Monthly Highlight
Sign up now for this year's Faithful Footprints Retrofit Tours
Has your faith community participated in The United Church of Canada’s Faithful Footprints program? Consider hosting a Faithful Footprints Retrofit Tour of your building as part of the 60+ United Church of Canada’s events in Together For the Love of Creation Earth Week 2024 (April 21 - 28). This is an opportunity to celebrate the building upgrades your faith community has achieved and a chance for others to get a closer look at the renovations and upgrades. Inspire others by sharing your experience, lessons learned, as well as the carbon, energy, operational costs, and community impact that your community has experienced.
Trinity United Church is on their way to Net Zero
Trinity United Church (Ottawa, ON) has recently completed its Faithful Footprints-supported projects. However, the church's greening efforts are far from over. The church will be continuing its energy and decarbonization projects to reach completely net zero.
"Our momentum has inspired us to want to finish the job of getting the church totally off fossil fuels with the installation of two additional heat pumps, for a total of five, planned for late February 2024. We were able to get a grant from the Eastern Ontario Outaouais Regional Council of the United Church of Canada, covering the cost of one of these heat pumps and have started a fundraising campaign for the last one — Once these heat pumps are installed, the entire church will be off fossil fuels and fully air-conditioned." shares staff member at Trinity United.
Read more about their projects below.
Work Completed
Clandeboye United Church (Clandeboye, MB)
Received a grant to replace 6 emergency exits, including emergency lights; replace 19 fluorescent lights with LED lights; replace wooden back door with steel door; replace 48 bulbs in sanctuary with LED dimmable bulbs; increase attic insulation from R16 to R50; install an Eco Smart thermostat; replace hot water tank; replace 3 toilets with low flush; replace a stove with energy efficiency model; and repair 2 stained glass windows.
Silver Spire United Church (St. Catharines, ON)
Received a grant to replace a boiler and controls not functioning efficiently.
St. Andrew's United Church (Lacombe, AB)
Received a grant to replace 120 fixtures throughout its building with LEDs; replace electrical wiring; set up 2 pre-installed HVAC units; install blown-in insulation in attics; replace 16 windows in its social hall with triple pane windows; replace 3 outside doors; replace thermostats; install insulation on inside walls of the entire building - covering the cement block and brick.
Trinity United Church (Listowel, ON)
Received a grant to purchase components from the original supplier of its existing sanctuary lights to convert the lights from fluorescent to LED technology
Trinity United Church (Ottawa, ON)
Received a grant to remove 1 of 2 gas boilers; install 3 air-source heat pumps; install foam insulation on the upper portion of one basement wall; replace all incandescent lights, including pendant lights in its sanctuary with LEDs; and replace 2 refrigerators with new Energy Star models.
Whitehorse United Church (Whitehorse, YT)
Received a grant to install an automated control system; insulate cold air ducts; install insulated air flow control dampers; and install 2 heat pumps to heat its sanctuary and church hall in its basement.
Energy Results
Port Stanley United Church (Colborne, ON)
Received a grant to replace a boiler with a highly efficient natural gas unit; replace non-reversible ceiling fans with five-speed reversible ceiling fans; and install an electric potable water heater. A year following their projects, Port Stanley United reduced its weather-normalized source EUI by 0.2%, GHG emissions by 12.5%, electricity usage by 3.9%, and natural gas usage by 12.3%.
St. Andrew’s United Church (Moose Jaw, NS)
Received a grant to replace interior and exterior fluorescent lights with LEDs; replace its water heater with two tankless water heaters; and install motion-sensor light switches in all bathrooms in the building. A year following their projects, St. Andrew's United did not experience any energy or carbon reductions.
Tools and Resources
Faithful Footprints Participant Promotional and Display Posters
Has your community of faith completed a Faithful Footprints-funded project? Celebrate your greening projects by promoting your energy efficiency and decarbonization upgrades with your community. Download the Faithful Footprints promotional and display posters to highlight your participation in the Faithful Footprints program and your contribution towards The United Church of Canada’s climate and sustainability goals.
Inspiration
A renovation and a prayer
Featured story in Canada's National Observer
Last November, Climate Story Network featured a story highlighting how United Churches across Halifax Regional Municipality are on a carbon-cutting mission thanks to the Faithful Footprints program. The story continues to inspire others with its recent publication in Canada's National Observer.
Features: Grace United Church (Dartmouth, NS), Bethany United Church (Halifax, NS), the Brunswick Street Mission (Halifax, NS), and Rockingham United (Halifax, NS)
Looking much Greener: Energy-efficient renovations continue at St. Andrew’s United Church
Featured story in Lacombe Express
Things are looking much ‘greener’ at Lacombe’s historic St. Andrew’s United Church (Lacombe, AB). With support from Faithful Footprints funding, a series of renovations to bolster the building’s energy efficiency have continued, and congregational members are thrilled with the results. The church is excited to spread the word and also encourage others in Lacombe to consider taking on a more ‘green’ stance.
Act/Fast: Spiritual Practices for a Climate in Crisis
Grief, anxiety, hope, love, pain, despair, awe—many emotions describe our relationship with all of Creation. What is your personal, physical, and spiritual relationship with God’s Creation? Consider reading the new Lenten devotional Act/Fast: Spiritual Practices for a Climate in Crisis, with contributions from climate advocates worldwide. Look at fasting for Lent from a different perspective by deepening your commitment to taking action for a climate in crisis. It also includes a study guide to help you dive deeper as individuals or within a group.
Opportunities
Free energy audits for faith buildings in Nova Scotia
March 1 – July 31, 2024
Faith groups have identified a need for energy audits of their buildings as an important the first step in retrofitting to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Faithful Footprints Atlantic Regional Support Centre, Ecology Action Centre is offering 30+ free energy audits for faith buildings across Nova Scotia. Get a detailed energy report with recommendations & customized advice qualifying you to apply for Efficiency Nova Scotia rebates. Energy audits are on a first-come, first served basis, but will do their best to accommodate a diversity of faiths and geographic locations within the program's capacity.
Be a powerful actor for the environment, create a more comfortable space for faith members and the community, and reduce overhead costs and greenhouse gas emissions.
Reimagining Church, Land & Community: Vancouver 2024
March 12-13, 2024 | First Christian Reformed Church of Vancouver
Join a public lecture hosted by the Canadian Coalition of Re-Imagining Church, Land and Community, featuring Adrian Jacobs and Jason McKinney to learn, share and explore collaboration, to re-imagine church properties for urban flourishing, Indigenous-settler reconciliation, community justice and services, and affordable and supportive housing. As various pressures force churches across the country to reconsider their properties and building assets, this is also an opportunity to think more deeply and theologically about our relationships on and to the land, and with each other.
Interspirit Climate Network Gathering
March 5, 2024 10am - 3pm
Join Faithful Footprints Atlantic Regional Support Centre, Ecology Action Centre for an Interspirit Climate Network Gathering on March 5th. This is a free hybrid event, open to faith leaders and representatives from diverse faith groups across Nova Scotia. The Interspirit Climate Network aims to harness the collective strength of different faith communities to address climate change and its related challenges. The focus of this hybrid gathering is to bring people together to share knowledge and build community.
Event details:
Date: Tuesday March 5th, 2024 10am - 3pm
Location: Hindu Temple Vedanta Ashram Society, 6421 Cork Street Halifax B3L 1Z5
Accessibility: There is an elevator in the building with access to every floor
Parking: for 2 cars onsite, 2 hr parking on Cork St, all-day parking at the Forum 500m away
Food: vegetarian lunch & snacks provided
Daring Justice: Uniting in Dialogue and Reflection
Six Sessions | February 15 - April 25, 2024
Come and find hope, nourishment and community, in the work of justice-making, for the sake of God’s beloved world. Meeting six Thursday afternoons spread over three months, this course with Jane Dawson, offers you an opportunity to become grounded and nurtured in the work of justice-making. Sessions weave presentations, self-reflection, group dialogue, and contemplative practices in an interactive learning format. Deepen your relationship with God, strengthen your theological and scriptural grounding, and experience a sense of community and encouragement.
Give it up for the Earth! 2024
February 14 - March 28
Citizens for Public Justice's Give it up for the Earth! is a national faith-in-action campaign that raises awareness about the climate crisis and mobilizes people across Canada to reduce personal and household greenhouse gas emissions, engage in acts of solidarity, and collect signatures as a demonstration of support for increased federal climate action. Give it up for the Earth! 2024 includes three action items:
A pledge to reduce your personal and household greenhouse gas emissions.
A Commitment to embrace eco-spirituality through climate action and by building relationships with the Indigenous communities on whose traditional territories we live, work, and play.
Sending a letter to the Minister of the Environment and Climate Change, Steven Guilbeault, urging him to set more ambitious climate action targets and expressing support for a just transition towards a low-carbon economy.
Act/Fast 2024 Lenten Study on CHURCHx
Tuesdays, 1:00 PM ET | February 20 to March 26, 2024
In this six-week series, join Rev. Stephen Fetter and people from across the country to explore one of the devotional readings from the Act/Fast, the new Devotional Study book from United Church Publishing House. Listen to each devotion’s author read the passage aloud, to hear nuances that can only be communicated by the spoken voice. We’ll push deeper than the words on the page – both with the author, and with each other – and explore how each devotion invites us into deeper spirituality and more daring discipleship.
The Mod's Book Squad Featuring Act/Fast on March 5, 2024
March 5, 2024 | 3:30 - 5:00 PM ET
Join special guest, Christine Boyle, City of Vancouver councilor and advisor to The Faithful Footprints program at United in Learning's upcoming The Mod’s Book Squad, where they will be featuring the new Lenten devotional Act/Fast: Spiritual Practices for a Climate in Crisis.
Sustainable Practices for Faith Buildings
Two-day workshop on March 19 & 20, 2024
Are you an Energy Benchmarking Program participant? Better Buildings Ottawa and Greening Sacred Spaces Ottawa will be offering an exciting workshop for faith building owners and operators to learn how they can make their faith building more energy efficient. Facilitated by Michel Parent and Stephen Dixon, who each bring over 30 years of experience in the building industry, these two full-day workshops will include building tours and an ‘energy treasure hunt’. Interested in participating or would like to volunteer your faith building to accommodate the workshop for one of the two days? Fill out the survey below, or reach out to Emily at greeningsacredspacesottawa@gmail.com.
Ready, set, plant! The Foundation's Spring granting round is now open!
Applications are due April 15th.
The United Church of Canada's Foundation’s Seeds of Hope grants support unique and innovative ventures that are ready to make an impact in our United Church and beyond. Let's get your project funded! The Joint Grants Committee welcomes applications for new, unique projects:
Providing innovative seniors’ ministry
Celebrating and encouraging children and youth
Addressing environmental and social justice issues
Looking at new ways to provide ministry and support during transition periods
Facilitating experiencing faith and spirituality