Eco-Congregation
St John's has received an Eco-Congregation Award for our Earth be Glad initiatives. We are the 29th church in Scotland to receive the award, for showing we have made a difference in spiritual, practical and community environmental initiatives.
Eco-Congregation is a free ecumenical programme to help congregations consider environmental issues and make appropriate practical and spiritual responses. It is adaptable to all kinds of church and over 100 are involved - urban, rural, rich, poor, large, small, high and low! Churches can also link with other churches participating in the scheme through Eco-Congregation networks. St John's has hosted the first two meetings of the Edinburgh network.
What have churches done so far?
- Callander Kirk now devotes two services a year to the theme of creation care, carried out a transport survey and publicised the results to encourage people to leave their cars at home and walk to church
- Dalbeattie Parish Church, in partnership with other churches in the town, holds creation-themed services in Dalbeattie Forest as part of Treefest, and has insulated the church roof to save energy
- Baldernock Church has changed to using recycled paper for letters and its magazine
- Westray Church has become totally self-sufficient in renewable energy, through a small wind turbine and a ground-source heat pump
- St Saviours Episcopal Church, Bridge of Allan, carried out a simple survey of the church grounds and has installed a bird feeding station, new plants and other improvements for local wildlife
- St John’s Church, Hamilton raised money for Floresta – a Christian charity which helps tropical subsistence farmers to move away from ‘slash and burn’ agriculture towards more sustainable farming
- St Fergus Roman Catholic Church in Paisley cleaned up their local area, worked with the Rangers to create new wildlife areas around Paisley, and involved the youth group in many activities
The Eco-Congregation Programme
Eco-Congregation Scotland is part of the wider Eco-Congregation Programme in Britain and Ireland. It is supported through a partnership between Keep Scotland Beautiful and the Society, Religion and Technology Project (SRT) of the Church of Scotland. Eco-Congregation is an ecumenical programme and has the full backing of ACTS (Action of Churches Together in Scotland) and all the major Scottish denominations.
The programme is available free of charge to churches. It has three core components:
- A set of Resource Modules designed for use in church life;
- A process to provide Support for churches by offering advice, regional workshops, an informative website, and helping to link churches with appropriate local environmental groups/networks, including their local authority;
- An Award scheme, to recognise the creditable environmental work of churches.
The Eco-Congregation modules cover all areas of church life and can be downloaded from the Resources page.
Earth be Glad >> Eco-Congregation