Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Quebec churches switch to eco-friendly holy wine

By Cheryl Cornacchia, Postmedia News

In recent years, the idea of consuming only foods that are produced within 100 miles of where you live has been popularized as way to reduce the need for longhaul trucking and to keep greenhouse gas emissions in check.

Now the Earth-friendly principle is about to be applied to the Roman Catholic Eucharist meal. A Quebec wine is set to replace the altar wine now in use in Catholic churches, a wine from California vineyards about 4,000 kilometres away...

"It is part of our efforts to become more ecologically responsible," said Brian McDonagh, the Montreal Archdiocese's director of social action. Although, he added, individual parishes will decide whether they want to use the new wine or not...

"It's very symbolic," said Norman Levesque, the man behind the initiative. "By taking bread and wine and replacing those elements with ones that are more environmentally friendly, we are touching the core of people's faith."

Levesque is the director of Green Church, an initiative of the Montreal-based Canadian Centre for Ecumenism advising church leaders on ways to reduce their carbon footprints....

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