WHOLE EARTH COVENANT* 

Revised, Reaffirmed and Adopted May 2007

We, as members and friends of the Holladay United Church of Christ (HUCC), Holladay, Utah, and the greater Earth community in which God is ever present, covenant to love and care for all of Creation. 

We, as individuals and as a community of faith, will practice humility and take action in our stewardship of all the Earth and her social and ecological systems. We will actively work toward harmonious relationships among and reverence for all living beings of the universal ecosystem. We will strive to help manage human population growth and raise awareness, so that all humans can live above a minimally acceptable comfort level within the limits of space and resources on our finite planet. We will strive to live within the limits of our renewable resources so that there is potable water, adequate food, and reasonable shelter for all. 

We will actively work to become independent from non-renewable resources and from the culture of unlimited consumption. We will pay special attention to climate change, recognizing it is predominately human caused and that scientists are the prophets of our quickly nearing future. We recognize the already present consequences of our impact and pledge to do all we can to reverse the climate change at hand. 

We will, guided by the Holy Spirit and to the best of our capacity, follow Jesus' lead to responsibly care for and love all of Creation. We see this in Jesus' second greatest commandment, to 'love our neighbors as ourselves.' Our neighbors include the furred, feathered, and finned ones, as well as all other animals and plants, extending to the far corners of the world and onward in the universe.

A CALL TO ACTION

To commit our faith into action, HUCC covenants to become a model community incorporating reverence and justice for the environment and all living beings in all of our activities, and to personally change our lifestyles to reduce our individual and collective impacts on planet Earth and beyond.

ACTION AREA OBJECTIVES:

Education: We strive to develop and implement a strong educational program to inform our selves, friends and families about the wise management of human activities on a finite planet and provide guidelines for living to create a sustainable future resulting in decreases in population and in per capita consumption of limited Earth resources. We will provide education about the spiritual basis for our engagement and realistic suggestions for adopting practices to reduce our ecological footprint (i.e., the sum of areas on the planet required to support our personal and communal consumption of natural resources). We will also disseminate information about the ongoing efforts of our church community to live in closer harmony with and to protect the viability of the Earth and her systems.

Function and Management: We pledge to manage the resources required to operate our church and homes with the intention of minimizing waste, reducing energy use, and striving to responsibly use the physical plant of the church. We commit to conduct biannual environmental audits of our church buildings and grounds to measure the effectiveness and efficiencies of our actions and then to correct any shortcomings as soon as fiscally and responsibly feasible.

Mission and Outreach: We pledge to make the integrity of the environment a key criterion in all decisions to expend money and talent in the larger community and our mission efforts. Particular emphasis is placed on the conscientious reduction of Earth's human population to a sustainable number and on reversing climate change.

Worship: We pledge to elevate our faith relationship with the Earth through word as well as creative musical and visual expression in worship, affirming the joy of and reverence for life and our responsibility to love and care for all of God's Creation. We pledge to do this more often than just Earth Day Sunday, but also a minimum of three other Sundays throughout each year reflecting each of the seasons.

IMPLEMENTATION

The Holladay UCC Whole Earth Eco-Friends group is authorized by the Church Council to encourage Church members and friends to engage in broad, faith-based Whole Earth activism and action. This group will act as a stimulus for activities for the greater community across and among each of the above areas. At the same time, this group is just a part of the many HUCC groups and most importantly, individuals' actions in Earth stewardship and awareness.

* The above has been adapted from the Whole-Earth Covenant of the First Congregational Church of the United Church of Christ, Boulder, Colorado. We acknowledge and thank them for consenting to our adaptation of their Covenant, which was adopted in 2002, for our purposes.