Willard Metzger is the General Secretary of Mennonite Church Canada.  He currently writes a blog in which he shares experiences and reflections focused about his time of leadership, and has an inspiring message about creation care.

Recently, Metzger was in Durban, South Africa, where approximately 20,000 people gathered from around the world for the UN Forum on Climate Change 2011.  Said Metzger in his Nov. 28 blog, “I came in response to a request to strengthen the presence of the Canadian Church leaders.

During his presence at the 10 day climate change forum, Metzger kept a daily blog of his observations.  “If the earth cannot sustain my neighbour consuming what I consume—then obedience to Christ must compel me to strive for a consumption practice that can also be shared with my neighbour,” wrote Metzger in his first blog entry from Durban.

On day four at the UNCCF, Metzger wrote of the frustrations and fragility of the conference.  With the larger economies hesitating and the smaller economies growing impatient, as Metzger wrote, he was feeling disheartened—until he attended a global youth forum.

A teenage South African girl spoke, encouraging the leaders present to focus on the future.  After first acknowledging the economic dynamics and financial costs involved in climate change she said with emphatic stance, “We need you to make the biggest decision of our lives.  Forget about the money you have to save, you are in a big debt already…You owe this to us!!”

The 10 day blog is a wonderful resource for us involved with MCCN.  As Metzger wrote on Day 9, “Creation care requires all the gifts and strategies we possess as a global family. We need new technologies. We need gifted entrepreneurs. We need committed governments. We need active sacrifice. With this portfolio of gifts, we have all we need to maintain a healthy global community.”

See the entirety of Metzger’s blog here.

Reprinted from EMU’s Crossroads magazine with permission

By Andrew Jenner, June 9, 2011

Sarah Myers (left) and Herb Myers ‘66 (center) are building onto the home of son-in-law Jason ‘99 and Janelle ‘01 Myers-Benner and granddaughter kali. Sarah, who formerly directed a non-profit, and Herb, a psychiatrist, are moving as retirees from Pennsylvania to Virginia.

Upon their graduation from EMU, Jason ’99 and Janelle ’01 Myers-Benner knew that living sustainably would be an overarching priority in their lives. In the decade-plus since, this desire has grown into “a vast and consuming project … engaging and energizing, even while exhausting,” Jason writes.

The Myers-Benners minimize their travel by vehicle, heat their house entirely with its passive solar design and backup wood stove, and try to grow, raise or gather as much of their food as possible from their land in Keezletown, Virginia.

Intertwined and inseparable elements of their approach to sustainability are the Myers-Benner’s significant emphasis on community and connection. They live out these values, in part, by homeschooling their 7-year-old daughter, Kali, building relationships with their neighbors and investing in nurturing, caring interactions across multiple generations. (Janelle works 30 hours per week as academic program coordinator at EMU’s Center for Justice and Peacebuilding.)

As Janelle’s parents, Herb ’66 and Sarah (class of ’67) Myers, began planning for their retirement, the family saw an opportunity to further develop its commitment to multi-generational living. In 2010, Herb and Sarah began building a 900-square-foot addition to Janelle and Jason’s house. The two living quarters are separated by a shared laundry room, utility room bathroom, and office. Their addition includes a rainwater cistern, a solar water heater, and other features intended to maximize the structure’s energy efficiency.

The new arrangement – a modern twist on the traditional Amish dawdy haus for aging parents – will make it easy for the family to share appliances, vehicles, tools and other household items. Moreover, Sarah writes, moving in beside Janelle and Jason will allow them all to share in the work of trying to live sustainably: tending the garden, harvesting and preserving food, caring for livestock, gathering wood and more.

Herb and Sarah’s addition also anticipates the physical challenges of aging by building all the main rooms to accommodate wheelchair access. That feature will make life easier both for them and their family caregivers next door.
“This building project … [will not] render our lives perfectly ‘sustainable,’” Sarah writes. “But for us it seems to be an opportunity worth taking for the health of our planet and for our own sense of wholeness.”

Spring 2011, Vol. 91, No. 3

The EMU Crossroads magazine, published three times a year, most recently focused  on sustainability.   Multiple articles profile alumni with unique methods of “going green.”  It is both inspiring and informative, and worth checking out. Visit http://emu.edu/now/crossroads/ to view the magazine online.

Berkey Avenue Mennonite Fellowship, Goshen, Ind., has had a “battery bucket” in its foyer for about a year now and encouraged members to recycle batteries rather than throw them in the trash.

Recycling batteries sounds simple, but proved complicated when Berkey’s Creation Care Committee learned that the local hazardous waste disposal would no longer accept alkaline batteries. While companies can make money recycling lithium ion and button batteries, alkaline batteries are not cost effective to recycle. This meant almost 90% of the batteries collected were just going in the landfill.  See the solution Berkey chose… (more…)

by Ariel Shuey, Bluffton public relations, 2/23/11

The Last Supper should be the focus of every meal we prepare and consume, according to the keynote speaker at a Bluffton University-hosted conference on ethical food production.

“Our meals should be framed around the supper of the lamb,” said Ragan Sutterfield, speaking Feb. 19 at the Intercollegiate Peace Fellowship conference. His session on “The Supper of the Lamb: Learning to Eat at God’s Table” was the last of three he addressed during the weekend event. (more…)

Four red oaks, three swamp white oaks and a hackberry tree are wrapped in burlap and waiting for new homes along streets in low income areas of Goshen, IN. They will be planted in early November, thanks to Goshen’s first Voluntary Gas Tax Group.

Members of the Voluntary Gas Tax Group tax themselves fifty or more cents per dollar on every gallon of gas they buy. Three times a year, they meet to pool resources and decide what to do with the revenue. The voluntary tax is an acknowledgement that current gas prices do not accurately represent the environmental or foreign policy costs of dependence on fossil fuels. (more…)

Susan Mark Landis suggests a simple way to green homes and church events in an article written for PeaceSigns, the e-zine for Mennonite Mission Network and Mennonite Church USA. Mark Landis has discovered that shopping at Goodwill and MCC thrift stores is an easy, yet significant, way to care for creation in a consumer-driven society. She buys cloth napkins, mugs and vases for home and church events to reduce waste. These reusable items also feed social interaction as washing dishes together provides ample opportunity for conversation and laughter. read more

The conversation began in 2006 when a group of North American young adults, known as BikeMovment, completed a bike ride across the United States. At that time, they wondered about the possibility of riding bike to Mennonite World Conference in Paraguay for the July 2009 assembly. Lars Akerson, Harrisonburg, VA, and Jonathan Spicher, Lancaster, PA did more than wonder, they made that conversation a reality. Their bike journey from Harrisonburg, VA to Asunción, Paraguay for the Global Youth Summit and Mennonite World Conference Assembly began January 6. On July 9, six months, twelve countries and 7,750 miles later, their 27-speed touring bikes came to a stop in Paraguay.

Akerson and Spicher interacted with Eastern Mennonite University’s cross-cultural group in Guatemala and various workers from Mennonite Central Committee, not to mention unexpected and hospitable encounters with many locals along the way. Their vision was to listen, learn and serve while living in community relevant to the teachings of Jesus.

At the same time, Akerson and Spicher raised money for AMIGO’s which, in the last assembly in Zimbabwe, set a goal of raising $100,000 for grants to help young adults attend the Global Youth Summit in Paraguay. Akerson and Spicher hoped to raise $30,000 to reach the goal. 

Read more accounts of this adventure and view pictures in their blog. 

What’s black and white and red all over? Carmen Schrock-Hurst’s red GEM car affectionately known as “Ladybug.” A Chrysler company in Fargo N.D. is the brains behind this battery-operated vehicle which seats two people comfortably and goes no faster than 25 mph. Schrock-Hurst’s chose not to pay an extra fee to install a heater, air conditioning or radio, but the roll bar, safety glass, turn signals and headlights make it safer than most low-speed vehicles. Ladybug plugs into a regular outlet and uses as much electricity as a computer. On an eight-hour charge, Ladybug will go about 25 miles – a perfect distance for Schrock-Hurst’s commute to work and various errands around town. Read More

After a learning tour to Colombia with Mennonite Church Canada, associate pastor Dan Kehler and his wife decided to “go green for peace.” Kehler saw that the dependence on oil by wealthy nations wreaks havoc on people in other countries and drives war. Wanting to play a part in peacemaking, Kehler began making changes in his personal life to reduce oil consumption. He began by riding bike for transportation rather than using the family car, even riding nearly four hours to the Mennonite Church Canada annual assembly in the pouring rain. Today Kehler continues saving oil by reducing his use of air conditioning and heat. Though these steps to save are not always convenient and sometimes controversial in a farming community, Kehler believes that, as an Anabaptist, he is called to live in peace with creation and his neighbor.

Read More by following this link and then clicking on “Past Issues.” Scroll down to click on “2009” and when this page appears, scroll down to click on “Volume 13, No 1.” View the article by clicking on “Going Green: The Colour of Peace” on the left side of the screen.