A Baptist church at the forefront of environmental advocacy has been honored as Church of the Year for Faith-based Environmental Advocacy by Christians Caring for Creation, a national faith-based organization dedicated to addressing the critical environmental issues of the day.
Woodland Baptist Church in San Antonio, Texas, received the honor at C3’s fall conference, “Loving What God Loves: A Conference on Caring for Creation.”
“Woodland is the prototype for faith-based communities who want to grapple with environmental crises facing our world. We honor them today because of the many ways they are modeling out creation care ministries for faith-based organizations,” said C3 CEO Don Gordon.
Michael Massar, Woodland’s associate pastor of faith formation, accepted the award on behalf of the church. “On behalf of our Pastor, Rev. Garrett Vickrey, and the good people of Woodland, we are honored by C3’s recognition of our efforts in San Antonio. It is our hope that many congregations will join us in our endeavors to be good stewards of God’s creation.”
Earlier this year Woodland was awarded Silver Star status by ReWorksSA, a division of the City of San Antonio, the first faith-based community to attain that status.
In the past couple of years Woodland has been involved in an extensive educational study to become better acquainted with the many facets of ecological work. In concert with the education process, an energy audit was conducted, as well as a campus-wide evaluation of usage and practices that would indicate an environmentally friendly atmosphere.
A church garden was re-established along with a monarch butterfly waystation. Currently, Woodland is in the process of installing solar panels and E.V. chargers on its campus as well as designing a rain-water collection system.
“For us, this is a theological issue. We believe God has chosen to be in relationship with us here— on earth,” Vickrey said. “God has come to us as one of us on what Charles Darwin called the ‘entangled bank of creatures.’ Eco-justice is a gospel issue because it’s at the heart of the flourishing of all that God has made. We’re at a point where the decision or indecision of all of us threatens the tree of life.”
Related articles:
Churches’ eco-stewardship can protect ‘the tree of life,’ San Antonio congregation shows