The Methodist Church in Ireland

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Eco-Congregation Award

Clonakilty Methodist Church received the first award to be made by Eco-Congregation Ireland since it started in 2005.

The award is given in recognition of excellence in making and celebrating the link between the environment and faith. The arward was presented to to the Rev John Purdy and the Society Steward, Grace Kingston , at the Rev Purdy's final service in Clonakilty on June 29th. http://www.ecocongregationireland.org/news/

Grace Kingston writes:

We began our journey towards becoming an Eco-Congregation several years ago by undertaking something called “an environmental check-up”. Basically this was in the form of a questionnaire where we noted down the existing activities of the church and to what extent the environment played a part in these activities. There were 12 sections in all but, as it would have been impossible to cover all of these in detail, we had to chose those which we felt could best be worked on in our church.

The 5 we chose were:

• “Creation & Christianity – some green theological perspectives”
• Financial Matters
• Care of Church Grounds & Land
• Personal Lifestyles
• Global Neighbours

It all sounded a bit daunting at the start but, in fact, we discovered that we were doing some things already – like promoting the use of Fair Trade products and recycling our rubbish. There were however, many areas where we needed to improve and we decided to work on these. Some changes were quite easy to make – like using Eco-friendly cleaning products and low-energy light bulbs and switching our electricity account to Airtricity. Others took a little bit more time like clearing the wasteland at the back of the church and transforming it to a garden and patio area which all now enjoy. We began planting trees to mark special occasions like christenings and confirmations. Last November we set up a prayer room on the main street in Clonakilty and this included an area with information on global environmental justice issues and prayer suggestions.

Thanks to Rev. John Purdy's championing of the cause, the mindset of the congregation has changed over time to make us more aware of local and global environmental issues. Themes such as environmentally friendly farming practices in Africa were used in a Harvest Thanksgiving service and “Reduce, Reuse and Recycle” at children's clubs. Members have formed links with local environmental groups such as “Sustainable Clonakilty”.

We are all very proud of our achievement but acknowledge that there is more to do – we are planning to appoint a member of the congregation as “Eco-Champion”. Their role will be to recommend further improvements and to keep us up to date on environmental issues.

Find out how your church can become an Eco-congregation and explore the climate change issue.