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Rev. Neal Jones,left, pastor of the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Columbia, and church member Jonathan Thompson are helping to get the church "greener." A new bike rack was installed at the church for members to ride their bikes to church.
Posted on Sat, Apr. 19, 2008
A green dream: Pedal power from the pulpit
By CAROLYN CLICK - cclick@thestate.com
The Unitarian Universalist Fellowship of Columbia is going green.
On Sunday, members plan to gather at Sims Park for a “Bike-In” to encourage members who live nearby to walk or bicycle to church.
“We want to become a greener sanctuary,” said the Rev. Neal Jones, the fellowship’s pastor. He’ll borrow a bike for the event, as his was stolen a few years ago.
“I hope I don’t need training wheels,” he quipped. “It’s been a long time since I’ve ridden a bike.”
When they arrive at the church, at Heyward and Woodrow streets, congregants will dedicate a new bike rack for church use. The rack was donated by Joan and Bill Amundson, who regularly bike to church from their Rosewood home.
Jonathan Thompson, a member of the church and inveterate biker, installed the bike rack and plans to use it each Sunday.
“Really, I used to be big in racing bicycles,” he said. “It was more of a sport for me than a means of transportation.”
But since his graduation from college, Thompson said his bicycle has become his main mode of travel. He routinely uses it to go to work, to the grocery store, church and other places.
“Hopefully, (the Bike-In) will encourage people to fix up their bicycles, and even if they ride just one day a week, it’s a good thing.”
The push toward pedal power is one step on the congregation’s path toward greater environmental sustainability, Jones said.
The church tries to conserve energy and recycle. When members gather for dinner, they wash dishes rather than use disposable paper products.
Jones said a renovation of the sanctuary and social hall, planned for 2010, will add even greater substance to their sustainability pledge.
The Boudreaux Group architectural firm is designing an interior space that will conform to the standards of the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, or LEED, rating system for green buildings.
In his Sunday sermon, Jones said he will tell his congregation it is time to alter the stories we tell each other. “The myths we live by tell us that our resources are limitless, that we can continue to expand our economy without consequences,” he said. “We need new stories.”
Jones said he plans even to take issue with the writers of the Genesis creation story, who write that man is given dominion over the creatures of the Earth.
“I think Native American spirituality gets at it better,” he said. “The Earth doesn’t belong to us. We belong to the Earth.
“We desperately need stories that will teach us our proper place in the natural order and inspire us to our true calling.”
Reach Click at (803) 771-8386.
