5 ways to conduct an eco-friendly parish meeting

Editor's note: NCR is offering the full article of the preview below, as a free flyer. Fill out the form here and you will get the full article 5 ways to conduct an eco-friendly parish meeting, by Sr. Joan Brown.

This offer provides a sample of the kind of special reporting exclusive to NCR's print subscribers. Subscribe now to our print and Kindle editions.

Sarah, my mother, was a simple and good woman. She always had something baked for anyone who stopped by. Her farm home was inviting and clean, using a lot of "elbow grease" and few chemicals. Her middle name could have been Frugal, which influences my own worldview and Franciscan path.

However, she did not like meetings, not even for the Women's Altar Society. She often recruited me to go with her. While I loved the homemade desserts, I did not become a fan of "church meetings."

Fast-forward to my life today, filled with many meetings, both secular and in a variety of faith community settings. While most often I would rather be in my garden, or in the kitchen baking, or in the bedroom reading a good book, meetings are necessary. I have also learned that they can be fun, inspiring and a great way to be creative and make a difference in caring for creation and our brothers and sisters.

Too often, our best intentions, informed by knowledge, do not make it into practical application. Perhaps that is why Pope Francis in "Laudato Si', on Care for Our Common Home" writes, "Our goal is not to amass information or to satisfy curiosity, but rather to become painfully aware, to dare to turn what is happening to the world into our own personal suffering and thus to discover what each of us can do about it."