As part of their Christmas gift giving this year, members of the Church of the Good Shepherd in Watertown are turning off lights in unused rooms, air drying laundry and carpooling--just a few of the relatively inexpensive carbon-emission-saving acts that are part of the parish's holiday Give-to-the-Earth Tree project.
The paper tree went in the parish hall in early December. Using a list of "25 Steps Under $25" from
COURTESY PHOTO
The Give-to-the-Earth Tree is being decorated with simple acts of environmental stewardship.
www.coolcongregations.org as a guide, parishioners are invited to do something that decreases their carbon footprint, then write what they did on a paper ornament and hang it on the tree.
The Give-to-the-Earth Tree, they say, is both an alternative practice toward living more simply and with intention and, beyond its potential environmental benefits, a way to counter the consumerization of the season--in short, a gift that keeps on giving.
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