This year’s Annual Gathering of Eco-Congregation Scotland took place in Stirling, hosted by Stirling Baptist Church. The theme for the day was Sustaining Hope, bringing together Eco-Congregation members from across Scotland. Over 60 people came in person, with a further 20-40 joining online during the day.
The keynote speaker was Jess Pepper, who is director of the Climate Café movement. Jess is already involved with many Eco-congregation churches, by bringing people together to chat and act on climate change. Lucy Le Roux spoke on her role as Campaigns and Advocacy Coordinator for Christian Aid Scotland. I was glad to see Lucy again, having met her at a Christian Aid Climate Justice event, which she ran in my local town of South Queensferry. The rest of the morning involved the launch of a new resource: In Global Solidarity: Taking action for justice as global citizens. This was presented by Judith Macleod, from the Church of Scotland and Eco-Congregation Scotland and Charles Sim, chair of Scottish Fair Trade. The resource was created through collaboration with Eco-Congregation Scotland, Christian Aid and Scottish Fair Trade. It provides a useful introduction to global poverty and inequality and includes case studies from global partners and local churches.
In the afternoon I ran a workshop on Net Zero Action Planning, during which I introduced the work I am part of within the Net Zero team at the Scottish Episcopal Church (SEC). We then engage in a role-play activity using the SEC’s Net Zero cards. The room was split into groups and each group imagined they were part of a hypothetical church. The members of the group took on various roles including: priest, treasurer, building convenor, congregation members and community group members. Then the cards were handed round and discussed within each group from the viewpoint of the various roles.
It was so interesting to wander round the room and here snippets of the discussions, as people widened their viewpoints to better understand the range of concerns and ideas represented. My challenge was to bring everyone back together again and wrap-up the workshop. Hopefully some of the imagined conversations will be taken back to the many churches represented on the day and help those congregations in their planning.
The Net Zero Action Planning workshop was followed by a seminar by Karen Hind from the National Churches Trust on Proactive Maintenance. Karen spoke of the importance of maintaining church buildings in light of increasing extreme weather events. She reminded us that the greenest buildings we have are the ones we already own, and so actively looking after these is a vital part of sustainability. These two sessions ran alongside Rev David Coleman’s workshop on the Season of Creation 2024: To hope and act with Creation.
The day ended for me with some great conversations, connections and plans to develop these over the coming weeks. Without working together in community, sustaining hope can feel impossible. However, a day like this Annual Gathering provides such encouragement and inspiration, reminding us that we are all part of much bigger picture. As we work together, strengthened by God’s Holy Spirit, we find the Hope needed to sustain our enthusiasm and action. For any churches interested in engaging with Eco-Congregation Scotland, you can find their website here.
Bethany Nelson, Empowerment Coordinator
