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Caring
for God's creation

Centenary's Environmental Council

Our Environmental Council was formed in 1998 by a group of passionate and dedicated Centenary members who accept the Biblical proposition that we are all Stewards of the Earth and bear responsibility for its care.

Each year since our inception we have sponsored several kinds of activities at the church. April is a busy month with an annual Earth Day Dinner, usually with vegetarian fare and speakers, movies and related activities. Preaching and musical selections from the choir on a designated Earth Day Sunday follow environmental themes at the 9:00 and 11:00 services. There are special children's activities and other appropriate events. Earth Day Dinner speakers have included Dr. Tim Auman, Chaplain of Wake Forest University, Dr. Bill Leonard, Dean of the WFU School of Divinity and Dr. William Schlesinger, Dean of the Duke University Nicholas School of the Environment.

Individually, our members participate in street and stream cleanups and tree and bulb plantings sponsored by the City. We have led wildflower/adventure hikes and attend annual Methodist Church Conference-wide Caring for Creation Events at Lake Junaluska. We participate in the annual Triad Earth Day Fair on the Wake Forest Campus.

We have been successful in encouraging the church to use more environmentally friendly paper products and establish empty water bottle/container collection receptacles in the Day Care Center and other church locations. The Council maintains a battery disposal repository at the 4 ½ Street Entrance for collection of batteries that are toxic; we then take them to the City's Environstation for toxic waste, as needed. Our Council provides Shade Grown, Fair Trade Organic Coffee at selected church events and sells it at appropriate venues, including the Bookstore.

Centenary Gardeners: The Centenary Gardeners grew out of and are a part of the Environmental Council. This group has planted and maintains on an annual basis, many of the flower beds on Centenary's grounds and created and maintains the berm flower bed by the Columbarium.

We always welcome new members. If you are interested in learning more about our activities, please contact Reverend Maria Edmonds, Associate Minister of Missions or Vickie Sewell, her Administrative Assistant at the church (724-6311) and a member will be in touch with you.

Mission Statement

We are driven by the knowledge:

That from the first book of Genesis through the last book of Revelation, the Bible calls humankind to care for Creation;
That God holds us accountable for the state of the earth and the quality of our stewardship;
That United Methodism teaches that our Covenant with God requires us to be stewards, protectors, and defenders of all Creation.

Therefore, we establish this Environmental Council as a part of our church for the following purposes:

1. To educate ourselves, our church, and our community about our stewardship responsibilities to Creation;
2. To raise awareness in ourselves, our church, and our community about the needs of God’s Creation;
3. To be active in our church, our community, our state, and our nation individually and in organizations committed to these ideals.