Holiday Resources

No matter the time of year it seems we never get away from a fast approaching holiday season.  On these pages you will find a list of resources, educational offerings, blessings, gift buying guides and etc to help you and your faith community Care for Creation no matter the holiday.  So if you are putting away your orange Halloween decorations, polishing a silver Menorah or planting yellow tulips, on these pages you will find resources to make all of your holidays green.

Worship Resources

GIPL Worship Resources-This is our exhaustive list of ways to incorporate Creation Care into your worship service.

Earth Ministry Resources-For any all holidays try this page for ways to incorporate green worship. 

Green Gift Guides

Green Gift Guide-The Coalition on the Environment and Jewish life presents a comprehensive Green Gift Guide for any and all of your gift buying holidays.

www.thegreenguide.com- A green buying guide created by The National Geographic Society that contains tips and reviews on everything from dog food to shampoo.  

Word Wildlife Federation Gift Guide -Give a unique and meaningful gift, such as investing in a gorilla habitat, sending a child to nature camp or giving a panda room to grow.

GIPL Green Gift Guide-Our very own Green Gift Guide for any holiday.  On page 2 of our December 2006 newsletter.

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is a blessing all on its own; a rare moment to gather with others to celebrate the harvest.  While the harvest may sometimes be small and remembering to Care for Creation in the midst of consumption can be challenging, we are called to give thanks for what we do have.  “In the midst of a pragmatic world in which we constantly ask ourselves how “useful” things are, these prayers may seem “useless.”  Yet perhaps the greatest gift we humans have to offer the rest of the creation is our heartfelt appreciation.”[1]  It is with our heartfelt appreciation for all that creation offers that we at GIPL provide a collection of Thanksgiving blessings, Scriptures and other information 

Greening your Thanksgiving-Check out these tips on page 2 of our November 2007 Newsletter.

PCUSA Alternative Thanksgiving Ideas-from the Just Living, Enough for Everyone Program.

Thanksgiving Blessings 

From the Rig Veda

Let us be united,

Let us speak in harmony,

Let our minds apprehend alike.

Common be our prayer;

Common be the end of our assembly;

Common be our resolution;

Common be our deliberations;

Alike be our feelings;

Unified be our hearts;

Common be our intentions;

Perfect be our unity

W.E.B Du Bois

Lord of the springtime, Father of flower, field and fruit, smile on us in these earnest days when the work is heavy and the toil wearisome; lift up our hearts, O God, to the things worthwhilesunshine and night, the dripping rain, the song of the birds, books and music, and the voices of our friends.  Lift up our hearts to these this night and grant us Thy peace. Amen

Zen Prayer

We venerate the Three Treasures:

Buddha, Dharma, Sangha,

And are thankful for this meal,

The work of many people

And the sharing of other forms of life.      

Rabbi Rami M. Shapiro

My friends, let us give thanks for Wonder.  Let us give thanks for the Wonder of Life that infuses all things now and forever.

Blessed is the Source of Life, the Fountain of Being the wellspring of goodness, compassion and kindness from which we draw to make for justice and peace. 

From the creative power of Life we derive food and harvest, from the bounty of the earth and the yields of the heavens we are sustained and are able to sustain others. 

All Life is holy, sacred, worthy of respect and dignity.  Let us give thanks for the power of the heart to sense the holy in the midst of the simple.

We eat not to simply satisfy our own appetites, we eat to sustain ourselves in the task we have been given. 

Each of us is unique,

Coming into the world with a gift no other can offer: ourselves.

We eat to nourish the vehicle of giving; we eat to sustain our task of world repair, our quest for harmony, peace and justice.

We eat and we are revived, and we give thanks to the lives that were ended to nourish our own.

May we merit their sacrifice, and honor their sparks of holiness through our deeds of loving kindness.

We give thanks to the Power that makes for Meeting, for our table has been a place of dialogue and friendship.

We give thanks to Life.  May we never lose touch with the simple joy and wonder of sharing a meal.     

From Catholic Household Blessings and Prayers © 1988, International Committee on English in the Liturgy, Inc. 

Almighty and ever-living God,

you have made us stewards over the created world,

so that in all things we might honor the demands of charity.

Graciously hear our prayers,

that your blessing may come upon all those

who use these objects for their needs.

Let them always see you as the good surpassing every good

and love their neighbor with upright hearts.

We ask this through Christ our Lord.

R. Amen 

Collect for Thanksgiving Day from the Book of Common Prayer, 1979.

Almighty and gracious Father, we give you thanks for the fruits of the earth in their season and for the labors of those who harvest them. Make us, we pray, faithful stewards of your great bounty, for the provision of our necessities and the relief of all who are in need, to the glory of your Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever. Amen. 

Thanksgiving Scriptural Texts

Gn l:l-28-Creation Story

Gn 9:8-17-God's Covenant with Noah and All Creation

Ps 8-The Majesty of God

Ps 65- Thanksgiving for God's Blessings

Ps 104-Praise of God the Creator

Ps 146- Trust in God Alone

Ps 147-Zion's Grateful Praise to Her Bountiful Lord

Ps 148-Hymn of All Creation to the Almighty Creator

Dn 3:52-90-Praise of God; Praise of God's Creation

Jn l:l-5-In the Beginning Was the Word

Rv 21:14-New Heavens and New Earth 

History lesson:

President Washington, upon creating a national holiday to celebrate Thanksgiving said; “And also that we may then unite in most humbly offering our prayers and supplications to the great Lord and Ruler of Nations, and beseech Him to pardon our national and other transgressions; to enable us all, whether in public or private stations, to perform our several and relative duties properly and punctually; to render our National Government a blessing to all the people by constantly being a Government of wise, just, and constitutional laws, discreetly and faithfully executed and obeyed; to protect and guide all sovereigns and nations (especially such as have shown kindness to us), and to bless them with good governments, peace and concord; to promote the knowledge and practice of true religion and virtue, and the increase of science among them and us; and, generally, to grant unto all mankind such a degree of temporal prosperity as He alone knows to be best

Not to be outdone, President Lincoln also made a Thanksgiving proclamation. 

"It is the duty of nations as well as of men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God; to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations are blessed whose God is the Lord (Psalm 33:12). We know that by His divine law, nations, like individuals, are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world. May we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war which now desolates the land may be a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole people?
We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in numbers, wealth and power as no other nation has ever grown.
But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us.
It has seemed to me fit and proper that God should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged, as with one heart and one voice, by the whole American people. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November as a day of Thanksgiving and praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the heavens.

Advent and Hanukkah

Advent and Hanukkah are not far away! We’d love to get your congregation involved in our compact fluorescent light bulb (CFL) projects. You can raise money for missions and other activities while protecting God’s creation by selling Advent or Hanukkah CFL kits. You can can make your own by buying CFLs from the online GIPL shopping cart and downloading the study guides. Call or e-mail us for more information.

The Advent kit includes 5 CFLs and the study guide “Preparing for a New Light.” Congregants change one light in their house to a CFL every Sunday of Advent and on Christmas Eve when they light the candles in their Advent wreath. The study guide includes scripture passages, a prayer, and information on electricity generation for each Sunday.

The Hanukkah kit includes 8 CFLs and the study guide “One for Each Night.” Congregants change one light to a CFL every night of Hanukkah when they light the candles in their menorah. The study guide includes a prayer, a light bulb joke, and information on electricity generation for each night of Hanukkah.

If you are interested in selling these kits in your congregation, call us at 404-588-9978 or e-mail us.

Christmas

Alternatives for Simple Living-“Whose Birthday is it anyway?” Share this all new Christmas booklet with households, church leaders, small study groups, Sunday school classes and other groups. 

The Low Carbon 12 Days of Christmas-Developed by Rev. Pat Watkins of Virginia IPL

Center for the New American Dream-Free download of their Simplify the Holiday Guide and a gift buying guide.

Cool People Care-The Christmas is not your Birthday Guide plus other great tips.

PCUSA Ideas for Reclaiming Advent and Christmas-From the Enough for Everyone Program.

Hazon- Need some green food tips?   Hazon’s vision is to “create a healthier and more sustainable Jewish community -- as a step towards a healthier and more sustainable world for all.”

Holiday Guides

Green Gift Guides

Thanksgiving

Advent and Hanukah

Christmas

New Year's Eve

Lent

Earth Day

Easter

Fourth of July

Halloween

Other