Registering your congregation with us is a declaration of your intent to care for creation. Its free and comes with no pre-requisites. Register online today.
Registering your congregation with us is a declaration of your intent to care for creation. Its free and comes with no pre-requisites. Register online today.
Eco-Congregation Scotland is always keen to hear from local churches and today our team shares great examples of activities and events. Congregations across our movement continue their work through the pandemic, respecting restrictions while responding to local need and addressing environmental concerns.
We are also pleased to share key events this week organised by partners and coalitions. On St Andrew’s Day, as we celebrate Scotland’s patron who spread the Good News far and wide, we thank all who have attended and participated in a wide variety of recent activities and online meetings, here and globally. This has been crucial as we welcome the world to the COP26 Glasgow climate talks next November. Eco-Congregation Scotland and churches throughout the country have been represented well by so many of our volunteers. We value your involvement, interest and insight.
We also love to share stories from local eco-congregations, to celebrate your wide-ranging work and encourage us all in caring for God’s creation. We were delighted to hear that our 500th eco-congregation Faifley Parish Church is holding a regular Recycle Room every Friday with free clothes bundles, DVDs, books, baby equipment, cushions and bedding thanks to dedicated volunteers and large numbers of donations. Ellis’ facemasks and Elsie’s chutney, pictured below, have been popular and successful fundraisers too!
We look forward to celebrating registration 500 with Faifley Parish when COVID-19 local protection levels allow. A special welcome and thank you to all subsequent new registrations in recent months, taking us to 508 eco-congregations:
If your church is concerned about the environment and wants to get involved, please join our movement today. It’s free to register.
We also encourage membership for your church, to become more active in the charity and support our Local Networks. Membership is again free for smaller churches and up to £100 per year for congregations with the highest incomes, that’s only £8 per month or less than £2 per week.
All membership fees go directly to support Local Network activities through our Programme Coordinator work. It’s easy to join online or print a form and post to us. Please also consider making a one-off or regular donation to support our work as an individual too.
Inspired by our A Sanctuary for Swifts event two weeks ago – which you can watch again online – Central Borders Local Network coordinator Ian Skinner informs us Holy Trinity Melrose is installing a nesting box for swifts on the Trinity Centre. Specially designed for swifts, the box will be placed near the top of the north facing gable with a clear outlook towards Gattonside Hill on the far side of the Tweed. Another two boxes designed for house martins are being placed on the Centre’s east side. Ian adds: “We are looking forward to welcoming new visitors in the spring of 2021!”
Well done and thank you all Kinross Parish Church Eco-Congregation group volunteers who picked up a “terrifying” amount of litter pictured above last Saturday in the space of about an hour. We also congratulate St Mary’s Eco-Congregation TOA (Take One Action) Local group in Dalkeith, holding another successful film evening to watch and discuss “Catching the Sun“, exploring workers and business leaders racing to lead the clean energy future.
These are just some of the diverse environmental activities and interesting events across individual congregations and our Local Networks. Thank you again for your continuing support and that of every church volunteer and all our supporters. It is always appreciated, even more so this challening year. Happy St Andrew’s Day!
An appropriately scary start to the Christian season most concerned with what is to come. Many thanks Scottish writer, academic and activist Alastair McIntosh on the first Sunday of Advent followed by Rev Julia Meason today, minister of Kirkwall East linked with Shapinsay, and to all opening our alternative Advent Calendar.
Financing Climate Justice Monday 30th November 2020, 12.00noon https://climatefringe.org/sccs-live-events/ Rich nations like ours have a duty to deliver a fair share of support for poorer countries on the front line of the climate crisis. Tune in to this Climate Fringe event to find out more.
Restraining Climate Change: What is the Role of Faith Communities? Tuesday 1st December 2020, 7.30pm https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_x18cxZxSS_yyGZ6_bkEVWQ Climate emergency, coronavirus and Brexit. How can we as faith communities work with others to build a just and green future? These are moments of great opportunity but also significant challenge. Hosted by St Columba’s-by-the-Castle Episcopal Church in Edinburgh, join the discussion with:
Just Transition Commission and Church groups team up to plan a socially inclusive path to net-zero for Scotland’s housing
Scotland’s Just Transition Commission, established to make recommendations to ministers on how Scotland can transition to a net-zero economy by 2045 in a way that is fair for all, has teamed up with the Methodist Church in Scotland and Eco-Congregation Scotland to host an online event on Saturday 17 October 2020, from 10am until 12.30pm.
Scotland’s ambitious climate change targets will require the housing sector to radically transform itself at a pace previously unseen. Making homes more energy efficient and heated from low carbon sources presents an opportunity to improve the quality of our housing stock, tackle fuel poverty and create jobs. Concerns have also been raised about how this is paid for, and whether the shift to net-zero in the housing sector could risk sliding more households into fuel poverty.
We have to find ways of meeting our climate targets which make lives better not worse for the least well off in our society.
Just Transition Commissioner, Norrie Kerr says: “We need to put an end to fuel poverty with bold action to make people’s homes warmer and cheaper to heat. Equity considerations must be central to climate action, if we are to make the transition to net-zero in a way that improves the lives of the most vulnerable. This event will provide an opportunity to hear from experts and ordinary people on these issues and contribute ideas on how Scotland can achieve this.”
Rev Mark Slaney, Chair of the Methodist Church in Scotland, who will be chairing the event, said: “We have to find ways of meeting our climate targets which make lives better not worse for the least well off in our society. I look forward to an imaginative and stimulating discussion which will contribute both to the work of the Commission and to Scotland’s preparation for the COP26 climate summit next year.”
There is still time to register for this free event, pre-registration is highly recommended. Further information and registration can be found here:
Presentations will focus on the key challenge: how do we combine meeting our climate targets with improving energy affordability and lowering fuel poverty?
Adrian Shaw, Church of Scotland climate change officer, will also outline how churches can meet the opportunities and challenges presented by Glasgow hosting the COP26 United Nations climate talks being held in November 2021.
Eco-Congregation Scotland will be encouraging all Scottish churches to become more focused on addressing the climate crisis over the coming year. Eco-Congregation Scotland is an ecumenical environmental charity supporting over 500 local churches of all denominations across Scotland, committed to environmental activities in their life and mission, with Stirling Methodist Church one of the most active eco-congregations.
Eco-Congregation Scotland Stirling network are looking forward to their meeting on Wednesday 25th of March from 2-4pm(New date to be confirmed) when the topic is “All about Food.” Stuart Guzinski of Forth Environment Link will be talking about the work that they do involving food and growing. FEL has run Stirling NeighbourFood an online farmers market for ethical, local and seasonal produce which they have recently handed over management of to The Kitchen at 44 King Street, a soon-to-open community kitchen, food event space and cookery school. Sara Macmillan from this social enterprise will also be joining us to share her exciting plans for more community food activity in Stirling with the network.
All are welcome to attend this event. To assist with catering, if you would like to come along please let us know by filling in the contact form on the events page of this website.
Buchlyvie Church have been holding a Christmas tree festival on the December weekends in the run up to Christmas. The theme is “He’s got the whole world in His hands” Fifteen trees have been beautifully decorated by village groups and individuals and include up-cycling, save the oceans, polar ice cap, after the rains comes the rainbow, and birds, bees and butterfly conservation.
If you are in the area this weekend (21st and 22nd December 2019) it would be worth popping along to see the trees. (Please see our events page for details)
