements to limit water runoff from the church property, environmentally friendly parking pavers, and the use of native plants in landscaping.

In another example, Rabbi Daniel Swartz and his team from Greater Washington Interfaith Power and Light (GWIPL) also participated in the MVUC-sponsored Earth Day Fairs and the recent regional Unitarian Universalist environmental symposium. MVUC plans to work with GWIPL to complete its energy audit, one of the final steps leading to MVUC certification as a Green Sanctuary.

Mount Vernon Unitarian Church is grateful to all the organizations it has worked with over the past several years on environmental projects, including Fairfax County, which recently installed the new stormwater management practices at the church. There is no doubt that these watershed improvements benefit the church, our local environment, and the larger community. When organizations consciously, synergistically work together, they can contribute to green improvements that benefit the earth and all of its inhabitants. The need has never been more urgent than now for individuals and organizations to join hands, linking and leveraging environmental efforts so that our children, grandchildren, and their children have a planet to live on.