The Methodist and United Reformed Churches Environmental Network

Eco-congregation is a project designed to help churches get to grips with some of the pressing issues of out times concerning the environment.

It is designed to fit in with church life, and to help point the church outwards, involving the local community in caring for creation.

• Carry out a check-up for the church : how well are we doing already on environmental issues in the way that we run our church? It also provides ideas for what the church could be doing (download it from the website www.ecocongregation.org Module 1 from the Free resources section).

• Resources are available from the website ( www.ecocongregation.org click on Free Resources) which are designed to fit in with church life. There are suggestions as to how to weave environmental issues into the preaching, the worship, children's work, youth group work, Bible study groups, the building committee's work, and so on.

• Apply for the Award! This is given to churches who are taking creation care seriously in their worship and teaching, how they look after the church building and grounds, and in their outreach (sharing the caring with those outside the church).

Ideas

get your church involved with Operation Noah (www.operationnoah.org): get to grips with global warming, and inform people how to become more energy efficient
convert to green energy (electricity from renewables)
reduce the number of cars in the congregation by sharing them ( www.carclubs.org.uk )
set up a lunch club for those at home during the day, using local produce. This might provide employment, give a regular outlet for local farmers, reduce food miles, give people access to healthy food for those who might not be able to afford it otherwise, and might build community as people get to know each other!
how about setting up a co-operative giving people access to local fresh vegetables and fruit, and wholefood, rather than people having to rely on supermarkets and food miles.
invest in the planet, and change your lightbulbs to low energy ones - it will save you time and money, and you won't have to replace those really awkward ones in the church for years and years!
get others using your church building!
could your church grounds be looked after in a way which encourages bio-diversity, and also provide a resource for local schools?

Why should we look after the planet?

We worship the Creator, who has given us the Creation. To abuse the Creation through our lifestyle has been described by some as blasphemy: Colossians 1 v16

"For in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible......... all things have been created through him and for him".

If all things were made FOR him, then, as Bishop James Jones points out, to assume that creation exists for us and so to put our own desires and lifestyle demands foremost is to blaspheme, to deny that Christ is, in fact, at the centre of creation.

We pray in the Lord's Prayer for God's will to be done on earth. God as Creator made a place bursting with biodiversity, with enough resources for everyone's need but not everyone's greed. If we live in a way which reduces biodiversity and which destroys habitats and where poor people suffer disproportionately from environmental crises, then we are not living out the answer to our own prayer.

Limits to lifestyle were built into the framework for living that God set out for the people of God (see Leviticus). The land, and people and animals were not to be exploited limitlessly, but there was to be a voluntary choice to limit the demands made upon the creation. They called it the Sabbath, and the Jubilee. There were limits to consumption even in the Garden of Eden!

Contact details

Contact Jo Rathbone for further details, or download the churches' environmental check up (module 1) or the other resources (under Free Resources on the website: www.ecocongregation.org) and get going!

Eco-congregation Co-ordinator (England and Wales)
The Arthur Rank Centre
Stoneleigh Park
Warwickshire CV8 2LZ
024 7685 3061
ecocongregation@rase.org.uk