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In the past few weeks, the Stewardship Committee hosted several gatherings to explore the topic of generosity. We learned many things about how generosity grows in us and what effect it has on the giver.

Some of us are taught from an early age by our parents to be generous and to give at church and Sunday school. Others of us didn’t experience that guidance, but learned about generosity through lessons at church or by seeing others who practiced generosity. Read more »

First there was the green and brown bins to collect our garbage. Then there were a few blue bins to collect our recycling of paper, glass and plastics. Now there is a new grey bin for composting. It will hold all garden and grass clippings, as well as paper napkins and pizza boxes. Food scraps go into a plastic bag that comes from the Village of Oak Park and then can go into the grey compost bin.

The Green Team evolved from a series of initiatives to reduce energy consumption by our congregation. The first initiative was a fundraiser for the teens of the church. They sold energy saving devices in kits to members of the congregation. The initiative was led by Seven Generations Ahead, a not-for-profit organization that our church has supported. Read more »

The Green Steward, is the quarterly newsletter of the Environmental Concerns Working Group of the Metro Chicago Synod, ELCA.

GET YOUR SUBSCRIPTION by adding yourself to the distribution list. Send a note with your e-mail address to Jim Schwab, chair of the Working Group, at jimjeanschwab@att.net. They will also be happy to receive news or ideas from contributors.

Flushing the toilet uses the same amount of water a person in a developing country uses for washing, cleaning, cooking, and drinking each day.

It takes more than a thousand drops of water to make one drop of coffee.

Producing one ton of beef requires 15,000 tons of water; producing one ton of grain requires 1,000 tons of water.

PlanItGreen is offering an exciting opportunity to plan a more sustainable future for the communities of Oak Park and River Forest.  PlanItGreen, part of the OPRF Community Foundation's Communityworks initiative, is designed to engage community residents and stakeholder organizations in creating and realizing a vision for an environmentally sustainable Oak Park and River Forest.  Community participation is a fundamental part of the process and your completion of the survey will provide us with the community's priorities and ideas for a Green Oak Park and River Forest.  Seven Generations Ahead (SGA), one fo the lead consultants for PlanItGreen, receives funding annually from Good Shepherd.  GSLC members Gary Cuneen, Mark Ledogar and Warren King are all on the SGA Boar Read more »