Micah Roldan, a new member of Hope Episcopal Church, Manheim, Pennsylvania, builds a birdhouse as part of the church’s creation care ministry. Photo: Hope Church
[Episcopal News Service] Hope Episcopal Church in Manheim, Pennsylvania, has received a $46,000 grant that will help it clean up water runoff on its property that eventually feeds into Chesapeake Bay, the nation’s largest estuary.
Stormwater runoff is the fastest growing source of pollution in the bay and occurs when water doesn’t evaporate or soak into the ground but instead runs across the land surface and into the nearest waterway, taking with it nitrogen that had been applied as fertilizer.
Thanks to its new grant, by next spring, the church will be able to cut down on runoff from its land through creation of a new bioretention swale on its 17-acre property. This will allow water running off the church parking lot to be filtered through various layers of soil to allow sediments and pollutants to settle out of the rainwater before it enters the waterway system. New native plants also will provide habitat for birds and animals.
“This land is a gift from God,” the Rev. Bradley Mattson, the church’s rector, told Episcopal News Service. “When we care for creation, we’re participating in something holy.”
The church worked with two nonprofits to apply for the grant that is funding the swale’s installation – Interfaith Partners for the Chesapeake and the Center for Watershed Protection.
The money comes from the nonprofit Lancaster Clean Water Partners as part of a larger grant to them from the National Fish and Wildlife Federation, Mike Hudson, Interfaith Partners for the Chesapeake’s outreach coordinator for Pennsylvania, told ENS. Lancaster Clean Water Partners is working to restore the 1,400 miles of contaminated streams in Lancaster County, where Manheim is located.
Hope Church in central Pennsylvania is located in the watershed of the Chesapeake Bay, which stretches from southern New York into Virginia. Image: U.S. Geological Survey
Mattson said some churches may think they aren’t eligible for grant funding like this, or they aren’t big enough to even try, but his congregation is proof that neither is true.
More than 110,000 rivers and streams, along with 1.7 million acres of wetlands, are part of the bay’s watershed area, which stretches from southern New York into Virginia and encompasses more than 64,000 square miles. Central Pennsylvania, where Manheim is located, is part of that watershed area.
Cleaning up the water in Chesapeake Bay has been a priority for federal and state officials since the passage of the Clean Water Act in 1972 and a subsequent Chesapeake Bay Agreement in 1987. But the ongoing, systemic quantity of human-created nitrogen and phosphorus that flows into the bay continues to degrade the water’s quality.
While it has a large property, Hope is a medium-sized church by Episcopal Church standards, with an average Sunday attendance of about 46 people. But the congregation is committed to taking care of its property for the benefit of church members and more importantly for the community at large.
In recent years, the church has undertaken other environmental restoration projects, including returning mowed areas to meadows, planting a pollinator garden and landscaping that provides a sanctuary for birds, and expanding its existing Good News Garden that provides fresh vegetables for parishioners and local residents.
Children at this summer’s Vacation Bible School walk on the early stages of a mile-long walking path through forest and meadow areas on the church grounds. Photo: Hope Church
They recently began the first steps in creating a mile-long walking path through forest and meadow areas on the church grounds. The path will be gently graded and surfaced, and along the way devotional stations will feature Way of Love prayers.
The path, Mattson said, will be a place for prayer and contemplation: “It’s a way for people to encounter God through the beauty of creation.”
The creation care ministry also has benefited from some new church members, including Micah and Demaris Roldan. After they began attending services, the Roldans became active in the creation care ministry — and when they chose to be baptized earlier this year, they asked that it take place in Shearers Creek, which runs through the church grounds. Demaris’ children and members of their extended families also have joined the church, and Micah is studying at the Diocese of Central Pennsylvania’s Stevenson School of Ministry as he discerns his future vocation.
That ministry, and the church, also will benefit from a second grant from the National Fish and Wildlife Federation, this one for $70,000, to help create a green master plan for Hope’s property. “This grant will support all the technical work that will go into a full site assessment and the design and planning of appropriate practices,” Hudson from Interfaith Partners for the Chesapeake said. That planning also is slated for the spring of 2025.
Mattson said all its creation care work has been made possible by networking, team building and being willing to take a risk, like collaborating on grants or starting new projects without a large number of parishioners. And he encourages other churches like his to think about doing the same.
“It can be hard to take risks and see that the future can be brighter,” he said, “but discouragement is what kills churches. I try to remain eternally hopeful.”
— Melodie Woerman is an Episcopal News Service freelance reporter based in Kansas.