In 2014, St Paul’s United in Estevan Saskatchewan approved a covenant about becoming a Green Church, which has informed environmental and building decisions since. In their words:
“Always striving to be more faithful in caring for the world around us.”
“As of May 2014, St. Paul's United Church has covenanted between ourselves and God to be a green congregation, that is, a congregation that engages in practices that care for Creation and nurture the environment. We recognize that we will not be able to do this perfectly, and that best environmental practices will continue to evolve as we engage in them. However, as we "seek to live with respect in Creation" we ask for God to strengthen us and be with us in this endeavour, always striving to be more faithful in caring for the world around us.”
The complete covenant can be found here.
Not long after, a major building decision created a big opportunity to live into this covenant. After 53 years of faithful service, the reliability of their old furnace was in question. The congregation decided to replace the 1,000,000 BTU furnace with four high efficient 220,000 BTU furnaces. The four furnaces provide redundancy and replace two 45-gallon hot water heaters. Work was completed in the Fall of 2015.
The congregation continues to seek to live into this commitment.
