Case Study

How congregations can demonstrate care of creation as part of our baptismal covenant.
Resurrection Parish, St. Mary's County, MD
Tell us about your church or organization and its mission.

Resurrection Parish comprises the Episcopal churches of Ascension in Lexington Park, MD, and St. George’s in Valley Lee, MD. We’re also in a covenanted relationship with All Saints Church in Avenue, MD – three locations in St. Mary’s County, MD – and we’re building out a collaborative, regional, multi-site parish redevelopment that more directly impacts, serves, and befriends our entire St. Mary’s County community with the transforming power of Jesus.

Describe your ministry as it relates to creation care.

In 2024, St. George’s Church in Valley Lee installed a large solar field on its property, reducing the carbon footprint of the three buildings on its church campus and rendering our electrical bills obsolete. The benefits of this project, however, extend to both Ascension and St. George’s. Not only did the financial resources to invest in this solar installation come from the sale of a piece of property formerly owned by Ascension, but Ascension, in upgrading that property in order to sell it, not only identified a neighbor who could more effectively serve the neighborhood but also generated obvious resources to help slash its own carbon footprint and utility costs – but only because Ascension and St. George’s were, by that time, two church campuses in one parish.

What is the most important thing that has come out of this ministry? How has caring for creation benefited your community?

Installing a large solar field that reduces carbon footprint and cuts electrical bills to $0 is not the most cutting-edge contribution to creation care. It’s what this whole process represents, however, that’s been truly transformational: two churches, once fighting for their very existence and survival, have learned to share ministry and become partners and, in time, siblings in one larger parish (in the most expansive understanding of the term ‘parish’). Economies of scale and mission capacity have grown exponentially within the two churches, and as part of the way we now relate to our community. Creation care, as it turns out, is most certainly caring for the earth – grass, trees, renewable and non-renewable resources. It’s also a generative and generous stance, one that involves learning to actually care – caring for one another and the wider human community.

For a congregation that wants to be more fully aware and engaged in creation care, what can they do?

First, think in the biggest, broadest, most imaginative ways about how your building(s) can bless and be a blessing to your neighbors and neighborhood. Don’t limit yourself to those who can pay rent. Walk your neighborhood. Ask questions of neighbors: if we were to create space for something, what would you or others want or need or benefit from?

Second, get an ASHRAE Level 2 energy audit. Our buildings, as beautiful and inspiring as many of them are, are generally inefficient from an energy and financial perspective. There are energy-efficiency savings that lead to financial savings.

Our buildings are also not highly efficient from a human-shaped, community-building standpoint. Open doors, including glass doors and wide hallways, and attractive, clean, open spaces (without the clutter and wall-hangings of the ‘owner’ organization) tend to inspire space-sharing and community-building. Lean into some of this.

Third, go for grants and fundraising. Once you identify energy-efficiency initiatives and once your church is serious about truly opening your doors and sharing in the most generous way possible your space (so that it no longer remains only your space), there are lots of grants and generous funders out there.