CREATION CARE MINISTRY
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The Episcopal Church’s Covenant for the Care of Creation is a commitment to practice loving formation, liberating advocacy, and life-giving conservation as individuals, congregations, ministries and dioceses. It is helpful to review this as our Creation Care Ministry moves forward using this covenant as our guide: In Jesus, God so loved the whole world. We follow Jesus, so we love the world God loves. Concerned about the global climate emergency, drawing from a range of approaches for our diverse contexts, we commit to form and restore loving, liberating, life-giving relationships with all of Creation. LOVING FORMATION For God’s sake, we will grow our love for the Earth and all of life through preaching, teaching, storytelling, and prayer. LIBERATING ADVOCACY For God’s sake, standing alongside marginalized, vulnerable peoples, we will advocate and act to repair Creation and seek the liberation and flourishing of all people. LIFE-GIVING CONSERVATION For God’s sake, we will adopt practical ways of reducing our climate impact and living more humbly and gently on Earth as individuals, households, congregations, institutions, and dioceses. To learn more about Immanuel’s Creation Care Ministry and Action Team, contact Denise Freeland at [email protected]. RESOURCES
2023 Clean Energy Tax Credits for Consumers (a benefit of the Inflation Reduction Act)
Click here to check out some of the items included in the law. 
Click here to read "The Climate Crisis: Here's How YOU Can Help"
Click here for information on how to reduce, reuse, and recycle
Click here for a comprehensive guide on planting native trees: why and how.
Click here for information and FAQs on Immanuel’s solar project.
Click here for the list of native plants growing in Immanuel's garden.
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CREATION CARE NEWS
March 16, 2025
PRESERVING GOD’S CREATION: How to Kindly Wake Up Our Spring Gardens Please resist the urge to rake up all the leaves from winter. Why? Our delightful fireflies, wood frogs, butterflies, salamanders, and other beneficial creatures bury themselves in leaf litter to survive the winter. If the leaves are removed too soon in the spring, we risk eliminating those species from our gardens, reducing its biodiversity. Instead, consider waiting until daytime temperatures are above 50 degrees for at least 7 days in a row before removing the leaves. This gives the species living in the leaves time to emerge and survive. And remember, those rotting leaves are very good for garden soil as they break down and release nutrients back into the garden. —— Courtesy of the Creation Care Ministry Team March 6, 2025
Solar Power Update Immanuel Church-on-the-Hill’s solar panels have been operating for over 2.5 years. The SolarEdge monitoring application measures the amount of electricity generated since the system went operational on June 7, 2022. Between June 2022 and December 2024, Immanuel saved $25,000 on electricity bills – money that has instead helped fund church priorities. Our solar panels are the gift that keeps on giving. Click on this link to see what our solar panels generate each day, week, month, or year: Immanuel Church on the Hill Environmental Benefits: As of early March 2025, our solar panels Prevented emitting over 253,000 pounds of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, equivalent to
Cost Savings for 2024:
February 6, 2025
SUSTAINABILITY TIP: What to do with plastic bags? During the pandemic in 2021, Immanuel collected 500 pounds of plastic bags which TREX turned into a lovely bench for our garden. Subsequently, Virginia enacted a plastic bag tax to help reduce plastic pollution and single-use bags which has continued to keep nearly 4 million bags out of our waterways, parks, and bellies of local wildlife. If those pesky plastic bags still show up at home, remember you can take them to any location of Giant, Safeway, Wegmans, and Harris Teeter. The collection bins are usually near the entrance. Then, take the next step and invest in a few reusable bags that you can leave in your car or other convenient location reminding you to use reusable bags and to refuse the single-use plastic bags. -- Courtesy of the Creation Care Ministry Team January 22, 2023
Forum Hour on "Climate Resolutions" The definition of the word “resolution" is “harmony." A climate resolution is one way you can help restore the planet, bringing God’s Creation to a more harmonious state. What will your climate resolutions be for 2023? Check out the slideshow below to see how some Immanuelites are caring for God’s Creation with their commitments made at the recent Forum Hour, complete with selfies! Other commitments made, but no selfies taken:
* I will replace my gasoline-powered tools and yard equipment with ones using battery power. * I will begin to compost my food waste. * I will vote for elected officials who support clean energy. * I will stop using single-use plastic water bottles in favor of reusable, refillable ones. * I will learn by reading more about climate change. July 21, 2021
Sacred Space - Memorial Garden Our team continues to think about how to integrate sustainable practices into our planning and care for the grounds at our church. We are working with Chain Bridge Native Landscapes, a local company focused on integrating native plants and sustainable design, on several areas of our property that need new planting, especially to deal with rainwater management and erosion control. The newly-planted area behind Zabriskie Chapel features Packera aurea (Golden ragwort), Itea virginica (Virginia Sweetspire), native ferns, and rushes, to name a few. A complete list of the garden plantings will soon be available. We hope these plants inspire parishioners and visitors alike to consider incorporating native plants for use in home gardens.  Kevin Kirby, Buildings and Grounds, and Kathryn Jackson Haskin, Senior Warden, take a break after weeding the newly-planted area.
As we go through this landscaping process, we are also considering the other areas on our property, most especially the Memorial Garden, and we hope to contract with this company for further discussion and planning throughout the summer and fall. We have been blessed to have strong parishioner support over many years to care for the gardens and other spaces on the property, and we look forward to engaging many in the parish in projects on the grounds through 2021 and beyond.
May 20, 2021 Good Samaritan Collection Bin New! The City of Alexandria is committed to recovering resources sustainably and has launched a Reuse Map and Directory. Reusing items is an effective way to save natural resources, protect the environment, and reduce costs. 
Immanuel’s Good Samaritan collection bin for gently used clothing is now listed in the Alexandria Reuse Directory under “Donate or Drop Off.”
Our bin is located just off the Zabriskie parking area. Trex Bench
Our Trex Bench has arrived and was assembled and placed in the Memorial Garden by Shawn Whitman. 
It is a powerful reminder that our parishioners and friends kept 500 pounds of plastic bags out of our local streams, rivers, and bellies of wildlife by donating the plastic bags and films to Immanuel’s Recycling Challenge. Our bench is the product responsibly created for us by Trex from our 500 pounds of plastic collected. And all of this was happening during the pandemic.
We invite you to go sit on the new bench and take some time to reflect on the past year. Thank you to all who participated in the Recycling Challenge and for caring for God’s Creation in this way. --Submitted by Denise Freeland |
