recycling

My summer sermon series is based on written questions from the congregation. One question had to do with the church’s view of caring for creation. At the end of the sermon which was based largely on the ELCA’s social statement on “Caring for Creation,” I expressed my dream of having a recycling center at the church. Because of the difficulties of infrastructure and distance, Anchorage has limited recycling. Many parishioners live in areas where curbside recycling is not offered and are therefore less likely to take the steps necessary for recycling. There were nods of agreement and smiles as I mentioned my dream of a recycling center at church but action would require more intervention.

Two weeks later a young man named David stopped by our church with his mother. He was looking for an Eagle Scout project and his mother suggested they stop in our church to ask if we had an idea for a project. After some initial conversation and getting an idea of the magnitude of a project he was interested in, I brought up the dream of a storage shed built to house recycling cans as a possibility. I mentioned that I needed to look into details a bit more to find out what options, if any, were available in our part of town. His eyes widened as he looked at his mother in amazement. It seems his father’s new job was working for Anchorage Refuse in the area of recycling.

A meeting was set up with David and his father and plans were drawn up for what would be a pilot project in Anchorage for churches getting involved in recycling. Over the summer David worked hard at raising the funds and lining up help to build the building and this fall we opened our own “Caring for Creation” recycling center. Parishioners are now starting to bring their paper, cans, and plastic bottles to church for recycling, along with plastic grocery bags and clean wine bottles for reuse through the Lutheran Social Services Food bank and a local brewing supply store for home brewers. Christ Our Savior Lutheran is now getting to be known as the place where you bring your garbage to church and what can’t be recycled or reused can be forgiven.