Carlops Eco Group organized a candle light event in church which was attended by around 40 people from the congregation, the local community and from the surrounding area.
The church was decorated with more than a hundred paper stars which had been cut out and coloured by the children of West Linton Primary School and onto which they had written their wishes for our planet. E.g. use less energy and care for the animals. Coffee with home baking was served on arrival and anyone wishing to share a poem, piece of prose or musical item with those present, wrote their name on a card and dropped it into a container.
Gary Jack, who acted as our host for the evening, explained the concept of Earth Hour and described its origins. Names were then drawn out the ‘Hat’ and, for the next 90 minutes, the audience enjoyed a wide variety of presentations.
The words of a song entitled ‘Oh Mother Earth’ were passed round the audience and sung with much gusto to the accompaniment of a guitar. Members of the local writers’ group delivered poems and pieces of prose from their own work. A small group of musicians performed – after the fun of trying to arrange candles in such a way that the sheets of music were visible. (We ended up with wind-up torches being held by folk standing behind the players! It was pointed out by the conductor that similar difficulties might have been encountered when the music was first performed!)
Although many of the items had an environmental theme, and most were of a serious nature, there were also ‘lighter’ items giving rise to laughter. The mixture made for a happy event which was concluded by Gary explaining about ‘60+ Beyond the Hour’ and also some of the projects the WWF are promoting as a follow on from Earth Hour.
A bonus arising from Earth Hour was that contact was made with West Linton Primary School and members of the Carlops Eco Group attended the pupils’ Earth Hour follow up Event and presented certificates to the children who had produced beautiful art and literary work. This also gave the opportunity to explain Eco-Congregation Scotland to the pupils.
The consensus is that this was a most successful and worthwhile occasion.