Comment - June 2009
We are not alone!
There was a great atmosphere in Lambeth Palace when over 100 delegates from most of our dioceses along with representatives of other faiths and denominations gathered for a day's review of Shrinking the Footprint. You can find full details of the day and the presentations on this site. What has been most encouraging are the large number of messages received since from delegates who found the day both inspiring and encouraging. The day marked the beginning of the new stage of the StF campaign and that should be clear from the new look of this website with its new logo, tool kits and additional features.
And news is coming in that we are not alone! The Church of Scotland's General Assembly has just begun a programme to encourage every congregation to measure energy consumption in their church buildings, ascertain their carbon footprint and achieve a year-on-year reduction of 5% of their carbon footprint: www.churchofscotland.org.uk/councils/churchsociety/downloads/csmeasurefootprint.doc
‘Go Green' is the message being promoted by the Diocese in Europe's Chaplaincy of Aquitaine with its new environmental campaign. As the chaplaincy's newly appointed first environment officer Judith Thomason explains "Whilst we can't do things like churches in the UK such as looking at heating and so on as we do not have our own buildings, we can encourage the community, whether members of the chaplaincy or not, to do their bit for the environment through a range of ideas and projects on our website: http://www.chapaq.org/
From South Africa we have received a report from Bishop Geoff Davies on a recent summit of religious leaders which considered challenges involving water, food security, biodiversity and climate change facing the region. The event emphasized that the faith sector, above any other, possessed the moral authority to hold individuals, governments and industry accountable for environmentally sustainable practices and should utilize that clout to act as a catalyst for positive environmental action.
Do keep us posted with any environmental action in your church, parish or diocese. We are planning to include a calendar of events and activities on this site shortly. There's a lot going on and we want to be able to support and encourage it!
David Shreeve the Church of Englands Environment Adviser
