Mennonite Creation Care Network has selected Carol Rose, co-pastor of Shalom Mennonite Fellowship in Tucson, Ariz., as the recipient of its Art and Jocele Meyer Award.

Since she began at Shalom seven years ago, Rose has encouraged the congregation’s environmental concerns and helped develop them. In 2018, the church installed its first solar panels with the help of a Pam De Young Net Zero Energy grant from MCCN. Shalom has since undertaken a second solar project to cover the needs of multiple buildings on its property.

Rose is also an enthusiastic advocate for desert ecosystems. Rose has organized many community work days to install native landscaping on the church’s 1.6-acre lot. She takes pride in the recent addition of an ironwood tree — a spiny desert species that is threatened in the region.

Since COVID, Shalom has had many opportunities to enjoy the setting. The congregation worshiped outside all fall and winter, in a space that weaves together creation care and biblical teaching.

Rose’s leadership has undergirded the church’s support for the San Carlos Apache people who are struggling to stop proposed high-impact mining at Oak Flat, land in Arizona sacred to their tribe.

The congregation reaffirmed its commitment to Indigenous Peoples recently by officially joining Dismantling the Doctrine of Discovery’s Repair Congregations Network.

The MCCN award recognizes care for creation at the congregational level and the liaison’s role in communicating with the broader network. It also includes a $500 donation to the congregation’s environmental ministry.