Blessing of Solar Panels (Nov 15, 2009)
Sunday afternoon, November 15th in a short liturgy following the 11:15 AM Eucharist, St. Alban’s blessed and dedicated 76 solar panels. These panels will potentially save the parish $20,000 over the next two decades and will reduce carbon emissions by well over 20 tons a year. The blessing itself appears to be the first of its kind in DC. The service included comments from councilmember Mary Cheh, Jigar Shah founder of SunEdison, Alber Nunez from the company that installed the panels, as well as representatives from Interfaith Power and Light and the Mayor’s office. There were a few news outlets on hand including NBC-4, which ran a short spot about the service following Sunday night football coverage, and WAMU, which later the next morning ran a short story during drive time and posted photos and further coverage on their web page.
According to some of these news sources covering the event, the story of the day as that a church was “going green” – that St. Alban’s Parish was entering the “green movement”. This may in fact be true. We are or have been “going green” for some time. You’ve seen indications of this greening in the use of compact fluorescent light bulbs throughout the parish, in our big blue recycle bins placed strategically around our facilities, and in our coffee mugs that have replaced our disposable paper and Styrofoam cups at coffee hour.
However, according to our tradition as Anglicans and as Christians, the story was not primarily about our joining a movement or a cause. The blessing of St. Alban’s solar panels was the natural response to our life in Christ, the result of our own conversion through the waters of baptism, and a thoroughly faithful reaction to the reconciliation we have experienced in and through the grace of God. That was, or, rather is the story. The solar panels are outward and visible signs of a deeper conviction that through God’s grace we have encountered reconciliation. The solar panels are not our first steps into a green movement but a symbol and a manifestation of our commitment to live reconciled lives not only with our neighbors, but, indeed, with all of creation. The panels shouldn’t just remind us, and the world, to live in harmony with creation, but rather they should draw our hearts and minds much further to the One who is the source of all creation!