Keynsham Methodist Church - What is an Eco Congregation?
Eco-Congregation is a programme from A Rocha to help every church in the country to become good stewards of God's world. It is about fulfilling God's dream for what the church could be - a place where our spiritual values, practical action and communal involvement have a positive impact on the environment and demonstrate good news for God's world.
Eco-Congregation is a tool to help churches begin to address environmental issues in all that they do. Churches are encouraged to use the resources provided to look at three main areas of church life:
• 'spiritual': worship and teaching (this might include services, preaching, work with children and young people, small groups)
• practical: things to do with buildings, land and church management
• mission: reaching out to the local and/or global community
For us it began with a church check-up. This helped to affirm what was already happening in the church, and gave us some ideas as to what we might work on in the future. The decision to seek an award was endorsed by the church council.
Once we felt we had made significant progress in those three main areas: spiritual, practical and mission, then we applied for the award. Two local assessors came to visit the church, heard our story and granted us the Eco-Congregation Award. The Award is a wooden plaque to go on the wall at each centre, but more than that, it is
a recognition that our church is taking these issues seriously, and weaving creation care into the life and witness of the church. It's an opportunity to show our local community that these issues have their proper home in the life of the church.
Having received our first Award, we will draw up another action plan which will take us through the next couple of years. The Award lasts for two to three years, during which time the hope is that we will continue our journey towards greening our church. There is always more to do.