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COP26 update

COP26 venue Scottish Events Campus photograph courtesy of Glasgow Convention Bureau.

Eco-Congregation Scotland continues to encourage churches and volunteers across the country to get involved in activities relating to the COP26 United Nations climate conference, still taking place this November at the Scottish Events Campus in Glasgow (pictured above). 

Our new 2-page monthly briefing on what COP26 is and how to get involved is online now. Updated every month and highlighting any new information, please download or visit our webpage for the latest.

We appreciate the volunteer support of Adrian Shaw, former Church of Scotland climate change officer, for the briefing and COP-related activities. Adrian is also supporting Interfaith Scotland as we link closely with other faith groups and wider civil society organisations in all our collective work towards COP26. We are delighted that Glasgow Churches Together has taken under its umbrella as a special sub-committee the COP26 Churches Co-ordinating Group we initiated in 2019, enabling more ecumenical support and activities relating to COP26.

COP26 is a timely opportunity for churches and volunteers in every part of Scotland to get more involved in addressing local environmental issues and tackling the climate emergency.

We are also encouraging you to take part in the world’s biggest ever faith-climate day of action this coming week, Sacred Earth, Sacred People – ringing a bell for climate justice or posting on social media – and sharing more upcoming events. In this first of our regular newsletter focused on COP26 updates, we end with a specific call for church halls in and around Glasgow.

As we near twelve months of engaging online due to COVID-19 with our own programme of events, we thank you for your support and encouragement which is always appreciated.

Lomond Parish Church – Prayers and Reflection
Sunday 7th March 2021
11.30am
https://www.facebook.com/events/437861000602477

On the 3rd Sunday in Lent, Eco-Chaplain Rev David Coleman joins Rev Ian Miller and Lomond Parish Church – our Eco-Congregation Gold Award winner in West Dunbartonshire – with a reflection on John 2:13-22 ‘Jesus bleak and wild’ eight months ahead of COP26. Prayers and reflections will be live on Lomond Parish Church’s Facebook page at 11.30am. All our worship material is now shareable for any church – and fits perfectly with a Climate Sunday service. 

This coming Sunday 7th March at 7pm we encourage our volunteers and supporters to continue joining Christians in prayer across Scotland.

Women’s Voices in Climate Action
Wednesday 10th March 2021
10.00am – 11.15am
https://tinyurl.com/mrmjn7av

To mark International Women’s Day 2021 and COP26, Interfaith Scotland hosts an interactive dialogue for women of all faiths and beliefs with keynote speakers Zarina Ahmad, climate change communicator and Fiona Buchanan of Christian Aid Scotland. To sign up please fill in the Google form.

Sacred People, Sacred Earth
Thursday 11th March 2021
https://sacredpeoplesacredearth.org

On 11th March, grassroots people of diverse religions are coming together around the world for Sacred People, Sacred Earth, the biggest-ever faith-based global day of action to sound the alarm for climate justice. The Greenfaith International Network has ten demands for global action by faith communities, governments and financial institutions. You can watch a video and sign the multi-faith climate statement here.

Please join in from home – or even your church if you have access – by ringing a bell on the day, or even banging a pot or pan. Christian Climate Action is doing this at 12 noon in the UK, or you can join any time convenient for you that day. Please share your call for climate justice with us by email or on social media

  1. Make a paper sign calling on the action you wish to see. You can make your own or print this link.

2. Hold the sign in or outside your home for a photo or video with you or your household.

3. Email your photo to manager@ecocongregationscotland.org – or post on social media with the hashtags #Faiths4Climate and #SacredPeopleSacredEarth tagging @greenfaithworld and @ecocongregation on Twitter – or @greenfaith and @ecocongregationscotland on Facebook. Please say where you are too.

What can Churches do for Climate Justice?
Tuesday 16th March 2021
3.00pm – 4.30pm
https://climatefringe.org/sccs-live-events/

There are many ways that churches and people of faith can contribute meaningfully to climate action – before, during and after COP26. Join us to hear inspirational campaigners from churches who have taken action on climate, how their faith inspires them and find out how you can get involved in 2021. This Stop Climate Chaos ScotlandClimate Fringe event is in partnership with Eco-Congregation Scotland, Christian Aid, SCIAF and Tearfund.

Call out for accommodation help
Could your church hall host visitors in November this year for the UN climate talks? As part of the wider civil society COP26 Coalition, we are helping to source ‘crash pad accommodation’ in and around Glasgow, looking for willing partners to help. 

Our vision
The COP26 Coalition is keen to build a network of decentralised crash pad spaces in and around Glasgow to cater for the different needs of activists coming for COP26. Spaces will be inclusive, inviting, and reflect the needs and vision of the international climate movement. Spaces should not only provide accommodation options but be places where different types of people from all walks of life across the globe meet, connect, learn and organise together.

What are crash pad spaces?
‘Crash pad spaces’ cater to those who don’t mind crashing on the floor of a church hall or gym with a sleeping bag – either for a few nights or the two weeks of COP. We expect them to be used by activists who haven’t found suitable accommodation or it has fallen through last minute. Spaces may be of differing sizes but they will meet minimum requirements in terms of hygiene, safeguarding, security and warmth. Ideally these would be church halls or community centres – with room enough to house 20-30 people and perhaps with additional facilities like a kitchen.

Details
We’re looking for around 500 crash pad spaces in and around Glasgow between 1st and 12th November. Obviously COVID makes this type of accommodation very challenging; there’s a big possibility that these spaces won’t be possible under pandemic restrictions. The COP26 Coalition is also developing an online Guest Host platform with Human Hotel – a little like Couchsurfing or an alternative to AirBnB – that should be much more feasible. However, we are keen to find around 500 crash pad spaces as a back up, in case restrictions are lifted before COP.

This is one way churches can help welcome and support those visiting Glasgow for COP26. We will be in touch again soon on churches supporting more activities in Glasgow and across Scotland – plus church volunteers offering rooms at home through the online Guest Host platform.

If your church has the space and resources to help on ‘crash pad spaces’, please email Flick Monk at Friends of the Earth Scotland on fmonk@foe.scot.

Church Heating

By News, , , , ,

Church Heating – Practical Considerations

Net Zero

Monday 15th February 2021
7.30pm–8.30pm
https://www.ecocongregationscotland.org/event/churchheating/

How do you heat your church?

Church buildings come in lots of different shapes and sizes, historic and modern. How will you know which kind of heating is right for your building? What are the practical issues that need to be thought through in changing a heating systems? What kind of heating system should you install in a new building?

What do you need to change to achieve net zero emissions? 

Responding to the Climate Emergency, the October 2020 General Assembly of the Church of Scotland agreed to develop a strategy for the entire organisation to transition both locally and nationally to net zero carbon emissions over the coming decade.

In December 2020, General Synod members of the Scottish Episcopal Church also backed a motion paving the way for a commitment to achieving net zero carbon emissions by 2030.

Register now

Join us and hear from Andrew MacOwan – Chartered Energy Engineer and the Church of Scotland General Trustees Heating Consultant – as he shares his experience and talks about some of the practical considerations in looking to achieve net zero carbon emissions from church heating systems. There will be time for questions and discussion. Please register at the following link: 

https://www.ecocongregationscotland.org/event/churchheating/

Climate change impact

Christian Aid Gathering

Tuesday 16th February 2021
10.00am–12.00noon
https://www.christianaid.org.uk/events/gatherings
Email to register

Christian Aid Scotland is a key partner of Eco-Congregation Scotland and we are delighted to encourage you to join the Supporter Gathering next week. Christian Aid Ethiopia will be sharing the impact of climate change, locusts and conflict on vulnerable communities.

There will also be a look forward to the COP26 climate talks and how we can all be involved in the fight against climate change. Email to register and receive the joining instructions: edinburgh@christian-aid.org

https://www.christianaid.org.uk/events/gatherings

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/methodist-webinar-the-climate-emergency-cop26-and-fossil-fuel-divestment-tickets-137622419361

Join the Lenten Journey

What is the hope of COP26?

Scottish Catholic Laity Network
What is the hope of COP26? – Professor Jim Skea 
Thursday 18th February 2021
7.00pm–8.30pm
Further information
Email to register

Eco-Congregation Scotland is pleased to support the Scottish Catholic Laity Network and invite you to join its Lenten Journey of discernment “to help us imagine the way in which we are being called to prepare a future that gives hope to all the children of our world, and their children’s’ children, and to Mother Earth.”

Opening the series on the hope of COP26, Eco-Congregation volunteer Margret MacPhail will introduce speaker Professor Jim Skea, currently chair of Scotland’s Just Transition Commission and co-chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Working Group III on mitigation of climate change. Margret leads the Eco-Group at St Ninian’s Parish in Professor Skea’s home city Dundee. Please email slaitynetwork@gmail.com to register.

https://www.ecocongregationscotland.org/event/what-is-the-hope-of-cop26/

Worship, reflection, prayer and action

Eco-Chaplain online

Eco-Chaplaincy open for invitations: however and wherever you are this year!

Rev David Coleman continues his work through coronavirus restrictions, engaging imaginatively with local churches as a visiting digital preacher. Please email the Eco-Chaplain to connect and work with your own church on dates throughout this year.

This coming Sunday 14th February at 7pm we encourage our volunteers and supporters to continue joining Christians in prayer across Scotland.

We are also now linking all our resources to Climate Sunday, the initiative hosted by Churches Together in Britain and Ireland encouraging all congregations to:

  • Worship – hold a climate-focused service before the start of September and Creation Time
  • Commit – take action as a local church community, reducing greenhouse gas emissions as an eco-congregation
  • Speak up – call for the UK Government to lead action on the climate crisis, signing the The Time Is Now declaration towards COP26 in Glasgow

Please email for more information or to register your own Climate Sunday service.

https://www.climatesunday.org

Read our new monthly briefing on COP26 and how you can get involved.

Register for free and begin your church’s journey as an eco-congregation. Please consider church membership to become more active in the charity and support our Local Network activities – join online.

Please donate if you can, to help support our work and encourage growing interest across Scotland’s churches. If you or others in your church would like to receive this newsletter regularly, please subscribe.

The Seabin Project

By Edinburgh, News, , ,

St Martin of Tours’ Episcopal Church in the Gorgie/Dalry area or Edinburgh has an active Eco-Group keen to share news and encourage support for its Sea Bin Project. Liz Moir writes:

2020 was the Scottish Year of Coasts and Waters which focussed particularly on the inland waters and the seas which surround Scotland. Last June St Martin’s Eco-Congregation group had hoped to visit the Coasts and Waters exhibition at the Scottish Fisheries Museum in Anstruther, Fife but travel restrictions prevented this. Still, it gave us food for thought which led to the St Martins Eco-Group considering a project to help combat the increase in plastic waste contaminating our oceans and waters.

One of our group, Stuart Campbell, came up with the idea of funding a Seabin – a device which looks rather like a long tube, containing an automated pump which draws water through the tube, catching the plastic debris in an internal net which can then be retrieved and disposed of. It also has a sponge which will take in a small oil or diesel spill. The Seabin can be bolted onto a pontoon in a harbour or marina (see photo attached) so it can move with the tide helping to keep the water clear of debris. It needs to be connected to an electricity supply, and obviously needs regular maintenance to check it is working correctly and to remove the rubbish.

There are at present relatively few in Scotland. The first one was installed in the North East at Banff Harbour. Stuart has supplied a photo from a recent visit.

Another is on the West Coast at Mallaig Harbour and there is a possible for MacDuff Harbour. Hopefully there will be others but in the meantime, we in St Martin’s think this is something worth pursuing.  

First of all we have to find a harbour which would accept the Seabin, which has a suitable source of electricity, and which has staff or volunteers willing to maintain the bin and dispose of the rubbish it collects.  It is therefore necessary that we work collaboratively.

Each Seabin costs around £3000, plus installation charges, which is a significant sum.  As our usual routes for fund-raising at St Martin’s – coffee mornings, home baking, special events, fund-raising lunches, etc – are not feasible at the moment, we will have to find other sources of funding. One option is crowd-funding, but for this to be attractive to donors, we need to find a suitable site for the Seabin, show how it will improve the surrounding water, benefit the harbour or marina, local wildlife and the wider community and visitors.  There are many things to consider but we are already working on a number of these and as we’ve had some encouraging feedback, we hope to proceed with this project.

Should anyone wish to offer advice or guidance please do not hesitate to contact St Martin’s Eco-Congregation Group: ECO@stmartinsedinburgh.org.uk

St Martin’s Episcopal Church, 232 Dalry Road, Edinburgh EH11 2JG

This link leads to the short (1 min 50) video which describes the Seabin and how it works.