Greening Sacred Spaces Hamilton is a joint project between Environment Hamilton and Faith and the Common Good (a province-wide,interfaith network of religious communities), funded by the Ontario Trillium Foundation.

Greening Sacred Spaces is a practical program developed by Faith & the Common Good to assist faith communities in taking concrete actions to create a more sustainable and energy efficient place of worship and to educate members of the community about ecological issues.

Hamilton area faith groups are joining a world wide movement that addresses conservation and sustainability within their places of worship as well as in their homes. Many faith organizations recognize their role as 'Stewards of the Earth' and are increasingly seeking practical ways to implement these beliefs and encourage their members to do likewise.

For the last 2 years Environment Hamilton has been working on various projects such as energy conservation and climate change with the faith community. We've been screening environmental films, offering Ecohouse and Dave Braden's 'off the grid' house tours, facilitating workshops and speakers all with the goal of assisting Faith groups with their environmental concerns.

The new collaboration is an opportunity to expand on the ground work already laid out.

Greening Sacred Space (GSS) will help people of faith live out the call to protect our planet home within their own context. It also provides an opportunity to save money, help save the planet, and engage in meaningful conversations about the spirituality of eco-sustainability. To view poster of project launch please click here.

For more more information please contact project facilitator Beatrice Ekwa Ekoko at 905 549 0900 or email beatrice.ekoko@gmail.com

Eco Churches of West Hamilton (Eco-WHAM) & The Hill St. Garden Faith Groups win Greening Sacred Spaces Awards 2011

After years of working hard to green their places of worship and their practices, two community faith collaborations received the much coveted Greening Sacred Spaces Awards for 2011.

Started in 2006-2007 in Ottawa, the Green Sacred Spaces awards recognize faith communities who have made great efforts to reduce the environmental impact that they have on the earth.

The awards are chosen by the facilitators of the Greening Sacred Spaces program-itself is a practical program designed by the interfaith network- Faith and the Common Good. Chapters of Greening Sacred Spaces can be found all over Ontario and in Hamilton, the program is rolled out by Environment Hamilton.

Greening Sacred Spaces works with faith communities, helping them make their buildings more energy-efficient, and their members more environmentally aware.

This year, Eco Churches of West Hamilton (Eco-WHAM) and The Hill St. Garden Churches received the awards at a reception organized by Greening Sacred Spaces/Environment Hamilton.

Partnering with the group was Horizon Utilities Corporation. Chief Conservation Officer, Brian Smith for the utility company was on hand to present the awards.

In order to win the GSS Award, there are 3 stringent criteria that must be met and they are as follows:

1. Practical actions such as completing an energy retrofit, microfit or community garden;

2. Engagement in numerous local sustainability and energy conservation educational events  3. Involvement in outreach programs in the community at large; educating and engaging other faith communities to take actions in their communities and households at large.

10 GSS awards are granted in areas across Ontario where Greening Sacred Spaces programs are active (Hamilton, Waterloo Region, Wellington County, Toronto, Ottawa and Eastern Ontario and Peterborough). 

In past years, Green Sacred Spaces awards have been presented to faith communities in Ottawa, Toronto, Peterborough and Waterloo Region.  This year – for the first time – the GSS awards are being awarded in Hamilton.

Councillor Brian McHattie shared greetings from the City of Hamilton and the audience was rightly impressed by the presentations given by the award recipients.

The Eco Churches of West Hamilton (Eco-WHAM) Churches include Westdale United Church in Hamilton and Knox Presbyterian Church,Christian Life Assembly, St. Augustine’s Roman Catholic Church, St. James Anglican Church, St. Paul’s United Church in Dundas.

Their mission statement: To practice and advance ecological sustainability in keeping with Christian principles of stewardship.

The team meets regularly to learn, exchange ideas, plan public events, distribute newsletters, support local environmental events, and provide encouragement to like-minded community groups. The congregations are doing energy audits, installing compact florescent lighting and LED lighting, weather-proofing, eco- film screenings, climate change action,eco-walks offering water and energy conservation workshops, using rain barrels, using programmable thermostats, green and blue carting, growing community gardens, using green cleaning products and more.

Since July 2008 they have produced newsletters for EcoWHam.

The entire collection can be found on the website: http://www.knoxdundas.com/newsletters.html

The Hill St. Garden Churches include First Hamilton Christian Reformed church, New City Church, St. John the Evangelist Anglican, Central Presbyterian and First Unitarian.

The garden has well over 40 different households utilizing the space. They built the raised beds in mid April 2010 with over 100 volunteers, including nearly all the gardeners, their friends & family, and volunteers from the partnering churches.

Besides the community garden the faith groups are doing energy upgrades, getting to worship without vehicles, canning workshops, hosting meetings for the Green West Hamilton Group, using fair trade products, xeriscaping, hosting many green community events, putting up solar panels and retrofitting their buildings.

Showing great leadership, hard work and perseverance, our award winners the Eco Churches of West Hamilton and the Hill St. Garden Faith group are making a difference in the communities where they live. We will be watching these faith communities as they continue to inspire and lead by example.