Driving down Route 31 in Ewing, you may notice that Abiding Presence Lutheran Church is glowing.

And not just from a divine presence; it’s the brand new solar panels erected adjacent to the church.

While Abiding Presence is the first church in Ewing to have a solar power system built, solar panels have been seeing the light in other places of worship across New Jersey.

GreenFaith, a New Brunswick-based organization whose mission is to incorporate the environment into religion, has worked to increase the number of environmentally friendly places of worship.

According to GreenFaith’s Web site (http://www.greenfaith.org), 23 religious institutions around New Jersey have installed solar energy systems since 2003.

“We work on an annual basis with several hundred congregations, and the number continues to grow,” said the Rev. Fletcher Harper, executive director of GreenFaith.

GreenFaith has surveyed places of worship in Hamilton, East Windsor, Trenton, Ewing and Princeton for possible solar panels. All of the locations didn’t have the proper set-up to accommodate the panels.

“Right now, it’s a complicated time to do this,” Harper said. In addition to having the right physical layout, the religious organizations must find funding.

Abiding Presence put in an application for funding from the state in May 2006, when New Jersey was reimbursing 50 percent to residential and public buildings.

Abiding Presence was lucky; the church got the application in only a few days before the State funded program became closed to new applicants.

Two long years later, in October 2008, the church’s application was finally accepted. After arrangements for the installation were made with Solar Center of Rockaway Township, the church’s Sunday school children broke ground.

Fred Gould managed the project that brought a new kind of light to the church. Gould and a “little environmental committee” began researching ways to make the church more environmentally friendly.

Gould describes the nearly two-year process as a waiting game, But realized it was worth it when he realized the church would save 90,000 pounds of carbon and 10 percent on the electric bill annually.

The state contributed $137,840, while the church was expected to pay $156,000 for the project. Congregants contributed $86,000 to the cause, and a local bank, Hopewell Valley Community, rounded out the cost with a loan.

Pastor Dan Whitener believes the beauty of this project is that it combines people of different political and fiscal viewpoints.
“People have different reasons for why this is a good thing,” Whitener said.

“Four to five years ago, these environmental issues were barely on the radar screen of religions communities,” Harper said.
Harper sees a natural connection between the environment and faith.

“All of creation joins in the worship of God, Harper said. “Creation is part of the worshipping community.”

On the other side of Trenton, St. Mark Evangelical Lutheran Church in Hamilton is in its fifth year of having solar panels. Caryl Ott was on the church council when the church decided to move forward with the solar project.

“We had a unanimous consensus on installing the solar system,” Ott said.

St. Mark receives a five percent savings on the energy that is generated by the solar panels. But it’s not the small savings that makes the church proud.

“It was more for social responsibility and environmental stewardship,” Ott said.

“A lot of the climate changes that can occur because of global warming ... the brunt of them falls on the people who are least equipped to help themselves out of it,” Ott continued, citing the tsunamis in Asia.

“It wasn’t just environmental stewardship ... it was also kind of stewardship of God’s people,” Ott said.

Harper also believes that recent environmental disaster, such as Hurricane Katrina, brought heightened awareness to climate issues.

“I think also there’s a real sense of gratitude among, not only people of faith, but of all people,” Harper said.