Eco-Congregation
Scotland
20 volunteers from the three Eco-congregations in Helensburgh cleaned the beach from Kidston Park to the Logie Baird statue. The rubbish had mainly been washed up from the River Clyde, but there was also a large amount of peoples food litter. clothing and household waste, we also removed several tyres. The smaller items in great number were plastic bottles and glass.
We have done the beach clean each year and this year the beach seemed generally cleaner but we still managed to collect 27 bin bags of rubbish plus assorted larger items.
The beach would look so much better, if people took more care disposing of their rubbish.
Thank you to the Helensburgh Eco-Congregations for their fantastic effort and to Elizabeth Lambert for sharing text and photos from the day.
Would you like to arrange a litter pick in your area? Please contact Clean Up Scotland for a free kit and to register your Clean Up event. For more information access the information pack by clicking here.
Balerno Parish Church have been highly commended in their environmental work as part of their commitment to being an Eco-Congregation and presented with an “outright” award. The church first registered with Eco-Congregation Scotland in February 2011 and has been busy over the past two years implementing key actions to reduce its impact on the environment and to support environmental initiatives within the whole community.
The award was presented on Sunday 12th May by Revd Trevor Jamison, Environmental Chaplin to Eco-Congregation Scotland during a special environmental themed service under the title of “On Earth as it is in Heaven”. During his presentation the Reverend Jamieson commented that “The assessors were extremely impressed with all that the congregation has achieved, and as a result, have recommended that you should be one of the very few congregations in Scotland to receive an “outright award”.
Photo caption: Rob Cargill, accompanied by the Sunday Club children, BPC Minister Louise Duncan and Parish Assistant Hayley Cohen, receives Eco-Congregation Award from Revd Trevor Jamison.
One specific area that the church has focused on over the period of participation is the support of community based projects and events. The church has active volunteers supporting the great work of Balerno Village Trust and regularly hosts key events such as “Apple Day” and “Tattie Day”. Balerno Parish Church has also been able to fully support the recent Fair Trade Village application by providing one of the required Fair Trade catering venues by means of the Mill Café.
In terms of the day to day running of the church, it has a fully co-ordinated recycling strategy for all its buildings, which means all paper, cardboard, cans, glass and plastic bottles that can be recycled are recycled. Food waste from the café is also composted using both on-site composting and a food waste collection service. For the running of the church halls and main sanctuary, waste going to landfill is kept to an absolute minimum.
A specific initiative Balerno Parish Church would like to advertise more widely is its Printer Cartridge recycling service for the community. A Printer Cartridge collection bin is now located in the Mill Café. The church knows that may households struggle to know what to do with used printer cartridges, but these can all be recycled properly if left in the church’s collection point. Note this is for home printers only (not commercial/office printer cartridges).
Balerno Parish Church would like to thank all those that have helped them achieve their environmental goals to date which includes all members of the congregation, BVT and also all users of the halls for events and regular clubs. Rob Cargill, who leads the Green Team at the church, said “We look forward to everyone’s support as we work towards our next level of award in 2015. I would also sum-up the basics of environmental good practice as follows: “Recycle”, “Buy Fair Trade wherever possible” and “Use Less Energy”. He goes on to say “If we can all do what we can in these three areas we will achieve a great deal ”.
Thank you to Balerno Parish Church for all their hard work and for sharing details and photo from their award cermony.
The event will run on Friday 17th May in the Ron Davey Enterprise Centre, Vulcan Street from 9:30am to 12pm.
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Wellington Parish Church is hosting an informal poetry evening. It starts at 7:30pm on the 7th of June.
The evening is intended to promote the work of the World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF). It is appropriate, therefore, that the centrepiece will be a dramatic reading of the “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” by members of Wellington Church and others under the direction of Stephen Callaghan, the director of the archdiocese of Glasgow Arts Project.
Fair trade wine and local cheese served.
All Welcome!
St Ninian’s Craigmailen Church has received their first Eco-Congregation Award. Congratulations!
Principally the award was received for:
- Their work with the Brownies’ Quiet Garden – which contributed to Linlithgow’s ‘Burgh Beautiful’ portfolio
- Their work with the church grounds making it a very attractive and peaceful atmosphere
- Their an annual hosting of children and their teachers from the Chernobyl region
- Promoting donations to the West Lothian Food Bank and purchase of Fair Trade products
- Installing extra lagging and insulation in the church’s heating system and wall and loft insulation in the Manse.
Photo borrowed from: http://www.stninianscraigmailen.org.uk/index.html
The Award cermony will take place on Sunday 19th May at 11am at their special Creation Eco-Service. All welcome!
Well done!
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The poster is available for printing by clicking on the following link: Clean Up Scotland Poster
We would like to welcome Netherlorn Churches to Eco-Congregation Scotland. They are five Argyll churches which include Craignish, Kilbrandon, Kilchattan, Kilmelford and Kilninver.
Photo borrowed from their website:http://www.netherlornchurches.org.uk/
Please help us make them feel welcome!
Go Green!
For a personalised action plan of how you can go greener, create your Greener Plan today - Click Here.
For a personalised action plan of how you can go greener, create your Greener Plan today - Click Here.