Author: Church of the Nativity

Categories
Caring for Creation

Reduce your Carbon Footprint

So now that you know your carbon footprint (see previous blog post), what now? Before we think about how to offset our effect on the environment, we should brainstorm on ways to reduce it!
There are so many things that can be done:
1. On an individual level, there are big ideas like adding solar to your home, purchasing an electric or plug-in hybrid car, or switching out older, less energy-efficient appliances.
2. Then there are smaller ideas like imagining how a carpool could work for you, using less plastic overall (there are so many plastic-free alternatives these days for shampoo, conditioner, cleaners, Ziploc bags and more), washing clothes on the cold setting (or at least colder), and using a programmable thermostat in your home.
3. What you eat and what you wear can make a huge difference in reducing your carbon footprint – eating lower on the food chain (vegetables), eating local, reducing food waste, composting, and going thrifting instead of taking part in the fast-fashion industry all make a difference.
4. As part of our larger community (but still on an individual action level), you could sign up for programs that will source your electricity from green sources, such programs include Arcadia or Duke Energy’s Renewable Advantage.
5. You can also contact your local municipalities and simply ask if they have climate change goals – if so, express interest in what they are and if not, push for them.
6. At your place of employment, are there changes that they could make, such as changing from Styrofoam to paper, adding water bottle filling stations, adding EV charging stations, or adding solar.
We can’t do all the things we think of, at least not right away, so pick a couple on this list, or other ideas you might have, and add them slowly so that they become habits. Then pick a couple more, and then a couple more. I saw a quote the other day by author Rob Hopkins that said, “If we wait for the government, it will be too late . . . if we act as individuals, it will be too little . . . if we act as communities, it might just be enough . . .” Individually, we can’t change it all, but as communities we are powerful. Go out and be the change. Let’s do this as the community of God!  

Categories
Caring for Creation

What you need to calculate your footprint

Becky Showalter

Last week, we talked about what environmental footprints* and carbon footprints are. This week we are going to concentrate on how you calculate your carbon footprint? Here’s what you’ll need for a basic estimate – annual electricity and gas bills (average monthly usage) and vehicle(s) annual mileage and average mpg for your vehicle(s). Not so hard! Got to www.haitireforest.org/calculator and calculate it now!

A typical U.S. household of four has a carbon footprint of 48 metric tons CO2e per year. By state, New York has the lowest average at 32 metric tons per year per household, while Wyoming and North Dakota average 300 to 400 metric tons per household. North Carolina comes in near the average at 44 metric tons per year. Have you done your calculation yet? How do you compare? No guilt! Just information. Knowledge is power!

Nativity is also working on calculating our own Carbon Footprint too! Stay tuned.

*If you’re interested in calculating your global environmental footprint as well (how much land does it take to support you), check out this website.  https://www.footprintcalculator.org/home/en

Categories
Caring for Creation

What does carbon footprint and environmental footprint even mean?

Becky Showalter

The words “Carbon Footprint” and “Environmental Footprint” are thrown around almost interchangeably these days in news articles and discussions, but what do they actually mean and how do they relate to each one of us?  Bottom line, they are slightly different ways to frame how lightly (or heavily) we are living on our island planet, on God’s creation . . . read on to understand a bit more!

Environmental footprints and carbon footprints are linked but subtly different.  Environmental footprint, also known as Ecological footprint, is a way of expressing how much of the earth’s biocapacity (expressed in surface area) is required for our lifestyles – the portion of the environment (i.e. land) needed to produce the goods and services we use, and to absorb our waste.  Basically, if everyone lived like you, how much of the planet’s surface would be needed to sustain that lifestyle?  Our goal, of course, should be that when the global population is added up, the area needed to sustain us should be equal to, or less than, ONE planet (since we don’t have another!).

Carbon footprint is a more direct calculation – how much heat trapping gas does our lifestyle create?  This is mostly related to how much fossil fuel is burned to support our lifestyles – driving, food production, transporting of goods, movement and heating of water, energy production, construction of roads, building, infrastructure, etc.  To a lesser degree, it is also be related to how we dispose of waste (composting or not).

Both footprint types are important, and in both measurements, North Americans, not surprisingly, have larger footprints than is sustainable.  On the Environmental Footprint front, globally, we have moved from needing “ONE” planet to sustain us is 1969 to needing 1.7 planets to sustain us in 2018 – definitely the wrong direction!  From a carbon footprint standpoint, the United States produces 17 tons of CO2 per capita as compared to Mexico at 3.6 tons, the UK at 7.8 tons, China at 6.6 tons and Kenya at 0.5 tons.

Truthfully, only a portion of either footprints are in our direct control.  However, as Christians and responsible citizens of this world, we should continue to always look for ways to be better stewards.  Are there ways we can be more aware?  Are there things we can do?  The answer is a definite yes!  Look for the blog next week where we discuss some ideas of what we CAN do!

Nativity is working on calculating our Carbon Footprint!  Calculate your own Carbon Footprint at www.haitireforest.org/calculator or others that can be found on the web!  Knowledge is power!

Categories
Outreach

Supporting Ukraine

Dave McKinnon

A couple of years ago, Nativity’s Outreach team started  allocating a part of its annual budget to support disasters such as hurricanes, floods and wildfires.  We made donations to the Episcopal Relief & Development (ERD) organization to ensure our donations were directed properly.  We now have a non-climate related disaster occurring in Ukraine, caused by Vladmir Putin.  This is a humanitarian disaster on a massive scale. The Outreach team has made a donation to ERD to be directed to support the displaced Ukrainian people.

ERD provides updates and here is an excerpt from an email received this week:

“We are supporting Action by Churches Together (ACT Alliance) as it works through ACT member Hungarian Interchurch Aid (HIA) and other local organizations to provide emergency assistance such as food, shelter, water and basic supplies to refugees and people displaced within Ukraine.

ACT Alliance is setting up similar support points at other border towns to assist people as they leave Ukraine. It is working through local partners to provide aid for refugees in Hungary, Romania, Slovakia and Poland.”

The number of displaced people is increasing rapidly with no end in sight.  Peoples’ homes have been totally destroyed so they will have nothing to come back to. If you are able, please help them out by donating through Episcopal Relief and Development.  Copy the link below and help make a difference

https://support.episcopalrelief.org/ukraineresponse?ID=220301DWMDS0100&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=fy22ukraine&utm_source=220301DWMDS0100
Categories
Glad Tidings

New Covid Protocols for Sundays

The Diocese of North Carolina has released new reopening guidelines. Under these new guidelines, the following will take effect this Sunday, March 27:

  • Masks are optional during the worship service for all vaccinated people. You are welcome to keep wearing your mask, and we will still have masks available for anyone who needs or desires to take one. 
  • There is no need to sign up to attend services, nor leave your contact information that morning for contact tracing purposes any longer. If there is a reported exposure to Covid, we will inform the congregation through the Glad Tidings email list, the Nativity Facebook page, and on the website.
  • Since children and young people 5 years old and over may be vaccinated, masks are optional for those vaccinated, like the adults. Children under the age of 2 are not required to mask, and those 3-5 should be masked. However, we leave all masking decisions for children entirely to parents’ discretion. 
  • Please note, no gathering can be completely safe. Unvaccinated people remain susceptible to contracting COVID-19. Singing can increase transmission from infected individuals. 
  • If you do not feel well, please stay home, and join us online. The 10:30 service will continue to be livestreamed every Sunday and is easily accessed at www.nativityonline.org.

Should you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to reach out to Stephanie, Sr. Warden John Oldham, or Jr. Warden Bill Sena.

Categories
Social Justice

Social Justice Update

Nativity’s Social Justice Committee shares the following announcements, events and recommended resources to the Nativity community as we continue our pursuit of racial justice and reconciliation.

Announcements & Events for March 2022

COTN Social Justice:  Are you interested in hearing more about Nativity’s social justice initiatives? If you’d like to learn more or wish to attend one of our monthly Social Justice Committee meetings, please email Beth Crow. We would love to have you join us!

Higher Ground Journeys: Virtual conversation with Millicent E. Brown, Ph.D., on March 17 from 7-8:30 pm via Zoom. Register for free here. Dr. Brown is a lifelong community advocate and spokesperson for economic, social and educational improvements in exploited neighborhoods and communities of color throughout the South, the nation and the world. She specializes in ongoing analysis of the modern civil rights movement, and explores social justice dynamics and intersections of race, gender, caste, and class in contemporary society. Dr. Brown is co-founder and Project Director of an oral history initiative to identify the “first children”, like herself, to desegregate previously all-white schools (Somebody Had to Do It Project). She has held a variety of history and museum related faculty positions and serves as consultant for numerous museums, historic sites and social justice programs in North and South Carolina. 

Front Porch Society: A play presented by the Agape Theatre Project, March 19, 20, 24, 25, 26 and 27 (3 pm and 8 pm performances). Burning Coal Theatre Company, 224 Polk St, Raleigh, NC 27604.

Tickets are $20 and can be purchased here. Set in Marks, Mississippi, America is on the eve of electing its first black president, Barack Obama, on November 4, 2008. Amidst the town’s excitement over Obama, Carrie Honey grieves her son’s tragic death. After years of failed attempts to seek justice, Carrie has grown bitter and is no longer interested in life’s celebrations, but when a scandal in town rocks this historic day, a past secret is revealed that restores her faded faith.

Moral Monday March on Raleigh:  Monday, March 28 at 5 pm. Bicentennial Plaza, 16 W. Jones St, Raleigh, NC. Register for free and find more information here. The Moral Monday March on Raleigh will lift up the voices of impacted people from across NC as well as Virginia and South Carolina, joined by faith leaders, moral allies, and artists to demand that NC and this whole nation do MORE to live up to its possibilities.

The Black Farmers’ Market

Durham, 2nd Sundays, 1-4 pm, Golden Belt Campus, 930 Franklin Street, Durham, NC 

Raleigh, 4th Sundays, 1-4 pm, Southeast Raleigh YMCA, 1436 Rock Quarry Rd, Raleigh, NC 

The Black Farmers’ Market happens rain or shine bi-monthly rotating between Durham and Raleigh to provide access to fresh foods from farms directly to customers. Join us on our journey to create a strong Black led food system right in the heart of North Carolina. 

Becoming Beloved Community Book Club – April Discussion

Please join us via Zoom (connect here) on Tuesday, April 5 from 7:30-8:30 pm for our discussion of The Color of Compromise by Jemar Tisby. A New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal Bestseller – an acclaimed, timely narrative of how people of faith have worked against racial justice. A call for urgent action by all Christians today in response.

Recommended Resources

Racial Justice and Reconciliation (Episcopal Diocese of North Carolina) – Website 

This website (click here) is updated regularly with social justice programs recommended by the diocese’s Racial Justice and Reconciliation Committee.

Categories
Glad Tidings

A Concert of Love

Waltye Rasulala

On the afternoon of Feb. 13, the Nave at Church of Nativity was filled with the excited voices of children and a mixture of musical sounds. This was a pre-concert event of a Valentine concert by students from the North Carolina Chamber Music Institute. However, this was not just any concert, this was an event designed for those who are blind or have low vision.

As soon as the young people arrived they moved to the tables set up around the Nave with various string instruments for them to examine. This portion of the concert event was called a “Tactile Tour of Instruments”. Essentially an instrument “petting zoo”, it was an opportunity to touch, hold and even try to play the instruments they were about to hear. Excited children touched the inside of a cello that had been cut so they could feel inside of the instrument, the pegs, strings and the bow. NCCMI students served as guides, explaining to the children what they were feeling. Some of the children picked up the string instruments and tried their hand at playing. Others explored the inside of the beautiful piano with their fingers and felt the strings and keys and then listened to their fingers and felt the strings and keys and then listened to the sounds that were coming from the instrument.

Working with Arts Access, NCCMI provided audio descriptions through a special grant. All concert goers could scan a QR code on the program with their own devices. This gave them prerecorded descriptions of instruments, information about chamber music and the church space itself. In addition, special audio headsets were handed out to those with low vision or blindness to wear during the concert. A live audio describer sat at the back of the church and transmitted real time descriptions: what the musicians were wearing, what they looked like, what instruments they were playing as well as the music that was being played as the musicians hit the stage.

Since this was a Valentine’s Day concert the music was a variety of romantic music to honor the day. NCCMI Chamber groups played music from Mozart to George Gershwin to Billie Eilish. There was something for everyone!

At the end of the concert there was appreciative applause from the audience for performers and the opportunity to experience beautiful music in a whole new way. The expression of one young concert goer who was very shy about touching the instruments during the “petting zoo”, was a bright and joyous “thank you” as he skipped out of the Nave.

Thanks to our many Accessibility Committee volunteers, Arts Access partners, NCCMI musicians, Alfred Christensen (who managed the videotaping for the livestream) and especially the Church of the Nativity for helping present this day of joy and love to an audience of very special concert goers.

Note: This concert has been archived on the NCCMI YouTube Channel. It is freely available for viewing at any time.

Categories
Glad Tidings

Caring for our Couple Relationship: Keep your Valentine’s Day Going

Carl and Nancy Terry

Valentine’s Day gave us a chance to celebrate our love for each other and to spend special time together.  We need to keep that going throughout the year.  Let us spend time as a couple reflecting on the Valentine’s Day we just had and what we want to do to continue that celebration.

  • What did you do to celebrate Valentine’s Day?  Was it going out to dinner?  Have a quiet dinner at home?  Was it a day or a couple of hours of just being together? Did you plan it as a special date night? 
  • What made it special? Was it the gifts that you gave each other? Was it the card that said just the right things?  Was it the time spent together? Was it the physical contact of being close in body and spirit?  

It is important to have date nights, to keep that special time going.  You might take turns planning it or you could plan together.  Put the time on your calendar. 

Remember Gary Chapman’s five love languages. Remember those gifts that are often the most memorable are those that are expressed in your partner’s love language.  Whether it’s acts of service, physical touch, words of affirmation, time together, or material gifts, express your love as much as you can in their language.

For those of you who are parents, grandparents, aunts, and/or uncles, remember that you are modeling love for them. It is important for you to share with them and in front of them why you love and care for each other and them as well.

A Valentine that was a part of our celebration had a quote that we would like to share with you, “Love does not consist in gazing at each other but in looking outward together in the same direction.” Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Homework:  Have a dialogue with your partner about how you will continue to celebrate and express your love for each other. 

Categories
Glad Tidings

New 2022 Vestry Members

Julian McKimmon

My wife, Tracy and I and our two boys, Owen and Ryan,  began coming to Nativity in 2015.  Owen is now a freshman at Millbrook High and was confirmed last month.  Ryan recently joined the NC Army National Guard and just graduated from basic training at Fort Sill, OK.  I currently work from home, underwriting residential mortgages.  During my free time I enjoy cooking, being outdoors, watching/playing sports and having a good laugh! I’m originally from Decatur, AL where I was baptized at St. John’s Episcopal Church.  With the exception of a few years in my early 20s, I have always found a church home because the community is so important.  I have spent a few years here at Nativity teaching Sunday school and occasionally read a lesson during service.  I served a three-year term on the Vestry at another Episcopal church prior to joining Nativity so I know the level of commitment that it takes.  I’m excited to continue my faith journey with you here at Nativity and grateful that I’m a part of such a loving church family.

George Douglas

My wife, Megan, and I moved to Raleigh in 2001 from Budapest, Hungary where we had spent four years on a work assignment for Time Warner and was transferred to Raleigh. We had lived in five different states prior to overseas but were delighted to come to NC and find Nativity (we have attended Episcopal/Anglican churches everywhere we’ve lived). Since 2001 I have been involved in a number of different projects at Nativity including a previous Vestry term (2004-2006), Outreach, adult education, social justice, 2017 capital campaign, Stephen Ministry and bell choir. I retired in 2010 and have also been involved with the NC Radio Reading Service (for blind and visually impaired), the State Library for the Blind, hospital chaplaincy at WakeMed and announcing for WCPE, The Classical Station. Megan and I have two children living in Raleigh (Matt and Heather) and four grandchildren (Maeve, George, Jude and River). It has been great to have our family all in one place. I am excited to serve another term on the Vestry.

Perry Suk

My family joined the Church of the Nativity over 20 years ago. As true Episcopalians, my husband Bill and I immediately joined the Foyer dining/fellowship groups, where we met lots of wonderful folks and ate some delicious dishes! Early on, Bill joined the Vestry, while I co-taught the first Rite-13 group and played on the church softball team. Our kids, Annie and Will, took part in the youth programs, the pancake dinners, and the Rite-13 celebrations. Before retiring a few years ago, I taught science lab to preschool and elementary students, some of whose families are at Nativity, and I volunteered in a variety of children’s programs at the Museum of Natural Sciences. Prior to the unwelcome arrival of Covid, Bill and I enjoyed global traveling, and we look forward to those days again! To cope with these past two years, I have been weaving, knitting, playing tennis, and yes, eating whatever my husband cooks! I am excited about the opportunity to serve on the Vestry and to contribute toward the inner workings of this amazing faith community.

Allison Martin
This will be my second time serving on the Vestry. I feel I owe so much to the people of Nativity over the years. My three children were raised here and we coordinated the family dinner group for many years. I look forward to learning more about what is happening.

Categories
Uncategorized

Help Build the Beloved Community by Participating in the Farm to Church CSA Program

Carl Sigel

Since Nativity’s earliest days, one of the cornerstones of our mission has been to explore how we grow, eat, and share food.

In 2021, Nativity partnered with nine other Raleigh congregations in a program to support our local Black farmers. The program, called Farm to Church Community Supported Agriculture or CSA, was launched by the Rural Advancement Foundation International-USA (RAFI-USA).  CSAs have become a popular way for consumers (CSA members) to buy local, seasonal food directly from a farmer and to build a caring relationship with that farmer.  The members buy a share of a farmer’s production up-front which helps the farm’s cash flow and allows the farmer to plan their crop production in a way that limits food waste and farm expenses. The members benefit by receiving weekly fresh and nutritious farm products.    

Last year the CSA began with the participation of 4 Black farmers.  Produce was delivered by the farmers weekly for 8 week periods during the spring, summer, and fall seasons. Members purchased either full-shares (about 6 servings of veggies for 4 people) or half-shares (about 6 servings of veggies for 2 people).

Following a very successful launch, in 2022 the Wake County CSA is adding more farmers and congregations. Nativity plans to participate in the program again in 2022. Our time to commit for the spring harvest will be from February 7 to March 7, 2022. Share prices will be the same as for last year.  Tentatively, the first produce delivery will be on Saturday, April 22. I might add that individuals or families do not need to be Nativity members to join – they just need to be willing to pick up their shares at Nativity.

If you would like more details or are ready to commit to the spring CSA , please let me know if you would like a half- or full-share by February 2, 2022 (cwsigel@aol.com). Thanks.