On October 28, 2013, the UUFBR Board of Trustees accepted the Charter of our newly created Green Sanctuary Team. (Go to https://www.uufbr.org/uufbr-green-sanctuary-program/green-sanctuary-team-charter-final-draft/ to read the text of the charter.) Our new Green Sanctuary Team will work to lead our entire congregation in the direction of living more in tune with our Seventh Principle: “Respect for the interdependent web of all existence of which we are a part.” Satisfactory completion of the requirements of the Green Sanctuary Program will result in UUFBR becoming a Certified UUA Green Sanctuary. We hope that UUFBR will join the 221 certified UU Green Sanctuary Congregations that have already made a commitment to be responsible stewards of Earth and all its inhabitants.
The certification process is quite rigorous and demanding. Your Green Sanctuary Team intends to involve the entire UUFBR Family in the process, which may take 3 to 4 years to complete. We must first conduct an “environmental assessment” of all of the programs and activities of UUFBR. We will evaluate four areas of congregational life: Worship and Celebration; Religious Education; Environmental Justice; and Sustainable Living. Then we will plan and carry out 12 projects which will be designed to have positive effects on the practices of our congregation and on environmental and social justice problems that occur in our local community, South Florida, and beyond. One major environmental activity we intend to promote and support is the Florida Earth Fair, which will be held in Boca Raton April 12-22, 2014.
For additional information go to https://www.uufbr.org/green-sanctuary-team/ and contact Team Co-Leaders Bill Bode and Robert Duchemin.