Green Chalice is the Creation Care Program of Disciples Home Mission, a General Ministry of The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). Its purpose is to encourage and assist local congregations/DOC Offices and Assemblies who wish to live out their faith by caring for creation. This program is designed to recognize congregations for being good stewards of God’s creation. It also aims to empower congregations/assemblies with ideas and resources to enable them to walk gently on the earth. Green Chalice is proud to partner with Blessed Tomorrow, a coalition of diverse religious partners working to advance climate solutions in faithful service to God. The Green Chalice mission “is to connect Christian faith, spiritual practice and creation consciousness in order to demonstrate the fullness of God’s shalom.”
Midway Christian Church became a Green Chalice congregation in 2010 by entering into the Alverna Covenant and in 2015, we reached the Certified Green Chalice congregation level by meeting all necessary requirements including the adoption of the Green Chalice Covenant.
The Midway Green Chalice team meets each month, generally the fourth Thursday at 6:30 p.m., in the Fellowship Hall. Our focus is to find ways to be more responsible in the use of the earth’s resources and to educate others about this responsibility as Christians. Anyone interested in caring for God’s creation in our community (and beyond) is welcome!
A key focus in our creation care efforts is to promote climate change solutions. Recognizing that we, as a community of faith, cannot do this work alone, we have partnered with ecoAmerica, a non-profit working to promote climate change solutions, and with their program Blessed Tommorow, a coalition of diverse religious partners united as faithful stewards of God’s creation.
Through this partnership, in 2023, Midway Christian Church became the first church to join One Home One Future, a multi-faith campaign to strengthen vitality, relevance, and community connection across generations in local congregations nationwide. This coalition was organized by, and is supported by, ecoAmerica’s Blessed Tomorrow program. One Home One Future is a multi-year campaign that educates, activates, and supports clergy, congregants, youth, and all spiritual people in meaningful and just solutions locally, regionally, and nationally in ways that are accessible and positive.
In 2017, ecoAmerica’s Let’s Lead on Climate guide featured Midway Christian Church and our efforts to live out “God’s call to love our neighbors and care for creation…”, as well as in the “Faith in Action: Caring for Community and Creation” promotional video.
Midway Christian Church is honored to be a member of Kentucky Interfaith Power & Light. In August 2018, at the invitation from Tim Darst, Executive Director of KIPL, Midway Christian proudly joined KIPL at the Earth Steward level and were awarded their Hope in Action award in September. This annual award, given to faith-based organizations, was in recognition of our commitment to caring for God’s creation through our energy conservation and land stewardship efforts. In August 2020, we were welcomed as a Creation Keeper Partner. We are proud of our association with KIPL, and its other partners, in working toward their Mission, “Through education, advocacy and action, Kentucky IPL mobilizes a religious response to climate change and the social injustices it creates.”