1. Caring for Creation is the Will of God Presented to the Assembly of Mennonite Church Canada July 2008

2. Creation care is a part of the Good News of God’s plan of reconciliation and redemption
Through Christ, God’s desire is to “reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, by making peace through the blood of his cross.”
A ministry of reconciliation will advocate for the health and wellness of all of creation here and now.

3. Affirmation Statement (Assembly 2007):
Mennonite Church Canada believes that God longs for the well-being and health of the whole world, for all of creation is bound together and belongs to God, who has created and who preserves all things. Our concern for faithfulness and discipleship should also lead us to care for creation. Mennonite Church Canada believes that God is calling us to commit ourselves to discern the paths of faithfulness to be good stewards of the earth.

4. “Green Assembly” Resolution Abbotsford 2007
Whereas the earth is an expression of God’s love and Christ calls us to be stewards of God’s precious handiwork, be it resolved that Mennonite Church Canada develop guidelines to reduce the consumption of energy and other resources when planning future assemblies.
Moved by Dave Neufeld. Seconded by Stan Olson. Carried.
I want to start my report by acknowledging the work of Mennonite Creation Care
Network. Members of this network prepared the Abbotsford 2007 resolution that you see on the screen directing Mennonite Church Canada to develop guidelines to “green” our Assembly. And then members of this network of volunteers promptly followed up by actually developing guidelines for us to use to “green” our Assembly. I really like people who do things like this to make my job easier!
MCCN volunteers have also prepared signage around the facility here to help us all understand the potential environmental impact of our gatherings – AND have taken a lead role in preparing a series of four seminars on creation care at the Summit.
MC Canada appoints two volunteers to MCCN. They are David Neufeld and Joanne Moyer. We provide funding for them to attend MCCN meetings, and for that very small investment we have been rewarded with quite extraordinary leadership and commitment to environmental issues. So I would like David and Joanne to stand and to be acknowledged for this important work.
If you are looking for print material to have in front of you during this report, I direct you to three items:
Page 53 of the Report Book presents the “green” Assembly guidelines developed by MCCN.
And page 2 of today’s Crossroads Current daily newssheet has a story about greening this event, including a review of the guidelines that we have been able to implement and that we were unwittingly implementing even before they were developed.
And of course the Assembly “greening” resolution from last year displayed on the screen.
As the Crossroads Current provides a detailed review of how we have implemented MCCN’s guidelines, I will focus this time on some more general comments about greening big gatherings.
First of all, there is the matter of travel. One of the experts we consulted on greening matters estimated that more than 70% of the environmental impact of an event has already taken place by the time people arrive. It’s no secret that flying places is really bad for the environment. Driving is better (or less bad) – and driving with a bunch of other people is even better. But the response to our informal poll about chartering buses to bring people to this event – a single action that would have multiplied many times the environmental benefits we could achieve – was…well…less than enthusiastic. Perhaps next year we’ll ask everyone to appoint 16 year olds as their delegates and we’ll get a better response.
Compounding the effects of our sometimes less-than-environmentally-friendly methods of getting here are the facts that we meet annually and that we encourage as many people as possible to come. If we are really serious about reducing the environmental impact of our gatherings, those who come will need to think carefully about how they get here and home again, and we may need to think together about how often and how many of us should meet.
And while we’re on the subject of travel, I want to highlight again the Green Building Fund that Ed Janzen mentioned earlier during the Support Services Council report. You could consider making a donation to this fund to “offset” (in quotation marks) the environmental cost of your travel here. You could visit one of the many available carbon calculators on the web and get really scientific about how much your donation should be, based on how far and in what way you traveled, or you could simply choose an amount that makes sense to you and make a gift.
We don’t want to present this as encouragement to travel boldly that donations may abound, but we do invite you to consider a gift to our Green Building Fund as one way of acknowledging the full environmental cost of your travel – or simply because you want to support this project. We will not be taking a formal offering for the Green Building Fund at this event, but if you wish to make a gift you may write a cheque to Mennonite Church Canada – designated to the Green Building Fund – and present it to one of the ushers or hospitality desk staff. There are offering envelopes in your delegate tote bag.
So that’s travel. Now, a word about facilities.
Again, some appreciation is in order here. CMU has been a terrific facility to work with. They have demonstrated their commitment to environmental sustainability in a big way in the construction of Concord Hall, and they have demonstrated that same commitment in many small ways in preparing for this gathering. They understand the importance of things like turning off lights, recycling, composting, providing vegetarian choices and local food choices where possible, serving fair trade coffee and many other things. We didn’t have to do any convincing. Ted Dyck, CMU’s food services manager, did all of the homework on compostable dinnerware and composting services. It’s been great to take a first run at implementing these guidelines together with CMU, and we’re very thankful for their cooperation.
And what about choosing the venue for future assemblies? As the story in Crossroads Current notes, to get check marks on all lines under Assembly Location and Buildings, our choice of venues would be very limited and possibly quite expensive. Yet we want to be vigorous in implementing the guidelines.
This means that for Assembly 2009, we did not begin our venue search by looking for cities that have convention centres or other meeting facilities that are LEED certified. We followed our usual process of approaching the host area church – Mennonite Church Saskatchewan in this case – and asking for their counsel regarding host community and facilities. Now that we have it narrowed down to two Saskatoon venues, we have provided them with copies of the Green Assembly Guidelines. We have asked them to comment on how they will implement these guidelines as part of their final proposal to us, and we have advised them that their ability to implement these guidelines is part of the venue selection criteria. We anticipate that this may result in some additional costs at these venues. But we understand your endorsement of last year’s resolution also as willingness to accept cost increases – where necessary – to reduce environmental impact.

5. Greening the life of our church
And one final comment on these guidelines. MCCN did not develop them just for us. They developed them for all church gatherings – congregational meetings, area church gatherings, church agency annual meetings – any time the church gathers. The guidelines are available on their web site at I encourage all of you who are responsible for planning gatherings of any kind to take these guidelines seriously and to work hard at implementing them. We’re not sure that we can yet call MC Canada a leader in this area, but whoever the leader is, we hope that many will follow.

6. INVITATION TO CONGREGATIONS
Let the church together proclaim that “the earth is the Lord’s” and affirm our Christian responsibility to care for our environment and all of life.
Accordingly each congregation is encouraged to take the following actions: 

7. Develop and practice liturgy and celebrations honouring God and God's creation;
Develop and use curriculum which encourages careful use and sharing of the earth's limited resources;

8. Develop and practice good stewardship of church property including energy-saving practices, low impact, low maintenance landscaping styles , and limiting the amount of pavement;

9. Foster a sense of connection to the soil and food production as well as to local fields, woods and water courses, through tree planting celebrations, community gardening, and by spending time learning about and enjoying nature in our local communities.

10. Individual congregations are invited to report on their stewardship activities to the larger church-wide body at future Assemblies and gatherings.

11. What are possible solutions?
Tell some stories about what your congregation has done and plans to do to green its operations
Identify challenges/obstacles to greening the operations of your congregation and/or the broader church.
What are possible solutions?

12. God will care for creation and us within it