United Church of Christ, Northern California Nevada Conference - Steering Committee Statement Stewards

EARTH STEWARDS

"That They
May All Be
One"

STEERING COMMITTEE

Representatives from around the Northern California Nevada Conference serve on the steering committee, to coordinate events and gather resources. In 2005-2006, we have ten members, representing all six associations, and two "alums." We are talking with some potential new members as well; let us know ifyou think you'd like to work with us. Carol Manahan serves as the coordinator.

Click on the names to read more about their interests.

Bay Association: David Borglum, Alexandra Childs, Bladimer Paeste
Golden Gate Association: Todd Evans, Carol Manahan, Hugo Steensma
Santa Clara Association: Deborah Streeter
Sacramento Association: Norm Lougee
Mountain Valley Association: Faye Morrison
Sequoia Association: Volunteer Needed ... Bruce Morris has moved to Sweden!
Former Members: Bea Morris, Jeanne Sutter

David Borglum
ecopolo@earthlink.net

Rev. David Borglum lives in Alameda with his family. A member at First Congregational UCC of Alameda, David is one of several Bay Association representatives on the Earth Stewards Steering Committee.

David’s strong commitments to ecological issues have been shaped by his study of creation spirituality, the New Cosmology, and New Thought religious traditions. He completed a D. Min. at the University of Creation Spirituality in Oakland, for which he developed and published EcoChurch Resources, a monthly free e-mail newsletter of ecological spirituality for church leaders from 2001-2002. He continues to research ecological commentary on lectionary texts, enjoys writing earth-based prayers and worship services, and is always seeking practical ways churches can fulfill their missions in a more earth-friendly mode. A volunteer with California Interfaith Power and Light, he has a special concern for energy use and its effects on global climate change.

David hopes to continue teaching, preaching, and writing, bringing together his interests in environmental ministry, meditation, and nonviolent communication to help individuals and congregations develop ecological commitments and practices. He recently completed six years of ministry at the Home of Truth Spiritual Center in Alameda.

Todd Evans
evansol@napanet.net

Rev. Todd Evans is a retired UCC minister, a founder and long-time supporter of Wellspring Renewal Center near Philo in Northern California. When he’s not traveling, he now lives in Sonoma and is a member of the First Congregational Church of Sonoma, UCC. He represents the Golden Gate Association on the Earth Stewards Steering Committee.

Todd serves on the Earth Stewards Committee at FCC Sonoma, and volunteers as a docent at Bouverie Preserve of Audubon Canyon Ranch, just north of Sonoma near Glen Ellen. He loves gardening, hiking, and camping, especially sharing time outdoors with young people, and turning them on to the wonders of the earth and to reverence for life. He is a co-founder of Seeds of Learning, based in Sonoma. For Todd, caring for the earth is a theological as well as practical concern, and he has been involved in church-related environmental projects since the 1970’s. He worked for four years for the NCNC as minister of stewardship, and presently serves on Committee A of the Committee on Ministry.

Todd was an advisor in developing the video about the 2003 Environmental Stewards conference, and is eager to show it and lead discussions at area churches. He carries a commitment to ecumenical and interfaith partnerships, and is exploring possibilities for an ecumenical environmental network. He hopes such a network will plan and lead public events helping people of all faiths to find a commitment to ecological concerns.
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Carol Manahan
cmanahan@value.net

Carol Manahan lives in Richmond with her partner, and is active with nearby Mira Vista UCC in El Cerrito, serving as Building and Grounds Coordinator this year. She is a member of the Congregational Church of Belmont, where she is In Care. Thus she represents both the Golden Gate and the Bay Associations on the Earth Stewards Steering Committee.

Carol is completing her Ph.D. in Interdisciplinary Studies at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, while teaching part time at local colleges. She focuses on environmental ethics and biblical studies, with a particular interest in agriculture. Her dissertation considers the ethical dimensions of the controversy over genetic engineering in food production. Avid gardeners, she and her partner, Anni Jensen, have created a drought-tolerant ornamental garden and organic food garden surrounding their Richmond home, and are consulting with the United Church of Hayward, UCC, on creating a garden next to the church.

She completed an M.Div. at Pacific School of Religion in 1996, and has been approved for ordination pending call; she hopes to teach at the college or seminary level, as well as with local congregations. Carol sees the ways that churches use and maintain their land and buildings as expressing theological perspectives on care for the earth, and hopes to develop ways for churches to integrate practical concerns with spiritual perspectives. She is chairing the Earth Stewards Steering Committee in 2004-2005, and led the workshop on Eco-Education at the November 2004 Bay Association meeting.
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Bruce Morris
brucemorris_catalyst@fresnomail.com

Bruce Morris divides his time between Fresno, where he is a life-long member of the First Congregational UCC, and Stockholm, Sweden, his wife’s home city. He represents the Sequoia Association on the Earth Stewards Steering Committee.

Bruce conducts Zero Waste Consulting with local businesses and government agencies on reducing the amount of waste sent to landfills, helping to set up waste reduction and recycling programs, in California and in Sweden. An “eclectic” career in public administration, non-profit organizing, and teaching prepared him to work with a variety of organizations and communities. He also writes articles for local publications. A public transit enthusiast, he sold his car six years ago, and travels to Earth Stewards meetings by train and bicycle. With others at First Congregational Church, he has advocated for fair trade coffee, compact fluorescent lights, and “zero-waste” approaches to purchasing supplies and waste disposal.

Bruce would like to see new ways to get the word out, visiting churches with programs and publications that link faith commitments with ecological concerns. He hopes to train other NCNC members to perform waste audits for local churches, helping congregations to think ecologically while reducing garbage and expenses. Bruce argues that we need to show how important ecological concerns are for faith communities, both through our worship and spiritual development, and through practical approaches to living together.
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Bladimer Paeste
revpaeste@juno.com

Rev. Bladimer Paeste is pastor of Faith Community Church, UCC, in Oakland, and lives with his family in Fremont. A native of the Philippines, Bladimer came to the U. S. in 2003. He represents the Bay Association on the Earth Stewards Steering Committee.
Bladimer grew up on a remote village, and through his education and ministry came to see the connections between economic survival and environmental justice.

For several years the United Church of Christ in the Philippines developed a program responding to the World Council of Churches theme, Justice, Peace, and Integrity of Creation. In the late 1980’s the UCCP had a quadrennial theme, “The Church for the Life of the World: Called to Be Stewards of God’s Creation,” in conformity to the WCC’s call during the time. The UCCP then conducted research, organized communities, created education programs and drafted resolutions responding to the ecological dilemmas in forestry, agriculture, and mining. As a local church Pastor, Bladimer was able to take part in programs and activities relative to the theme in the local and the conference level.
Bladimer says that the environment where we live shapes us, whether in urban California or the rural Philippines, and we need to continually expand our understanding of the physical world to develop a fuller Christian perspective on justice.

Bladimer sees the church playing a key role in addressing ecological concerns. He is working with the Earth Stewards to develop resources to address the needs of his own and other Filipino congregations and communities of color, for orientation, awareness and education on environmental and justice themes. “God is inspiring us to concretize our faith,” he says, whether in campaigns for debt relief, wildlife protection, conservation, or sustainable development.
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Deborah Streeter
STREETCOOK@aol.com

Rev. Deborah Streeter lives in Big Sur, where she is the founder of Upwellings, a Ministry of Environmental Stewardship, and a member of the Community Church of the Monterey Peninsula. She serves as Associate Conference Minister for the Santa Clara Association, and as editor of The Pacific, NCNC's monthly newspaper.

Deborah represents the Santa Clara Association on the Earth Stewards Steering Committee.
Pursuing her environmental interests, Deborah is a volunteer guide at the Monterey Bay Aquarium and a docent at Point Lobos State Reserve. She has served as a member at large on the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary Advisory Council for several years, and began a term as Chair of the Council in 2004. She regularly preaches and teaches at different churches in the Santa Clara Association, and talks about inspiration for environmental groups. She is always eager to learn more, from scientific as well as theological perspectives. She is excited about a new project with Santa Clara Unive rsity, where she is field supervisor to four students who are doing internships in Monterey area parishes and at the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary, helping the churches and the Sanctuary each take the other more seriously, and helping the students discern their faith and environmental vocation.

As she looks to the future, Deborah plans to continue teaching and preaching, and to extend her programs into ongoing courses. She welcomes church groups who visit the Monterey area to arrange a field trip or aquarium visit. She hopes to help organize regional environmental conferences, drawing on ecumenical and interfaith connections.
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Alexandra Childs
artsheart@earthlink.net

Rev. Alexandra Childs is Associate Pastor of Family Ministry, Social Justice and the Arts at Skyline Community Church, UCC, in Oakland, and a founding member of Artists Revitalizing and Transforming Sacred Space (ARTSS). She lives in Alameda with her three cats. Alexandra serves on the Bay Association Executive Board and represents this association on the Earth Stewards Steering Committee.

Alexandra brings passionate earth concerns to all of her work, whether with children, youth or adults, in worship or in teaching, creating rituals or developing sacred space for worship. In fact, she says she was an environmentalist long before she was a church person, influenced in part by her father, who started the first recycling program in Greenwich Village. She is initiating work toward a multidimensional “Earth Covenant” at Skyline UCC, creating recycling and composting programs, looking at ways that ecological awareness can shape church purchasing decisions, and researching the possibility of solar-generated electricity on the perfectly situated church roof.

Alexandra looks forward to developing resources to share with others, whether an ecological buying guide, or collection of prayers and meditations for worship services, or an earth-awareness Vacation Bible School. She looks forward to planning retreat and workshop activities, especially drawing on the arts and on direct contact with earth to help raise awareness and spiritual connection with the natural world.
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Norm Lougee
aqualog@aol.com

Norm Lougee lives in Redding, and is a member of Pilgrim Congregational UCC. He represents the Sacramento Valley Association on the Earth Stewards Steering Committee
.
Norm is a retired water systems engineer, an expert on hydraulics, who managed reservoirs and water distribution for water districts in San Francisco and Mountain View. His interest in water extends to local use: how churches and families can reduce water usage through new water saving technologies as well as drought resistant landscaping. He’s an advocate of conservation, but also believes that we need to consider appropriate use of natural resources, not only preserving them. He is an artist with acrylic paints, creating landscapes of mountains and seashores, and enjoys linking creative, ecological, and spiritual approaches, whether in worship or daily life.

Norm looks forward to getting to know what other Sacramento Valley Association churches are doing to express ecological commitments, and sharing the ideas he gathers at Earth Stewards meetings. An advocate for energy conservation and careful use of water, he hopes to learn more about energy conservation and solar energy and help local churches implement practical programs.
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Bea Morris
beamorris@hotmail.com

Bea Morris lives in Berkeley, and is a member of Mira Vista UCC in El Cerrito, where she has served on the Worship Committee and the Church Council. She represents the Bay Association on the Earth Stewards Steering Committee.

Bea is a doctoral student in Interdisciplinary Studies at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, focusing on African American women’s literature as a source and expression of womanist theology, drawing particularly on ecofeminist perspectives and post-colonial theory. She serves as a physician’s assistant with an Oakland clinic serving primarily low-income African American women, where she teaches creative writing classes as well as providing medical care. As a poet and theologian, she works with women to empower themselves through the creative process of story-telling.

Bea completed an M.Div. at PSR in 2002, and hopes to be ordained in the spring of 2005. As an “eco-womanist,” Bea works to continually expand the range of concerns we see as ecological, as well as extending approaches to addressing them. With justice as a center point, she draws people from different communities to share their experiences and concerns. As a member of the steering committee, she hopes to encourage communities of color to see ecological concerns as their own, as part of the larger issues they face.
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Faye Morrison
fayeb@goldrush.com

Faye Morrison lives in Arnold, on the slope of the Sierras, and is a member of the First Congregational Church UCC, in Murphys. She represents the Mountain Valley Association on the Earth Stewards Steering Committee. Faye has lived in Arnold for fifteen years, having retired there with her husband after living in Palo Alto, where she taught elementary school for many years. She became a bicycle commuter in 1973 and frequently enjoys bike touring vacations.

As a member of the Murphys church, she helped found the Sustainable Culture Committee more than three years ago. The committee has undertaken several projects, including hosting a speaker series, conducting an energy audit, planning Earth Day celebrations, and providing almost monthly articles for their church newsletter. Through their leadership, the Murphys church served as a cosponsor of the Earth Stewards resolution passed at the NCNC Annual Meeting in May of 2003. Active not only in the church, Faye volunteers at the library and the state park. She is an avid reader and writer.

For Faye, becoming more aware of ecological issues, changing our attitudes, living more sensitively, are key aspects of Earth Stewards work. Faye says, “I try to do all I can to live up to the principles I believe in, even though I never reach 100%.” She hopes to find ways to share what they’ve done at the Murphys church, and to link their work with other programs and projects underway in other churches and communities.
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Hugo Steensma
Sica4HS@aol.com

Hugo Steensma lives in Sonoma, and is an active member of First Congregational Church of Sonoma, UCC, and of the church’s Earth Stewards Committee. Hugo represents the Golden Gate Association on the NCNC Earth Stewards Steering Committee, and served as chair of the committee in 2003-2004.

Hugo has a lifelong commitment to ecological issues both in his work as investment advisor with Sustainable Assets Management, and in his volunteer commitments. A thirty year member of the Sierra Club, he serves on the Redwood Chapter Executive Committee. The FCC Sonoma’s Earth Stewards Committee has organized Earth Day worship services, a Green Power Car Club for the Fourth of July parade, and a speaker series on sustainability and spirituality. The committee has also collaborated with the Sonoma Ecology Center on summer youth environmental projects. With Hugo’s leadership, the committee led the way to bringing the Earth Stewards position statement to the NCNC Annual Meeting in 2003. Hugo also served on the organizing team for the Fall 2003 Earth Stewards conference.

Hugo says we can always do more environmental education through forums, videos, web pages, and hands-on activities. Starting with simple programs such as serving fair trade organically-grown coffee and switching to compact fluorescent bulbs, we can share our commitments with new people and new congregations. With gratitude for God’s gifts, Hugo senses a responsibility to share his time and his skills to help create changes leading to sustainable ways of living. One project on his mind this year is helping to bring ecological concerns to the UCC on a national level through the general synod.
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Jeanne Sutter
jksutter8@comcast.net

Rev. Jeanne Sutter is a UCC minister who has served as pastor and interim minister for several congregations. She's a staff member at the Pacific Center for Spiritual Formation where she focuses on eco-spirituality. Jeanne lives in Richmond and attends the Unity Church in Marin.

Jeanne enjoys worship, workshop and retreat leadership on ecological themes such as cosmology, creativity and spirituality. She recently completed a Doctor of Ministry program at the University of Creation Spirituality in Oakland. Her dissertation project developed a guidebook for environmental awareness which includes activities and spiritual practices appropriate for eco-spirituality circles. Jeanne is also trained as a labyrinth facilitator with Veriditas at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco.

As a member of the Earth Stewards Steering Committee, Jeanne helped to organize the Fall 2003 conference, and looks forward to future workshops and retreats and to visiting local churches for environmental programs.
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