Ministering healthy ideas

Michele Marr

When Cindy Woods and Frank Rood approached the Rev. Harold Clinehens,

Jr., rector of St. Wilfrid of York Episcopal Church, about starting a

ministry to address environmental issues, he was thrilled.

“It was an answered prayer for me,” said Clinehens. “I kept

thinking, ‘Gosh, we need to be doing something about this,’ and Cindy

just showed up. She and Frank have done an incredible job.”

Rood and Woods, husband and wife, organized the parish’s Earth

Ministry, which is now in its second year, and they continue to

coordinate its efforts and events.

“It was a meant-to-be kind of thing,” Woods said. “Father

Clinehens knew that it was important. He had a great interest. He was

thinking about it and I was thinking about it. We just hadn’t had the

conversation. He was very happy for someone to take the lead.”

Woods and Rood were naturals. She had been involved with a similar

ministry at All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena before coming to

St. Wilfrid. He had been a detective in the Los Angeles Police

Department’s Environmental Crimes Unit for 16 years.

“We were looking at companies and individuals who were

deliberately polluting the environment in order to make a profit,”

Rood said. “In that type of situation you have a real urgency to want

to protect the environment, the people, the habitat. When you leave

[you don’t] leave those feelings behind, they come with you and grow

over the years.”

On Sunday, St. Wilfrid’s Earth Ministry will host its second Earth

Day celebration, this year with the theme, “Sustainable Living:

Caring for Creation.” More than a half dozen exhibits will address as

many environmental issues and additional information on numerous

environmental organizations and education resources will be

available.

A Honda Civic Hybrid and a Toyota Prius will be on display as part

of an exhibit on alternative transportation, along with information

on other types of hybrid cars from other manufacturers.

An exhibit on sustainable building materials will include examples

of steel stud and hay bale construction. A video of the Earthship

House, constructed out of rammed earth and tires by the Dennis Weaver

Institute, will be showing.

Al Mader, who heads up the parish’s Mountain High Ministry, will

provide information on hiking with a then-and-now-style exhibit to

show how hiking gear has changed over the years.

Organic munchies, including their recipes will be provided to

attendees. Bags of Equal Exchange, Fairly Traded Gourmet Coffee will

be on sale.

Other exhibits will offer information on simple living with

organic foods and earth-friendly household products and on solar

power and how it can be used for a variety of energy solutions.

Rood has designed an exhibit on drought-tolerant gardening and

water conservation. Along with providing examples of soil and plants,

he will demonstrate how to convert regular sprinkler systems to drip

systems.

“Our idea is not to overwhelm people, but to stimulate their

interest so they might say, ‘You know that little corner I’m having

trouble with all the time, I’ll try some of these plants,’” he said.

Simple and easy are recurring themes in Woods’ and Rood’s approach

to environmental education and change.

Woods listed a handful of things almost anyone can do to help the

environment with a minimum of planning, time, effort and expense: buy

organic foods as often as you can; use earth-friendly household

products; use cloth shopping bags; carpool or use alternative

transportation when possible; recycle and use recycled products.

The still-fledgling Earth Ministry now has more than 30 members.

Each month they either organize an environmental project or they host

an educational event. They like to keep things helpful, creative and

fun.

The group has cleaned up trash and debris at the Bolsa Chica

wetlands and at the state beach. Members have helped out at the

Shipley Nature Center. They have hosted several organic luncheons and

dinners, some of them potlucks.

“We’ve tried to make the Earth Ministry a team concept and I’ve

been so pleased,” Woods said. “People are supportive and interested

and willing to do the work. They walk the walk and they talk the

talk.”

* MICHELE MARR is a freelance writer from Huntington Beach. She

can be reached at [email protected].