Environmental Guild
Environmental Guild Information
We believe that God entrusted all of creation to our safekeeping and that we are therefore called to be responsible stewards of God’s beloved earth. Accordingly, St. David’s commits to take an ever active and holistic approach to environmental stewardship through education, service, and sustainable practices.
God’s breathing life into humankind and providing a fruitful earth for our well-being was accompanied by the mandate for us to till and “keep” God’s creation. Gen. 2:15. This mandate implies that we have a loving, caring, and “keeping” relationship with all of God’s creation, including each other, in much the same way that God keeps us.
Likewise, Christ taught us to cultivate loving and compassionate relationships, with God and with each other. He instructed us to love our neighbors as ourselves. Now more than ever, our love must extend not only to the neighbors we encounter today and in our own geographic community, but also to those across the globe and downstream from us in time. What kind of world do we want to bequeath to our children, grandchildren, and more distant descendants? What about our duty to love our neighbors who will inhabit this fragile Earth in the future? The well-being of these future neighbors will be saved only by our actions, not by our good intentions alone.
The Environmental Guild works to suggest ways to balance the needs of the St. David’s community of today with those of tomorrow. One of its most successful programs to date involves recycling. St. David’s uses recycled paper for all of its printing needs and recycles its used paper, plastics, glass, and aluminum foil. Additionally, St. David’s is an official City of Austin drop-off site for proper battery disposal (don’t throw them in the trash; place them in our collection drawer!); we also encourage you to bring in your old ink cartridges, eyeglasses, cell phones, digital cameras, MP3 players, prescription bottles, CD’s, and aluminum-can pull tabs for recycling or reuse. The receptacle for these items is outside the St. David’s book shop near the main church entrance. Recycling can be seen as one way to care for God’s creation and fulfill the imperative to love our neighbor. No doubt you have heard many times that making a conscious effort to reduce, reuse, and recycle our resources is good for the environment, including reducing the demand on our municipal landfills, but it is important to remember that these same efforts benefit people as well. With a little extra effort we can leave the world a better place for those who come after us while we continue to serve those around us.
The Environmental Guild has also been successful in increasing the use of reusable items in place of Styrofoam cups, plates, and bowls; Café Divine uses ceramic coffee mugs, as does the Trinity Center, and the Sunday School classes now use washable water cups. The parking garage no longer issues paper tickets upon entry, saving both paper and expense. Also, the church has switched to using compact fluorescent light bulbs (CFLs) instead of standard incandescent light bulbs. These are but a few of the changes the church has made in response to the suggestions of the Environmental Guild. Look for our posters, bulletin board, and tips in Looking Ahead describing how you can contribute to this effort to extend stewardship to all of God’s creation now and in the future. If you would like to be a part of this energetic group, which meets once a month and hosts the annual parish-wide Earth Day Celebration in April, please .
St. David’s is also a member of the Interfaith Environmental Network of Austin (IEN) and is active with the IEN’s Energy Action Team, which is a group of representatives from Austin’s faith communities organized to address the challenges and opportunities we face today with global warming, climate change, and meeting the world’s future energy needs.
GreenFaith Certification Program
The designer and maker of the earth established the earth, not creating it to be a wasteland, but designing it to be lived in. Is. 45:18
Throughout the world, Christian communities are recognizing that they are called to care for Creation and are putting their beliefs into action for the earth. At St. David’s, we are embracing this calling by taking part in the challenging GreenFaith Certification Program, the first-ever interfaith environmental certification program for houses of worship. Over a period of two years, we will undertake a large number of environmental initiatives. By successfully completing these efforts, we will earn recognition as a GreenFaith Sanctuary.
After announcing our plans in August 2010, St. David’s has been busy with this effort. Our Vestry adopted a resolution in support of this undertaking, and our Rector voiced his strong commitment to it; we created a Green Team with members across many different areas of the church to oversee and assist with the project; we drafted an Environmental Mission Statement to guide our efforts (see bolded statement at top of this page); we conducted comprehensive institutional audits and used the results to craft an environmental action plan for the Certification Program’s two years. We are well on our way to successfully completing the Program in May 2012! Stay tuned for details on a parish-wide celebration of our efforts.
GreenFaith, an interfaith environmental coalition, is our partner and guide in this ambitious undertaking. GreenFaith is one of the oldest religious-environmental coalitions in the world and will provide us with guidelines, assistance, and resources to help us become an environmental leader. With their help, we will integrate environmental themes into our worship, religious education, facility maintenance, and social outreach. We will encourage our members to take meaningful steps to green their own lives. We will also develop relationships with environmental groups in our area and reach out to other houses of worship to encourage them to engage these issues.
Through this process, St. David’s has the chance to play an important leadership role in the development of an environmentally just and sustainable world and to protect creation for future generations. This is one of the great moral challenges of our time, and we are committed to doing our part in response. We hope that all our members will join us in this effort and help our church become a model and a beacon of hope for others.
Learn more about GreenFaith.
Recycling
Congratulations St. David’s! Thanks to your efforts, the recycling program has greatly increased over the past several years. Just look at the volume of materials you have kept out the landfills this past year:
Ink Cartridges: 631 collected. The proceeds are given to the Capital Area Food Bank.
Cell Phones: 96 collected. Phones are sold to a re-manufacturer, and the proceeds are used by the Environmental Guild in carrying out its environmental-stewardship ministries.
Glasses: 117 collected. Glasses (prescription, reader, and sunglasses) are distributed to needy recipients through the Trinity Center and the organization OneSight.
CD’s: 529 collected. These are donated to the Goodwill, which resells or recycles them.
Batteries: Over a ton (too many to count!). We are an official City of Austin drop-off site, with the hazardous waste department picking up from us monthly.
Pull Tabs: Tabs are given to the Ronald McDonald House. We don’t count the tabs, but the program appears to be growing considerably.
Prescription Bottles: It is estimated that the number of recycled prescription bottles was over 5,000.
Please note that St. David’s is NOT equipped to handle disposal of CFLs; please take these to locations such as IKEA or Home Depot for proper disposal.
Learn how you can help the recycling efforts at St. David’s with your drop-offs and more on why you should use compact fluorescent light bulbs.
Learn more about the Interfaith Environmental Network.
Holy Smoke Brisket Fest 2009
Social Justice
and respect the dignity of every human being?”
-- The Baptismal Covenant
Book of Common Prayer page 305
The Amos Guild is St. David’s social justice advocacy ministry named after the prophet Amos. After meeting with the clergy, the vestry, and over 300 parishioners, we are working on the issues of work, health, education and affordable housing. The Amos Guild works on these issues both locally at St. David’s and together with other congregations through St. David’s membership in Austin Interfaith. The Amos Guild has put together this Social Service Guide for anyone to download. You can also read a recent editorial from us that was published in the Austin American-Statesman: Who picks up the slack for city’s incentives? For more information, please contact .
For St. David’s Episcopal Church, part of the responsibility of being a church in the heart of downtown Austin for over 150 years is being a witness to the Gospel values of justice and peace for this community, the nation, and the world. St. David’s has begun a period of intentional discernment of who God is calling us to be in that social justice arena. Please consider joining us for any of our upcoming meetings to learn more and to be part of this important discussion.
October 23 at 9: 15 a.m. in Sumners Hall
October 26 at 6 p.m. in Sumners Hall
November 6 at 10:15 a.m. in Sumners Hall
November 6 at 12:15 p.m. in Sumners Hall
Below, members can find links to a number of church and community organizations that do this sort of ministry*. You can also find links to resources for study and engagement. These links are provided to explore possible avenues of engagement and enrichment as we seek to discern and live out our baptismal call together.
Resources through the Episcopal Church:
The Episcopal Church Advocacy Center
The Episcopal Church Peace and Justice Ministries
The Episcopal Public Policy Network
The Episcopal Church Office of Criminal Justice
ONE Episcopalian: The Campaign to Make Poverty History
(the Episcopal Church’s commitment to engaging the Millennium Development Goals)
Resources through the World Council of Churches:
Public Witness: Addressing Power, Affirming Peace Program
Justice, Diakonia and Responsibility for Creation Program
National Organizations:
National Council of Churches Eco-Justice Programs
State and Local Organizations:
Austin Area Interreligious Ministries
Austin Downtown Cluster of Congregations and Social Agencies
Texas Interfaith Power and Light
Study Resources:
Liturgy, Justice, and the Reign of God
by J. Frank Henderson, Stephen Larson, Kathleen Quinn
Just Faith (a small group curriculum in engaging our faith in the work of social justice)
Sojourners (a magazine of faith, politics and culture)
The Center for Action and Contemplation
Social Gospel (the Wikipedia article)
*These resources are representative and are intended for exploration and discernment.
St. David’s is not currently affiliated with all of these organizations.
Bridge Builders
Building bridges across the community of God by inspiring and supporting outreach initiatives that make a meaningful difference in the lives of those in need.
Bridge Builders--Connecting Parishioners with Outreach Opportunities
In February of 2011, the Vestry of St. David’s created a new committee charged with revitalizing the church’s outreach efforts. Named Bridge Builders, the committee has been working throughout the past year to develop a new framework for outreach at St. David’s. Through feedback from parishioners the committee identified Children and Families as St. David’s greatest outreach need. By focusing our efforts and resources, we hope to make a meaningful difference in the Austin area and beyond.
Find Outreach Opportunites: We have a variety of volunteer opportunities from making sandwiches at Caritas to tutoring a student at KIPP. Please view our complete list of (link to PDF) Bridge Builders outreach opportunities in our brochure. Organizations we work with include Caritas, El Buen Samaritano, Faith In Action Caregivers, Foundation Communities, Kids Hope, KIPP and more.
Sign Up: To sign up for an outreach opportunity or get more information contact . You can also view our brochure or search our online church Calendar for specific outreach opportunities and sign up with the person listed for that event. (On the Calendar page select “Outreach Ministries” from the Search drop-down menu to display current outreach opportunities)
Bridge Builders Presentation (PDF) given at the Annual Meeting.
St. David’s Grants
GRANTS COMMITTEE FOR COMMUNITY OUTREACH (GCCO): The Grants Committee for Community Outreach is a standing committee of St. David’s Episcopal Church created by the Vestry to distribute money on behalf of the outreach mission of the church.
St. David’s Episcopal Church has a long history of helping the poor and those in need in the Austin community. In addition to making grants, the church provides direct service volunteers to area nonprofit organizations and charities. The Grant Committee for Community Outreach administers the church grant program and makes funding recommendations to the church Vestry.
In 2011, through proceeds from the Next-to-New Shop, St David’s was able to give five $10,000 grants to each of the following Austin organizations: Austin Groups for the Elderly, BookSpring, College Forward, Manos de Cristo and Vaughn House.
Please follow the links below to apply for a 2012 St. David’s Grant:
(Application deadline is February 1, 2012)
GCCO Grant Proposal Form - 2012
GCCO Program Description and Grant Instructions 2012
Warm Heart
MISSION:
To live out our faith by partnering with people in communities worldwide to help them achieve a healthier quality of life. Warm Heart International is a community of Christian compassion raising funds and awareness for freshwater access and sanitation, medical care, orphan care and education, and youth-to-youth relationships in communities worldwide.
OUR STORY:
In 1980, James Tengatenga left his home country of Malawi for Austin, Texas, and the Seminary of the Southwest. He soon found a church home at St. David’s Episcopal Church and became an active and well-loved member of the parish. He and his wife, Josie, were married at St. David’s. When this extraordinary seminarian returned to Malawi in 1984, he took part of our heart with him. Since then St. David’s relationship with James, Josie, and the people of the Diocese of Southern Malawi has flourished.
In 1992, Mark Mitchell and Donnie Hungerford formed the Southern Malawi Outreach Committee at St. David’s under the direction of The Rev. Jim Bethell. The committee’s purpose was to foster our oneness with Bishop Tengatenga and the people he serves and to express this oneness through action.
Our first priority was to help Josie Tengatenga complete her seminary training. From 2001 to 2003 we raised around $12,000 to help with her education expenses. After Josie graduated in May 2003, our efforts were redirected toward helping to build and furnish a diocesan school. We raised $4,300 for the school and other needs through the St. David’s Pecan Street BBQ booth. In 2003-04 we also raised $670 for the Diocese of Southern Malawi through the St. David’s Simple Gifts program.
In December 2004, Bishop James and the Rev. Harry Chisale visited Austin for a week-long event called Sharing of Missions Abroad (SOMA). The conference gave us a deeper understanding and appreciation of God’s work in Malawi and generated a wave of excitement that would transform our ministry. Mark Mitchell asked James how we might best foster St. David’s relationship with the Diocese of Southern Malawi. James’ answer was direct: he asked us to come see and experience God’s love in Malawi—its culture, hospitality, faith, history, traditions, passions, joys, sufferings, sorrows, loss, poverty, disease, and natural resources, as well as the dramatic growth of the Church and the Christian faith in the Malawian people. On the last day of James and Harry’s visit, St. David’s presented them with a check for $4,300 raised from the Fall Pecan Street Festival BBQ booth. This gift enabled our brothers and sisters in Christ to purchase a badly needed Nissan pickup truck. The truck is being used to transport workers, run errands, and handle many other tasks. According to Bishop Tengatenga, “Everyone is happy about this!” In 2004, St. David’s raised an additional $1,535 for the Diocese of Southern Malawi.
As we continued to raise funds for our Malawian brothers and sisters, we began planning to accept James’ invitation to visit in July of 2005. With the support of The Rev. Titus Presler, Dean of the Seminary of the Southwest, the Rev. David Boyd, Rector of St. David’s, and the St. David’s vestry, we prepared for our pilgrimage by raising funds, learning about our host culture, and meeting regularly to bond as a team.
From June 30 through July 17, 2005, fourteen Texas mission delegates from St. David’s traveled to Malawi. We were overwhelmed by our welcome, by the faith and joy of the people we met, and by the suffering we saw around us. We returned from Malawi changed and rendered unfit to resume life as we have known it – no more indifference, flippancies, and presumptions based on our own cultural biases and prejudice.
Our Malawi team consisted of six youth and eight adult delegates. Youth delegates included Christina Mitchell, Catie Hungerford, Lara Case, Jordan Yarbrough, Ginny Belanger, and Caitlin Gorman. Mark Mitchell, Tom Gebhard, Geoff Connor, Lee Livingston (youth director), Vance Tilton, Teresa Turner, Nancy Parish and Jennifer Reese were the adult delegates. These are a few of our Malawi pilgrims’ stories. They recount experiences that opened our eyes to a greater understanding of the overwhelming possibilities of God’s kingdom here on “this fragile earth, our island home” and what it may mean to be our brothers’ and sisters’ keepers in Malawi, in the world abroad, and in Austin, Texas, USA.
Next to New
Are you looking for a way to help Austin, all of Austin?
Are you looking for a unique way to volunteer your time and have fun doing it?
Please consider volunteering once a week for three hours at the Next-to-New shop. We sell consigned, donated and estate merchandise and need volunteers to help in all aspects of a retail operation.
1. Come shop and purchase quality china, jewelry, housewares, furniture, and antiques.
2. Put quality items on consignment. You receive 50% of the sale price.
3. Donate items to the Shop for re-sale.
4. Let us handle your estate sale, moving sale or downsizing sale.
From 1989 to 2003, more than $1.3 million of Next-To-New’s proceeds were donated to LOCAL charities. Proceeds also support the restoration of the Historic Sanctuary. The Sanctuary has been in constant service since 1854.
Location: 5435 Burnet Rd., Austin, TX 78756
Store Hours:
Monday - Friday: 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.
Saturday: 10 a.m. - 5 p.m.
Outreach Overview
Bridge Builders
Environmental Guild
St. David’s Grants
Social Justice
Next-to-New
Trinity Center
Warm Heart International
Trinity Center
Trinity Center is a faith-based organization conducting programs that improve the spiritual, emotional, and physical well-being of people experiencing homelessness and poverty in Austin. Please visit us at www.trinitycenteraustin.org to learn more.
Trinity Center achieves its mission through
• volunteer opportunities that foster compassion, understanding, and acceptance of God’s people whoare experiencing homelessness and/or poverty
• neighborly hospitality in a caring environment
• collaboration with similarly-focused agencies, faith-based organizations, service providers, and partner congregations
• the responsible use of space provided by St. David’s Episcopal Church
