Hamilton

Greening Case Study

Hamilton Monthly Meeting Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), Hamilton, Ontario, 7 Butty Place, Hamilton. Meeting for Worship every Sunday at 10:30 am. 

Mission and Background

The way is available to all. It may be particularly attractive to those strongly concerned with peace and social justice and to those with a meditative or mindfulness practice who seek a supportive community.

Quakers meet in silent worship to strengthen this connection and bear witness to its power in our lives. From the stillness that puts us in touch with the Divine comes our corporate testimony of simplicity, honesty, and non-violence. Work towards the just and equitable treatment of all human beings and close attention to the health and sustainability of our communities and the environment that supports them are examples of these testimonies.

Historically these testimonies have led many Quakers to the forefront of movements for social justice: prison reform, the abolition of slavery, pacifism, and indigenous rights, among others.

What can a faith community do on its own to conserve energy? 

On September 9th, 2019 through Faith and the Common Good’s Energy Benchmarking program, our Hamilton implementer, Environment Hamilton co-organized a “DIY Energy Audit for Places of Worship” in partnership with St John the Evangelist in Hamilton, Ontario. The goal was to start a conversation about potential energy retrofit ideas and plant some seeds of what could be accomplished. 

Monthly Meeting Religious Society of Friends (Quakers)

The Quaker House is an unassuming place, tucked away in a residential neighbourhood, on a quiet street.  

Over the years, members of the Quaker House have been actively undertaking a number of energy retrofits.  Despite facing similar challenges that are common with places of worship, such as a diminishing congregation and financial constraints, their members completed a number of eco-projects over the last few years.

Longstanding member, Don Woodside, sat down with Juby Lee, project coordinator of the Energy Benchmarking program in Hamilton.  

“The protocol is not very complicated; it's just a matter of making sure the doors are wide open for people to come into our air-conditioned environment, and making sure water is available at all times.” — Matthew Pearce, the CEO of Old Brewery Mission
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/matthew-pearce-heat-wave-homeless-1.4732065

The Lighthouse Project in Hamilton has been building a network of residents and community stakeholders in the interest of preparing neighbours for the impacts of increasing extreme weather events. This network is newly named as Community Resilience to Extreme Weather (CREW) Hamilton.

Faith & the Common Good recently launched an energy benchmarking program and Toronto Hydro and Enbridge Gas Distribution are assisting us in the City of Toronto. Hamilton, Halton, Peel, and York regions are also participating in this program.

^{Commissioner, Dianne Saxe}

Climate change. It’s worse than we thought. That was the message we heard from the Environmental Commissioner of Ontario, Dr. Dianne Saxe, who joined us on three separate occasions over the past months — a June event in Hamilton and September events at Church of the Incarnation in Oakville and the Jaffari Community Centre in Thornhill.

“Climate justice is core to my faith but cycling to church is not just transportation; it’s meditation, the real beginning of my worship,”

- Christine Boyle, United Church Minister, Vancouver Chapter Organizer, and Director of Fossil Free Faith.

In June, over the duration of two weekends, Faith & the Common Good offered faith communities across Canada a challenge: leave the car behind when traveling to worship in favour of a “low carbon” mode...

Bike Tour To Eco-Loving Places of Worship

On Saturday June 3^rd, 2017, as part of the Faith Commuter Challenge, Environment Hamilton hosted a bike tour of places of worship that do great environmental work. The tour included two churches and ended with a planting of a pollinator patch at a nearby mosque.

Interfaith ‘get to worship without your car’

Did you know that transportation comprises 40% of an average faith community’s carbon footprint?¹ Transportation is the second largest source of Canada’s GHG emissions.² That’s why traveling green is one of the most important ways we can be stewards of our planet.

Resilient Hamilton Workshop, Art Gallery of Hamilton. Feb 8th, 2017

“Recovery from natural and other disasters does not depend on the overall amount of aid received nor on the amount of damage done by the disaster; instead, social capital — the bonds which tie citizens together — functions as the main engine of long term recovery.” — Daniel P. Aldrich, assistant professor of public policy at Purdue University