Officially a ‘Cool Congregation’

Above: Youngsters from All Saints Parish painted rocks to help decorate the church’s Garden of Peace (Sun file photo)

All Saints Parish, Syracuse, wins leadership and sustainability award

Interfaith Power and Light Announces ‘Cool Congregations Challenge’ Winners as Faith Communities Prioritize Energy Efficiency, Renewables, and Sustainability

WASHINGTON, D.C., February, 2024 — All Saints Catholic Church, Syracuse, NY is one of the six national Interfaith Power & Light (IPL) 2024 Cool Congregations Challenge winners awarded a $1000 prize. The annual contest accepts applications from religious congregations around the United States who are doing work to address climate change by reducing their carbon footprint as they create models of sustainability within their communities.

All Saints Catholic Church won the Community Inspiration award for the work of their Task Force that has been a leader in the Catholic Diocese of Syracuse, mitigating climate change by assisting its own parishioners, and other parishes in starting Caring for Our Common Home teams, developing a Youth Program, supporting the city’s tree planting goals, and signing up their members with community solar.

“All Saints Catholic Church and the other national winning congregations are casting a vision for the kind of world in which they want to live, and then carrying out that vision with practical actions that make a real difference in creating lasting solutions to climate change,” said Rev. Susan Hendershot, President of Interfaith Power & Light.

Father Fred Daley, pastor of All Saints Catholic Church said of the parish’s Care for Our Common Home team, “Our parish is so blessed with our Care For Our Common Home Task Force, which in a very real way brings the beautiful encyclicals of Pope Francis on the environment right down to earth, to Mother Earth, here at All Saints, in many practical ways. One is education, continually presenting to the community information for reflection and action. Also, a continual evaluating of our parish campus and how we can become more environmentally friendly. Everything from ways of recycling to studies on solar panels and looking at the possibility of electric chargers in our parking lot, getting our children, our youth, very involved in a deeper understanding and respecting for human life with a children’s garden and a faith formation program that centers on the sacredness of Mother Earth and how we need to protect it. So we are so blessed here at All Saints. We know it’s doing little things, but we continue to grow in understanding and awareness, most particularly on how care for our common home is really central to the message of the Gospel and Jesus.”

The Cool Congregations Challenge shows that people of faith are united by concerns about climate change and are taking action. The winners provide strong moral role models for their communities, and their activities have a ripple effect on people in their own homes, demonstrating that acting on climate is a moral issue.

Interfaith Power & Light is mobilizing a religious response to global warming in congregations by promoting energy conservation, energy efficiency, and renewable energy. www.interfaithpowerandlight.org Twitter: #CoolCongregations @interfaithpower   Facebook: facebook.com/interfaithpowerandlight