Going 
green 
for God

Growing up during the Great Depression, Bill and Alice Howenstine learned to be frugal.

“It was not something that was a chore; it was just something you did,” Alice Howenstine said. “We were always aware of the fact that people waste too much.”

The couple, who have been married 58 years, became Quakers shortly before their wedding and found that the religion was in tune with their attitude toward conservation.

“Quakers have what we call a testimony, and one of the major testimonies is simplicity,” Bill Howenstine said. “In the 19th century, ... they tended to emphasize simplicity in consumption patterns and language.

“Over the years, it became easy to extend simplicity to taking care of the environment.”

Other area congregations – Quakers call their gatherings meetings – are getting greener, too. Several have created groups charged with helping the church become more environmentally conscious.

The First Congregational Church in Crystal Lake, for example, has two plots of land with the Crystal Lake Park District. Members of the Just Footprints group have planted fruits and vegetables, such as beans, squash, beets and tomatoes. What they grow will go toward a food pantry.

Just Footprints also has helped the church transition from using plastic foam cups during coffee hour to mugs donated by members. The church now has a colorful collection, said Sandy Ehlert, the group’s chairwoman.

Several area churches have hosted programs by the Northwest Earth Institute, which offers seven self-guided discussion courses on the environment. The McHenry County Church of Religious Science in Cary recently wrapped up a four-session course on global warming.

The Rev. Anne Muelleman said that the courses coincide with one of the main ideas of the metaphysical and new thought church – people taking personal responsibility for their lives.

“That is part of what the environmentally conscious ideas are all about, that we all play a part,” she said.

Matt Van Slyke, who helped bring the course to the church, said that many churches – both mainstream and alternative – are adopting the idea of “creation care.”

“We are stewards of the earth, and if we are to take care of our brothers and sisters, that means we take care of the earth because we are all connected,” he said. “We’re not deifying nature. It’s an enlightened and practical mindset whereby we care for each other more deeply by caring for the earth.”

At the Congregational Unitarian Church in Woodstock, the environmental group is called the Green Sanctuary Committee. Its members are trying to promote awareness of the need to go green through working with groups like the Environmental Defenders of McHenry County, the Rev. Dan Larsen said.

“We feel that all life is interconnected and one of the principles of our church is the interdependence of all life,” Larsen said. “Being environmentally involved comes naturally from that.”

Like the Howenstines, Larsen supports the idea of living simply.

“The simplicity movement is a matter of teaching people how to live more simply and consume less, which is particularly important with the economy,” he said. “We’re all going to have to do it anyway.”

Leaders of the green movement, the Howenstines and their local meeting continue to find more ways to conserve and reduce their impact on the earth.

During their Sunday meetings, the group uses only natural light and composts any food scraps from their weekly potluck.

Alice Howenstine also is a representative of a group called Quaker Earthcare Witness, which she said emphasizes turning “Quaker gray into Quaker green” through innovations such as solar electricity and geothermal heating.

“We need to respect what God created,” Bill Howenstine said.