AUBURN – Paul Paydos admitted he is not an avid churchgoer. He confessed that he infrequently attends the Dover-Foxcroft Congregational Church, where his wife is director of Christian education. He even told a gathering of the faithful here earlier this month that while religion is a very powerful institution, business is much more powerful.

Paydos, vice president of Technical Services for Guilford of Maine and Interface Fabrics Group, delivered the keynote address at the annual meeting of the Maine Council of Churches. His speech at the organization’s annual meeting may have amounted to preaching to the choir. Religious leaders, after all, have been involved in environmental issues since the first arth Day in 1971.

Three years ago, the MCC developed its Spirituality and Earth Stewardship initiative designed to offer churches ways to discuss environmental issues from a faith-based perspective. In March, the council participated in a Portland press conference announcing the Religious Partnership for the Environment. In June, the MCC announced the formation of the Maine Interfaith Power & Light, a collective to purchase green power for churches.

Paydos was invited to speak to the group because he is on the front lines of the battle to make American business sustainable. Guilford of Maine has been recognized as an industry leader in pollution prevention practices.

The company has received the Maine Governor’s award for Excellence in Environmental Management Systems and the Maine Recycling Business of the Year Award from the Maine Chamber of Commerce. It is also a leading corporate member of Maine Businesses for Social Responsibility.

Paydos told the group that Guilford’s “vision is to be the prototypical company of the next industrial revolution. … The first Industrial Revolution was centered around the textile industry – spinning machines in England and cotton gins in America,” Paydos said. “The first synthetic chemicals ever derived from petroleum were dyes for the textile industry. And, besides, textiles is arguably the civilization’s oldest industry.”

Guilford of Maine has been using recycled plastic soda bottles to make upholstery and wall panels used in most modern offices. The company is working with its customers to return worn-out office fabric back into the “cycle,” according to Paydos.

The company also has implemented practices that have reduced waste considerably over the past four years.

“The recycled content of our raw materials has increased from less than 1 percent in 1996 to 54 percent in 1999 and it’s still growing,” he said. “[It’s] about 66 percent so far this year.

“Our energy consumption has been reduced by 26 percent, and 32 percent of the remaining Btu are derived from waste wood chips generated at a facility just down the road.

“Our liquid waste stream,” he continued, “reduced by 23 percent. Solid waste – our garbage destined for incineration – reduced by 64 percent over the past few years.”

Yet, Paydos is the first to admit the company still has a long way to go. While Guilford’s carbon dioxide emissions have been reduced by 27 percent, it still emits 39 million pounds of CO2.

According to Paydos, the Guilford plants were the first textile mills in the country to be certified into ISA-14001, the international standard for environmental management systems.

While Paydos claimed he doesn’t spend his Sunday mornings in church, he did talk about the relationship between culture and religion and how it has changed.

“There was a time when religion was not thought of as a product of our culture,” he said. “People felt at one with the earth, and that was religion. As a society, we need to resist being pure products of our culture. We need that sense of there being something bigger than ourselves to permeate every moment of our lives.

” … If you look at the whole concept of work and industry, it’s only been around for a couple hundred years,” he said. “Sometimes, as companies, we lose site of our destiny. Yes, we have a service to provide and we’ve got to make a buck, but that does not mean we too cannot answer to a higher purpose.”

Paydos gave credit for much of the company’s direction to his boss, Ray Anderson, the company’s founder. Paydos said that Anderson asked him to speak at the MCC event in his place.

At the end of his speech, Payson offered a design experiment for the next industrial revolution.

“Design something that makes oxygen, fixes nitrogen, sequesters carbon dioxide, accrues solar energy for food and fuel, makes complex sugars, distills water, provides habitat for thousands of species, changes with the seasons, builds soil, creates microclimates and self-replicates,” he said. “That, my friends, is your asset … your inventory … your resource.

“That’s a tree.”

The MCC honored the Rev. Dr. Ansley Coe Throckmorton, president of Bangor Theological Seminary, with its annual Ecumenical Achievement Award. She announced earlier this year that she would retire next August.

Executive Director Tom Ewell said the award was given to Throckmorton for her “years of outstanding service not only to he own denomination, but to the wider church, as well.”

Delegates from the council’s eight member denominations and 13 associate member groups also gathered to elect officers at St. Philip’s Roman Catholic Church.

At the meeting, the council conducted its annual business meeting, which included the election of new officers to the board of directors. The Rev. Margrethe Brown (Presbyterian) of Leeds was elected to a two-year term as president of the board of directors.

Brother Francis Blouin (Roman Catholic), a member of the order of Brothers of Christian Instruction at the Notre Dame Institute in Alfred, was elected vice president of the board. The Rev. Thomas Merrillo, pastor of Clark Memorial United Methodist church in Portland, was elected to a second term as treasurer.

The annual assembly voted to adopt a resolution to create an Economic Justice Program to provide advocacy and pastoral leadership on behalf of the people of Maine most adversely affected by economic inequality and injustice.

In 1991, the council issued a statement on the principles of economic justice – “An Ethic for Economic Justice in Maine,” followed in 1997 by the adoption of “An Ethic for Economic Life,” encouraging Maine’s legislative representatives to consider 10 guiding principles when passing legislation that affects the lives of Maine’s most economically vulnerable people.

The MCC, a nonprofit ecumenical organization, serves as a voice and communications link with member denominations and with the community at large through its work in areas such as restorative and economic justice, welfare reform, civil rights, environmental stewardship and legislative issues.

For more information on the MCC, visit its Web site at www.mainecouncilofchurches.org.