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WASHINGTON (September 8, 1997) -- The U.S. Bishops' Environmental Justice Program (EJP) is seeking proposals for its environmental small grants project.
The program will award one-year grants of $500 to $1,500 for new Catholic initiatives for the environment and/or environmental justice at the parish and diocesan level.
Proposals must be postmarked no later than January 1, 1998. Grants will be awarded in late February.
Projects should promote goals outlined by the U.S. bishops' 1991 statement on the environment, "Renewing the Earth: An invitation to Reflection and Action on the Environment in Light of Catholic Social Teaching." The Bishops' statement notes that today's environmental crisis offers a moral challenge and urges Catholics to examine how to respect and share the goods of the earth.
The grants are awarded as part of a project of the National Religious Partnership for the Environment (NRPE). The Partnership is an inter-faith effort of the U.S. Catholic Conference, the National Council of Churches, the Coalition on the Environment and Jewish Life, and the Evangelical Environmental Network.
The small grants programs in the past have funded such efforts as a community wide environmental conference, a parish education project and production of a waste reduction handbook for Catholic school and parish administrators.
Other activities of the Environmental Justice Program include the development of environmental justice education and action kits, which have been distributed to every parish in the country, and publication of And God Saw That It Was Good: Catholic Theology and the Environment, a book that examines environmental themes from Scriptural, theological, liturgical, and a Benedictine spirituality perspective.
For more information about the USCC-EJP, call 202-541-3160. For more information about the National Religious Partnership for the Environment, call 212-316-7441. To order any of the USCC-EJP materials call USCC Office of Publishing and Printing Services 1-800-235-8722.
Grant applications may be obtained by contacting:
Mr. Andy Downin
U.S. Catholic Conference
Environmental Justice Program
3211 Fourth St., NE
Washington, DC 20017
(202) 541-3160