Speaking out for justice in the community and across the globe has taken a new turn at St. Mark's Presbyterian Church.

The 400-member congregation had tackled social justice issues across the board since the church opened its doors 60 years ago. According to one of the pastors, The Rev. Stuart Taylor, the church has been known for taking positions on social justice issues. The church has worked with people in poverty, dealt with civil rights issues and, in more recent years, provided humanitarian aid to immigrants.

But they never really looked at environmental justice.

“We’re known as a social justice church,” Taylor said. “But before a few years ago, we just didn’t tackle environmental issues.”

See Taylor describe his church's mission and the future plans for the church community:



Taylor said it was in 2007 that the idea of his church making such a move first struck him. He re-read the Old and New Testaments through an environmental justice lens. In the same year, he presented his findings in a series of lectures called “The Green Bible” to the local community.

“We’re entering a time of ecological crisis,” Taylor said. “Our planet is being sucked into a dark hole, and that crisis has gotten our attention as a church.”

St. Mark’s, 3809 E. Third Street, has taken steps since then to reduce its carbon footprint in Tucson and to teach the community about environmentally-friendly steps people can take.

The congregation began by taking small steps, like cutting out Styrofoam cups during services, serving completely vegetarian meals at events and participating in service projects like cleaning up the San Pedro River, Taylor said.

But in the past year, they also have performed more substantial measures to aid the environment.

In April 2008, the church put together an Earth Day workshop, in which 20 other congregations around Tucson took part to learn how to help the environment in their church home and local community.

The biggest step St. Mark's has taken, Taylor said, was to put together a team to conduct an environmental audit of the church in March 2008. The audit was designed to help learn what changes could be made to reduce electricity and water use on their church campus. They are currently implementing changes based on the results of the audit.

According to Jan Olav Flaaten, executive director for the Arizona Ecumenical Council, environmental audits have become increasingly popular in churches across Arizona in the past two years.

“If churches work on environmental issues, it has a ripple effect,” Flaaten said. By taking steps toward an environmentally-friendly church campus, Flaaten said, St. Mark’s will influence other churches or faith communities to become more aware of their actions.

The Arizona Ecumenical Council developed an Earth Care Commission eight years ago, Flaaten said. The chairman of the commission, Doug Bland, said that churches are biblically called to be “stewards of their earth," and the commission strives for that goal. The commission gives presentations and develops conferences for churches to become more environmentally aware.

Along with recent steps St. Mark’s has taken towards becoming more environmentally aware, Taylor said the church plans to develop a water cistern system in what is currently a parking lot to care for the church vegetation in a way that is friendly to the Tucson desert.

Taylor also showed developed blueprints for a future “green café” for the local community on the church property, as well as plans for the expansion of the existing community garden, which is maintained by Tucson Organic Gardeners.
“We really have just taken these advocacy steps to make a better world,” Taylor said. “By implementing these changes, we can reduce our carbon footprint.”