An “Ecological” Congregation

Support your congregation to integrate environmental actions into their everyday lives, through

  • making changes at home
  • sharing possessions and skills in your congregation
  • running a fruit and vegetable box scheme at your church
  • reducing your meat consumption

Make Changes at Home

Encourage your congregation to make changes at home to reduce their ecological footprint.

Share Possessions and Skills

There are many stories on the Bible about the multiplication that comes through sharing. This includes the abundance that Jesus’ followers experienced when they held things in common (Mark 10:28-31, Acts 2:43-47), and the accounts of Jesus’ multiplication of the loaves and the fishes. The hospitality of sharing skills and possessions and food builds up relationships, and can also help to reduce resource use. Ideas for possessions sharing projects include:

Car sharing: This can be as simple as making better use of lift sharing to church, or could mean encouraging church members to join up to a lift sharing or car sharing scheme in the area.

Tool, toy and book libraries: Many churches already have book libraries. Why not extend this to include other things that your congregation could use, like toys or tools?

Skills sharing: Run skills sharing workshops at church, such as cooking, making preserves, or repairing bikes. Community gardening very often also involves sharing and building skills related to food growing.

Fruit and Vegetable Box Schemes

Encourage your congregants to consume local, organic produce. They can do this by supporting a local farmers market, or by participating in an already existing food cooperative or fruit and vegetable box scheme. Your church could also set up its own scheme, or purchase in bulk from an existing scheme to reduce transport requirements and costs.

Reduce Meat Consumption

A simple way to reduce your ecological footprint is to cut back on the amount of meat and dairy products you eat. You could also encourage congregants to observe one meat-free day a week or a month. The Australian Religious Response to Climate Change (ARRCC) has an excellent brochure that can be downloaded to promote the idea in your congregation for nominating a meat-free day once a week. See here.