We look forward to our tradition of offering an Alternative Giving focus during the Advent season. As we celebrate the formation of Highland’s Earth Care Team this fall, the focus for our Alternative Giving this year will be on being stewards of God’s earth. Gifts will focus on ways to support neighbors near and far suffering the impact of the climate crisis. You can make gifts which will support two organizations in Western North Carolina in Buncombe County — Black Mountain Counseling and BeLoved Asheville; click here to give online. The other option is a gift of mangrove trees in Madagascar. More details are available at the Alternative Giving tables which will be available before and after worship in the Narthex and Gallery Hall during the season of Advent. You may print out gift cards here for Black Mtn Counseling, here for BeLoved Asheville, and here for Mangrove Trees in Madagascar.

We hope you will plan on these alternative gifts as a meaningful way to honor loved ones and make a different in the lives of our neighbors near and far.

Climate Corner: What do Madagascar, mangroves, and reducing carbon footprints have in common?
From the Nature Conservancy, we learn that mangroves are one of the world’s most important ecosystems. Healthy mangrove forests are hotspots of biodiversity, cornerstones of climate resilience and a source of livelihoods for coastal communities worldwide. They are carbon stores, fish factories, and coastal defenses conveying valuable benefits to people and the planet. However, these critical systems have been threatened for decades, with the total footprint of mangroves declining over the past 35 years, largely due to human activity. Mangrove trees sequester up to 5 times per hectare more CO2 than a tropical rainforest ecosystem.
Madagascar is the fourth largest island and home to one of the most biodiverse populations on earth and one of the most impoverished communities experiencing the negative impacts of climate change now. Mangroves grow naturally in the waters around Madagascar aiding in the coastal defense of the island with rising tides.
Watch for information during our Alternative Giving season about how you can donate
to help plant mangroves and thereby decrease the impact of poverty as well as CO2.