As a Franciscan parish, we strive to deepen knowledge of our Tradition and embody the Franciscan view of creation in the way we worship, evangelize, teach our children, and use the resources that God gave us.  Hence, the care of God’s creation is increasingly becoming an integral part of our parish life. The following video shows how care for the Earth, our common home, is a vital concern for all of the diverse communities that make up St. Camillus.
 

Our preaching and liturgical music deepens our love of creation, particularly at special times of the year such as the Season of Creation, which starts with the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation (September 1) and culminates with the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi (October 4).
Our parish community has been engaged in a multiyear effort to “green” the St. Camillus campus, reduce our energy consumption, and eliminate practices that are wasteful and destructive to God’s creation. St. Camillus switched its electricity purchases to renewable energy, starting in 2017, and joined the EPA GreenPower Partnership and the EPA ENERGY STAR CONGREGATIONS program.

It upgraded the lighting and heating systems in the Camillia Room to make them more energy efficient, benefiting the environment and saving the parish money. St. Camillus also has policies that prohibit the use of bottled water and the use of Styrofoam products and non-ecological balloons at parish functions and retreats.

As a result of these efforts, St. Camillus’ greenhouse gas emissions have declined by 24 percent from 2014-2021 and St. Francis International School has been recognized by the EPA ENERGY STAR program for the energy efficiency of its building.
In addition to its own actions, St. Camillus Church evangelizes by offering information and adult faith formation programs on care of creation to parishioners, including promoting various activities around Earth Day that spur people to adopt a more sustainable lifestyle.  Examples of this have included activities such as the following:

• A partnership between the Spanish JPIC and the Montgomery County Department of Environmental Protection in 2016 that included a workshop for parishioners to learn about ways to reduce stormwater runoff and enhance the local environment. Those who attended the workshop were given, free of charge, a rain barrel with the necessary installation materials and instructions.            

• A partnership with the Montgomery County Faith Alliance for Climate Solutions to develop and make available a guide for purchasing green electricity by households, in English, Spanish, and French.
• A partnership with the National Wildlife Federation’s “Sacred Grounds—Maryland” program in 2022 and 2023 that made free native plants available to parishioners, to plant at their homes for the benefit of pollinating insects and protection of local watersheds.
• The development of a guide to a contemplative walk through nature in the parklands adjoining the St. Camillus campus.

Finally, St. Camillus is part of broader efforts in our region to care for our common home.  It is an active participant in the Archdiocese of Washington Care for Creation Committee, which focuses on implementation of the Archdiocese’s Laudato Si’ Action Plan. St. Camillus parishioners have also joined with other Catholics across the State of Maryland in advocating each year for environmentally beneficial public policy and legislation at the state level, through Maryland Catholics for Our Common Home.

Get involved in any of our annual and ongoing events: Earth Day Fair, Earth Day Clean-Up, the Garden and Grounds Ministry, and Environmental Education at St. Francis International School (SFIS).  Read below for the description of each opportunity and the appropriate contact person. For more general information, contact Bob Simon at robertmsimon@gmail.com

The Annual Earth Day Fair is held every year in April. This was an initiative started by the Spanish JPIC in an effort to help parishioners commemorate Earth Day and, more importantly, to raise awareness about the impact of environmental degradation and our call to care for our common home.

The fair is a fun event for the entire family. Parishioners learn about local environmental justice efforts at table displays set up by members from our Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation ministry and other environmental organizations and become involved. For more information or to volunteer, please contact the Parish Office at 301-434-8400.

St. Camillus celebrates Earth Day by joining the Anacostia Watershed Society to help clean up the Anacostia River. Each year, during April, we take at least 50 participants, Confirmation Students, Youth Group remembers and their families. This is a family friendly event and kids are welcome! There is live music, local exhibitors, and notable speakers. All volunteers are welcome!

Join us on Earth Day as we seek to clean up the Anacostia River Watershed, the vital waterway that is so impacted by our daily lives here in Montgomery and Prince George’s counties. For more information, contact the Faith Formation Office at 301-434-2111 or Mr. William Pineda at ext. 602.

The St. Camillus campus is 14 acres and most of that is comprised of impervious surface—parking lots, building roofs, and driveways. Rain falling on these impervious surfaces and hillsides cannot seep back into the ground and runs off into the storm sewers, which flow into the Northwest Branch and then the Potomac River and Chesapeake Bay. The runoff carries pollutants and its volume and speed scours the land, causing erosion and flooding.  The parish grounds also offer an opportunity to benefit the surrounding environment by serving as a host for native plants that support pollinating species of insects that are under stress and threatened from urbanization and loss of habitats elsewhere in our region.

In an effort to be good stewards of the land, the parish has developed a Gardens and Grounds Ministry and has partnered with other organizations such as the National Wildlife Federation, the Chesapeake Bay Trust, Laudato Trees, and Montgomery County’s Department of Environmental Protection. Through regular garden and clean-up days, and special events focused on installing new gardens, the parish has implemented conservation landscaping projects to slow the flow of rain runoff and erosion from parish properties and to improve parish grounds as a place of beauty and reflection and as a habitat for wildlife.
You can click on the following links to see videos of past projects to control runoff from the hillside between the school and the main parking lot (October 2015) and to create butterfly and bee sanctuaries adjacent to the parish offices and school (October 2016).


Join us to take care of the environment around our campus. There is lots of work to do cleaning up our gardens and planting. For more information, contact Tom Melo at melotc@gmail.com.

St. Francis International School (SFIS) seeks to engender in our children a love for creation and care of the environment. One of the ways we do that is our school garden program beginning in 3rd grade where the students plant and harvest vegetables which are part of our school's lunch program. You can see this program in action in this video. For more information, contact the SFIS Main Office at 301-434-2344.