Organise an event for Scotland’s Nature Festival 18th to 26th May

Scotland’s Nature Festival is an opportunity for organisations across Scotland to join together to provide a nation-wide programme of events aimed at encouraging people to get out and about to become involved with nature in fun and exciting ways. There is still time for your church or eco-group to get involved. You can for example arrange a Wildlife Planting event in the church grounds or organise a walk to take in the natural beauty of your local area.

You can can be part of a unified events campaign together with many other organisations using the same messages, logos and promotional materials. This helps to create a sense of something big happening across Scotland, in which everyone can take part.

The Scottish Natural Heritage website has a range of resource and information for participating organisations.

You can find out how to add your event/s’ details to The List and discover what resources the Scottish Natural Heritage and partner organisations can offer you from the Resouces for Event Organisers page.

If you have other queries, you can contact us at biodiversity@sh.gov.uk.

Thoughts from the Annual Gathering by Barry Watson

Castlemilk Parish Church recently joined Eco-Congregation Scotland and Barry Watson took part in our Annual Gathering on 20th April. The Gathering this year was all about food. After the Gathering Barry wrote to us and we would like to share his thoughts (with his permission of course) with you.

Firstly, thank you for a very interesting, helpful and absorbing day – my first attendance at the Gathering.  Once I can download the slides etc from the website, I will have plenty to work with for our ‘Project’ – a new Church building in the centre of our Castlemilk and fit for the 21st century – something which is going to take at least the next three to four years.  

The discussion on food reminded me of a quotation I took a note of quite ‘a while ago’, which I am sure your team will find useful if they do not already have it.
 
WE SHARE BREAD AND WINE

“We share bread and wine which symbolise all the ways in which human beings live together and tear each other to pieces.”

Think of the domination, exploitation and pollution of man and nature that goes with bread, all the bitterness that goes with competition and class struggle, all the organised selfishness of tariffs and price rings, all the wicked oddity of a world distribution that brings plenty to some and malnutrition to others, bringing them to that symbol of poverty which we call the breadline.

And wine too – fruit of the vine and work of human hands, the wine of holidays and weddings, the wine that loosens you up inside and so is such a good symbol of forgiveness, wine which is water and fire in one. This wine is also the bottle, the source of some of the most tragic forms of human degradation, drunkenness, broken homes, sensuality and debt.

When we take bread and wine we take all of this; our attempts and failures to live together, all that is ugly and all that is beautiful and offer them to God to make sense of them and to consecrate.”

From “Our home encloses treachery and death”, Arguments for Easter, Tim Radcliffe OP, Independent 23 March 1989
 
And a personal reflection on ‘the spiritual significance of sharing food’.   Last year, my elderly mother, who is now very frail and also blind, was in hospital on her 88th birthday.  I took in a birthday cake (with permission, of course), which was also shared among the other patients on the ward.  Then there was the problem of how do you actually try to eat a piece of cake which you can not see and will crumble when you try?  I had to help, of course. I was concentrating on being very  practical, while thinking ‘I am spoon feeding my own mother’.    I don’t remember thinking anything particularly ‘spiritual’ at this point,  but on reflection perhaps this was just such a moment which ‘the spiritual significance of sharing food’ is all about. My Mum is still with us..
 
Thank you again for [the Gathering].
 
Peace be with you.
 
Yours sincerely
 
Barry Watson
Castlemilk Parish Church

The National Churches Trust Community Grants Programme open for applications

The Community Grants Programme is for grants of £5,000 and above for projects which introduce facilities to enable increased community use of places of worship.  Projects must have an estimated cost of at least £25,000 (including VAT and fees) to qualify.  

For example,   St Michael’s church in the centre of West Bromwich received a grant of £10,000 towards the cost of  a new kitchen extension, the provision of accessible toilet facilities, storage provision, general refurbishment and re-modelling of the lobby and entrance, in order to make it more accessible and usable for the local community. 
The closing date for applications is the 1st October 2013.

Please read more about this funding opportunity by clicking on this link.

New East Lothian Network

Churches in East Lothian have recently formed a new local Eco-Congregation network. This is our seventeenth local network and already includes churches from Bellhaven, Dunbar, Gifford and North Berwick.

The next meeting is planned for September. See the East Lothian network web page  for further details.

Successful Gathering on Saturday

Thank you to everyone who made our Annual Gathering such a well-attended and successful event last Saturday. 

Over 100 people joined us at the newly opened Grassmarket Community Project hall in Edinburgh. We will be publishing a full report shortly and we will share any presentations from the day on the Annual Gathering 2013 page.

Here are some photos from the day.

In the morning in the main hall

At lunch

Trevor Jamison has been appointed as Environmental Chaplain for Eco-Congregation Scotland.

Trevor Jamison has been appointed as Environmental Chaplain for Eco-Congregation Scotland. He introduces himself and writes about his role:

Hello! I am excited to be appointed as Environmental Chaplain for Eco-Congregation Scotland. I am a United Reformed Church Minister, working full-time in this post, through the URC Special Category Ministry scheme.

I am originally from Belfast but come to Scotland via living in different parts of England, working previously as a librarian and then as a minister. I have been a minister with church congregations in both urban and town settings and also have previous experience in adult Christian education.

I have come to this new work because it gives me a chance to be involved in the Church’s response to the huge environmental challenges and opportunities facing the twenty-first century world. I am convinced that the Christian faith provides resources and insights that can both inspire and practically help us to care for God’s creation and demonstrate love for our neighbours here on earth.

So now, to quote the job description, I am looking forward to working with ‘congregations from all denominations … to care for creation … providing spiritual and theological support … to help them to grow in faith and confidence in this work.’ Of course, at this early stage it’s not possible to say exactly how all that works out in practice! I do know that in the days ahead I will be meeting with people from as many churches as possible, to find out what is going in where they are, and to discover how I can best help.

The Annual Gathering this Saturday at Grassmarket Community Project

Our Annual Gathering is on Saturday this week and promises to be an interesting day. The Gathering is free and open to anyone interested. 

There are still a few places! Complete the Registration form and email it to Oyunn on oanshus@cofscotland.org.uk, post it to Eco-Congregation Scotland, 121 George Street, Edinburgh, EH2 4YN or call us on 0131 240 2277.

A bit about the day

Rev David Atkinson, an expert in agricultural research, will kick things off at 11am after our AGM by talking about the theology of food.  He is quickly followed by Rev Liz Henderson from Richmond Carigmillar Church who will share with us practical aspects of running a café in her congregation. 

After a sustainably sourced lunch catered by the Grassmarket Community Project there will be a range of workshops on offer: 

Dr Neil Hollow will explore where food may come from in future in The Global Food Crisis.

The Climate Challenge Fund and Community Energy Scotland will inform of funding opportunitites for community projects and renewable energy installations in Funding For Environmental Projects.

Dr Sheena Wurthmann from Netherlee Church will introduce you to the practicalities of the Just Eating resources produced by the Presbyterian Church USA.

Christian Aid and SCIAF will champion the IF campaign and show you how to get involved in fighting world hunger.

Pete Richie from Whitmuir farm will share his experience of engaging the community in running the Nourish Project producing local and sustainable produce.

And in Café Conversations anyone interested can share the Eco-Congregation experiences with other congregations and will include members from Carlops Parish Church and other award winning congregations.

Join us if you wish!