Catholic Community of Hopewell Valley Wins Environmental Award

The Catholic Community of Hopewell Valley, Pennington, NJ, is one of the sixteen national Interfaith Power & Light (IPL) 2024 Cool Congregations Challenge awarded a $500 runners-up award. The annual contest accepts applications from religious congregations around the United States who are doing work to address global warming by reducing their carbon footprint as they create models of sustainability within their communities.

The Catholic Community of Hopewell Valley won a Community Inspiration award. Inspired by Pope Francis’ teaching on caring for our common home, this 2600-family congregation composed of St. Alphonsus in Hopewell, St. George in Titusville and St. James in Pennington started a Called to CARE (Concern, Action, Respect for the Earth) team to educate their members on the faithful call to care for the earth and practical ways to do it.

“The Catholic Community of Hopewell Valley and the other national winning congregations are casting a vision for the kind of world in which they want to live, and then carrying out that vision with practical actions that make a real difference in creating lasting solutions to climate change,” said Rev. Susan Hendershot, President of Interfaith Power & Light.

The Cool Congregations Challenge shows that people of faith are united by concerns about climate change and are taking action. The winners provide strong moral role models for their communities, and their activities have a ripple effect on people in their own homes.

Interfaith Power & Light is mobilizing a religious response to global warming in congregations through the promotion of energy conservation, energy efficiency, and renewable energy.

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