Wrapping Up Creation Season: From the Green Team ... | Church of the Incarnation

What Can We Do?

As we wrap up Creation Season 2024, your Green Team wants to help us all respond to that persistent question, “What can we do?”

What can we do as a congregation? We’ve made strides with rooftop solar, assessing our energy use, reducing waste, and developing a plan that could help us become carbon neutral by 2030. What’s next as we live into our generational plan? We’ve also increased our praise and thanksgiving for God’s good creation in our liturgies, and done more to share our knowledge of scripture, theology and ethics. Will we honor our prayers and appreciation with our actions?

What can we do individually? Changes we make in our personal or household lives have been questioned recently. Are they effective? Can one person make a difference? Katharine Hayhoe, climate scientist and Christian, reminds us that our personal green practices help to keep us focused, and can influence our friends and neighbors. She recommends adopting two new climate-positive actions each year. Perhaps one during Creation Season and one during Lent?

The third thing we can all do, and the one that is often the most challenging, is advocacy for sound eco-justice policy. Choose an environmental organization to support, learn from them, and sign up for their action alerts. Or follow the posts from the Episcopal Office of Governmental Affairs. Take advantage of opportunities to learn about issues and candidates, speak up, and vote.

What are you inspired to do?

As noted above, two events scheduled for this Sunday, October 6, are designed to inspire you to put your faith into action regarding God’s awesome Creation:

At the 9:00 a.m. Sunday Forum, Robert Aguero and Cathy Wolf will focus on People and Climate — what we can do, as individuals and collectively, and how our faith calls us to continue to “act with hope” in the face of a seemingly overwhelming challenge.
At 3:30 p.m., our special Voters’ Issue Forum will explore the environmental impacts of two current ballot items — Sonoma County Measure J and California Proposition 4 — from a faith perspective.

Come to Short Hall on Sunday and be inspired!

Tags: News & Notes

People decide to visit a church for lots of different reasons, often because they're at some sort of transition point in their lives. Maybe you're a longtime Episcopalian; maybe you have experience in another faith tradition; or maybe you've never been to a faith community at all.

Whoever you are, and wherever you are on your spiritual journey, you enrich us with your presence, and there's a place for you here.

Learn more about visiting Incarnation.

Incarnation is located at 550 Mendocino Avenue in downtown Santa Rosa, just south of the corner with Cherry Street.

Our church parking lot is located around the corner at 636 Cherry Street. The lot often fills up for our Sunday morning services. Additional free church parking is available in the small gravel lot at the corner of Mendocino and Cherry, or in the city garage at 521 7th Street (free on Sundays), which is a two-minute walk from the church. Finally, street parking is also free on Sundays.

We're also located close to several bus lines, and we have a bike rack in the central courtyard.

Children aren't just the church's future—they're an essential part of our faith community right now. At Incarnation we strive to serve our kids' growing faith, and we know they have much to teach adults, too. Children are always welcome in worship: any age, any time.

Learn more about our children's ministries.

Episcopal worship follows an ancient pattern that dates to the earliest days of the Christian church. The first half of the Eucharist is the Liturgy of the Word the second half is the Liturgy of the Table, also called Holy Communion. If you've spent time in Episcopal, Roman Catholic, Lutheran, or Eastern Orthodox churches, much of our liturgy will seem familiar. If you're unfamiliar with liturgical Christian worship, don't worry. You're welcome to participate as fully as is right for you, or to just relax into the liturgy and let the rest of the congregation carry you in worship.

Click here for online worship, or to learn more about Episcopal worship.

To stay connected with everything that's going on, please subscribe to our e-newsletter, News and Notes.

Often someone who's been visiting for a while will ask us how to become a member of Incarnation. Learn more about becoming a member.

To support our work sharing God's love here in Sonoma County, you can make a donation online.

Giving is one of the most powerful spiritual practices in existence. It's a statement of gratitude and trust in God.

At Incarnation we encourage all our members and friends to prayerfully choose a percentage of their income to give toward causes that serve God's mission. We ask that part of that intentional giving be a pledge of financial support to the parish, both so our leadership can plan ahead in making a budget, and as a tangible commitment to what God is doing here at Incarnation. For more on the practice of proportional giving, see this FAQ.

You can make a donation to Incarnation online, toward your pledge or as a special offering, by clicking below.