Environmental Ministry
Do you feel called to minister to God’s Creation? Do you want to protect the local environment and all that God called “good”? If so, St. Dunstan’s Episcopal Church is the perfect place to be.
Located next to the popular Capital Crescent Trail and Little Falls Watershed Park, the church is made for Creation Care. Big trees shade our sanctuary and parish hall. Ferns, woodpeckers, salamanders, and other species call our rolling, three-acre campus home. They and the watershed are waiting for your help—and so are we.
Check out our Green Team!
In early 2024, St. Dunstan’s Green Team and the Little Falls Watershed Alliance (LFWA) embarked on a multi-year project to control stormwater runoff from the church’s property. Together, they will help improve the health of nearby streams, native plants and animals, and, ultimately, the Chesapeake Bay. Through rain gardens and conservation landscaping, St. Dunstan’s will become a center for environmental education, a good citizen of the watershed, and an ideal spot for outdoor meditation.
Already, special liturgies and public programs for Earth Month, Rogationtide, the Season of Creation, and other occasions inspire parishioners and visitors alike. Children inventory critters who live in the nearby creek, and adults race to purchase native plants at the annual sale. Forums on topics from Antarctica and climate change to rewilding and pollinators fill the calendar. In spring and fall, Green Team members join the Garden Committee to maintain existing plantings.
If you receive the Sacrament of Baptism, Confirmation, Marriage, or Ordination while you are with us, we will gift you with a small native tree to accompany you on your faith journey. “Saplings for Sacraments,” a recognized program of the worldwide Anglican Communion Forest, started at St. Dunstan’s in 2022.
Now, with LED lights in place throughout the building, members of the Green Team will work with the Vestry and Building and Grounds Committee to reach clean-energy and carbon-neutrality goals set by the Episcopal Church/USA and Montgomery County, MD. If you are an energy expert or concerned about our warming world, this is the time to get involved.
St. Dunstan’s Green Team is pleased to collaborate not only with the Creation Care Committee of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington and LFWA, but also with Montgomery County’s Department of Environmental Protection, the Chesapeake Bay Trust, Interfaith Partners for the Chesapeake, and Interfaith Power & Light.
“God saw everything that he had made and indeed, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.” (NRSV, Genesis 1:31)