Eco-Congregation

The next meeting of the Dumfries and Galloway Eco-Congregation network will take place on Wednesday 8th September, 7.30pm at St George’s Church in Dumfries (location map). The speaker for the evening will be Jonathan Kneeshaw, Project Officer Langholm Initiative, Community Powerdown. He will speak about “Saving Our 5% (CO2)” and will give some ideas about ways in which both churches and individual householders can reduce their carbon footprints. The “5%” comes from the target set by the Church of Scotland for all their churches and it is also one that eco-congregations are encouraged to adopt, in line with the Scottish Government’s targets of 42% by 2020.

This is just the second meeting of the new network – everyone is welcome, so please advertise this meeting to your congregation. Network meetings are open to all and cover a wide range of activity, including speakers and visits to give and share ideas, joint events and providing feedback on Eco-Congregation Scotland developments. Most important of all is getting together with other like-minded folk to encourage and learn from each other.

Welcome to Fernhill and Cathkin Parish Church, 255th eco-congregation!

In February 2010 Eco-Congregation Scotland became a charitable company. This is a big step forward and puts the movement on a secure legal footing for the first time.

It also creates new opportunities and challenges. Can you help by volunteering?

Some members of the former steering group have volunteered to become founding directors and form now the Board of Eco-Congregation Scotland. The first AGM in 2011 must appoint a new Board of directors.

• Directors: We need up to 12 directors to manage the company, so more representatives from eco-congregations would be very welcome to join the Board.
• Treasurer: We need a volunteer with relevant skills and experience to join the Board with responsibility for overseeing our finances.
• Fundraiser: We need a volunteer to lead and support fundraising from all possible sources.

If you would like to know more about how you can help in any of these volunteer jobs please contact us!

As many of you will know, we are in the process of establishing a new network in Fife. At an initial meeting a strong feeling was expressed that churches in the area simply wanted to know more about Eco-Congregation and how they could take action to care better for creation on a whole range of environmental issues. It was therefore decided to hold an event to help explain and involve churches and the wider community. A small group of volunteers from the original meeting nobly volunteered to organise the event and have been working hard ever since!

Now it is over to you! Fife Eco-Congregation Network’s ECO FAIR is taking place on Saturday 18th September, 10 – 12 in the Old Parish Centre, Cupar. We need all the help you can give us to make the day a success. You can download a flier here (doc, 59kb) which can be printed out and displayed in churches and halls, on noticeboards and in shops. We also prepared an article (doc, 47kb) to further highlight the Eco Fair and for you to use, if possible, in your church newsletter, magazine or intimations.

We hope you have all got the date in your diaries, it promises to be a fun and informative day. Please come and support it – and bring your friends and family!

The Eco-Congregation Scotland Summer/ Autumn 2010 newsletter is out now.

Please note that there has been a venue change for the next Eco-Congregation Perth & Kinross network meeting. It will now take place in the Upper Room, North Church, Perth on Tuesday 7th Sept at 7.30pm.

Agenda items will include discussion of what the aims are for the next year or so; also, as part of the Perth 800 celebrations, there are a number of fruit trees available to plant in community-accessible land in the Perth area. Please email helloappletreemancouk for further information about this if you can’t attend the meeting.

The next meeting of the West Lothian and Falkirk network will take place on Tuesday 14 September, 7.30pm at St Peter’s Episcopal Church, Linlithgow.