Creation Care

Mission:
Encourage greater personal and shared commitment by the St. Bernard community to care for creation, taking action in our parish and among parishioners, in union with our Catholic Deposit of Faith, Laudato Si and Catholic Social Teaching.

Objectives:
• Seek and follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit in all our endeavors
• Raise consciousness of care of creation within the parish community
• Participate in parish carbon footprint reduction
• Educate ourselves and others about climate change and associated Catholic social teaching
• Advocate and collaborate with other leaders in Middleton, in our dioceses, and nationally
• Commit to personal action, and support one another in doing so.

     To introduce themselves to the parish, members of the Creation Care Team volunteered to man the water table at the St. Bernard picnic in 2019 at Lakeview Park in Middleton.
     And to make the point that water is a precious commodity, the commission asked parishioners to bring their water bottle to the picnic.
     “Every year we were going to (a warehouse store) and buying these big cases of bottled water,” said Ben Roden, a St. Bernard parish council member and organizer of our Creation Care program. “We needed a better way to do this.”
     So, at their first organizational meeting in July 2019, Creation Care members decided to use the parish picnic as a way to connect with parishioners and to talk about water conservation.
     “Many people won’t like us, but change is hard,” Roden said. “There is a little bit of inconvenience with this whole process.”
     In addition to water conservation, members said they are interested in a variety of environmental issues, including food waste, eliminating the use of plastic straws, global warming and how these things affect the poor, especially at the parish and local level.
     St. Bernard parish kicked off its conservation efforts by installing energy efficient windows in the rectory, low flow fixtures in the new church restrooms and mandating that groups holding events in the parish center not use plastic cups, plates or cutlery.
     “It starts small,” said Fr. Brian. “We have mugs here today instead of Styrofoam cups, so things are starting to take a little bit of a turn.”
     Roden said there are about five parishes in the Diocese of Madison with a Creation Care team.
     St. Dennis parish started small and now has five teams of volunteers working toward their goal of becoming a carbon neutral parish in five years.
     Their biggest project was installing an 80-panel solar array, so they can lower their energy bills and then use that savings to buy wind credits.
     Blessed Sacrament parish is also planning a solar project.
     “The nice thing is … we are not just on our own,” Roden said. “We have the other parishes and the city of Middleton has a pretty vibrant program. So, those are groups that we can collaborate with.”
     The St. Bernard group also plans to start small and work up to the large-scale projects.
     In August 2019, they wrote a mission statement, which included goals for parish facilities, education and advocacy.
     In October 2019, the group hosted a Coffee Sunday with activities for parish families interested in learning more about how they can reduce their carbon footprint.
      “It sounds like our immediate goals are … getting better known and raising the consciousness within the parish,” said Roden.

Watch the bulletin for meeting times.