In total 92 congregations from various denominations took part in last Saturday’s Earth Hour event. We are currently colating stories from some of them. Here is an example from Cults Parish Church:
We had a half hour “Celebration of Darkness” at Cults Parish Church. This is the first time we’ve done anything like this, so although there were only about a dozen people came along, we were pleased to have made a start in what the Group has already agreed should be an annual event.
The floodlights outside the church were switched off from 8.15pm, and inside, we had minimal lighting (just enough to allow people to find themselves a seat) and used candles as far as possible. Five members
of our “Green Group” spoke on what darkness means to them, and we had a poetry reading and piano piece played as well. It was interesting to hear the different ideas that people had; some reflected on the
role darkness has played in their own lives, others on more general themes. There were also calls for more care of our earth and better use of scarce resources, as well as the need to preserve natural darkness itself (as opposed to total darkness, which is not a natural phenomenon).As Eco Co-ordinator at Cults, I fully intend to go on from this experience and encourage more occasions/events when we can raise awareness of all that is going on environmentally, both locally and internationally, and encourage greater involvement by more people.
We will be coordinating Earth Hour again in 2016 and will send out information to everyone on our mailing list towards the end of this year. If you are not on our newsletter mailing list please click here to sign up.