First Green (UMC) Church in Arlington

On January 26, the church council of Mt. Olivet United Methodist Church voted to become part of the Green Church Initiative of the Virginia Conference of The United Methodist Church. Mt. Olivet UMC is the first United Methodist Church in Arlington to make this declaration and the second in the state of Virginia -- a state with more than 1,200 UMCs. The church spent more than a year discerning how it would meet the requirements in the areas of worship, education, church/individual lifestyle, and outreach.

As a member of Mt. Olivet myself, and an active member on the environmental stewardship committee, I was thrilled and proud. And it's an exciting decision, too, because the annoucement aligns with the County's goal (through the FreshAIRE program) of having businesses and organizations to commit to making “green” progress in the areas of energy efficiency, green building, transit use, and recycling.

Here’s just a sampling of what Mt. Olivet did in different areas:

CHURCH LIFESTYLE: Conducted an audit of energy use of the church’s facilities; conducted an audit of water use; replaced many of church bulbs with CFLs or other energy efficient fixtures; installed automatic switches on lights in bathrooms and some rooms; achieved Wildlife Habitat Certification; used biodegradable paper cups (Ecotainers) for coffee; promoted members bringing their own coffee cups; used fair-trade, shade-grown, organic coffee for coffee; surveyed how members come to church and promoted walking, public transit, riding the church bus to church and carpooling; hosted our first-ever Bike to Church Day (see photo).

WORSHIP: Included prayers for the environment in the weekly prayer bulletin; promoted electronic giving as a way of reducing paper; printed bulletin on 30% recycled paper;  recycled all bulletins and paper, and included bulletin “blurbs” on how to become more ecologically responsible.

CHURCH EDUCATION: Used an environmental theme for children’s vacation bible school; developed material for mission teams on links between global warming and hurricane strength; held Sunday School lessons on mountain top removal, not using water bottles, using public transit, and buying fair trade/organic cocoa

CHURCH OUTREACH: Showed “Inconvenient Truth” to church and community; developed a partnership with Arlingtonians for a Clean Environment; identified environmental activities to be a part of church youth outreach; developed a process to promote “non-partisan” letter writing or petitions to government officials on the environment; hosted women’s retreat on “Greening the Church “and provided a meatless meal using mostly locally produced organic products; and sold compact fluorescent bulbs and canvas bags at alternative gifts fair.

--Jennifer K. Smith
Arlington County