Ecological justice is addressed by the Peace and Social Justice Group in three ways:
Sponsoring Our Annual Earth Day Service: Each year the group contributes to designing and leading a worship service to recognize Earth Day (at the end of April). Along with the worship service we organize an activity to help show people what they could do to be more ecologically conscious. In 2024 we brought trees into the worship service, blessed and gave thanks for them, and then recessed them out to the front garden so that they could be planted in the entry beds by the congregation. The trees were native Flowering Dogwoods (Cornus Florida) to also show that species of native plants (plants that were found in this region prior to settlers arriving) are also very diverse and beautiful. In 2023 we ran a workshop with guest speaker Donna Lang from Faithful Footprints to talk to us about native plants and their value in our garden. Faithful Footprints helped to fund our garden development.
The Green Team: We have a Green Team at Met that provides an ecological lens on things that happen in our community. Coffee hour has switched to ceramic mugs to avoid single use cups. Gardening and park redesign is leaning heavily in favour of sustainable practices and native plants to support our pollinators and birds. The Green Team has worked with the Property Committee and asked questions about options for heating, insulation and greening of our church.
McGill Square Park Renewal: The lands we steward at Metropolitan’s McGill Square Park take up a city block and are some of the greenest accessible spaces in the downtown core. Thanks to a very generous donation and the Capital Campaign, Met raised enough money to begin renewal to Mcgill Square Park. The Peace and Social Justice Group is working with the Park Renewal team as part of our ecological justice work. Designs began in 2022, and in 2024 we have renovated the East Side of McGill Square Park. We have met many interesting friends along the way including Lost Rivers because we have a river, Taddle Creek, buried in our front yard.
A New Creed (United Church of Canada)
United Church of Canada’s Climate Change Initiatives
Kairos – What We Do for Ecological Justice
