Leeds churches help CofE plan for a year of action on tackling climate change

The work of green churchgoers in and around Leeds is featured in a new guide from the Church of England. Don’t Stop at the Lights inspires church leaders across the country to launch a year-long programme of practical action to reduce their congregations’ carbon footprints, as energy prices head upwards.

The Diocese of Ripon and Leeds’ environment policy, adopted in September 2007, is used as a model for other Church of England dioceses to adapt for their own use, while parish churches in Whinmoor and Far Headingley are also featured.

St Paul’s Whinmoor, near Seacroft, held a service for pets in October 2007 – including guinea pigs, reptiles and chickens – to help parishioners focus their minds on the concerns of rural areas of Yorkshire, while St Chad’s church, in Far Headingley, has a permanent reminder of the beauty of God’s creation in the form of unusual stained glass windows featuring a wide range of animals. These animal-related activities and features can encourage congregations to think about the importance of looking after God’s creation, argue the new book’s authors.

Don’t Stop at the Lights, launched today by Church House Publishing, also includes sermon ideas and extensive bible study notes drawing on ancient theological themes which aim to reconnect the church to the natural world and the roots of its faith. It inspires priests to make churches beacons in their community, offering case studies linked to the Church’s year including:

• setting up a decorations swap shop during Advent for people to exchange unwanted decorations;
• using Lent as an opportunity to carry out a complete internal environmental audit and to set targets, beginning on Ash Wednesday;
• re-establishing the tradition of beating the bounds at Rogationtide to help refocus congregations on God’s gifts and the role of the Church in preserving justice and extending charity;
• and limiting the number of nights that the church is floodlit and then inviting members of the congregation and wider community to ‘sponsor’ an evening’s illumination in memory of a loved one or to mark an anniversary.

Former Church of England environment adviser Claire Foster and David Shreeve, a current adviser to the Church and director of The Conservation Foundation, have written the book to help enable churches to take climate change seriously as a core Christian concern. It follows last year’s successful pocket guide by the same authors and also produced by Church House Publishing, called How Many Lightbulbs does it take to Change a Christian? which will be published in the United States this Autumn.

Dr Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, comments: “All Christians have an important role to play in developing their own environmental awareness and encouraging it in others. I am delighted that the Church of England now has this helpful guide, which will prove invaluable for those wanting to plan their own services and for all those looking to find a deeper theological understanding of our Christian concern for Creation.”

The Rt Revd Richard Chartres, Bishop of London, adds: “This book offers us not just tips on energy saving but a reorientation. The intention is not to urge Christians to get measured for a hair shirt but to rediscover ‘how good and joyful a thing it is to dwell together in unity’ with all that lives.”

The 148-page guide includes a range of appendices including lists of useful contacts and websites, a model environmental policy for dioceses, and a ‘Shrinking the Footprint’ audit for local churches.

The book’s publications coincides with the launch of ‘Time for God’s Creation’, an initiative encouraging churches to use the period between 1st September until 4th October as an opportunity to put the environment at the heart of their worship. The designation of this special period follows a resolution made at the Third European Ecumenical Assembly in 2007, attended by representatives of Europe’s Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican and Protestant churches, that these weeks “be dedicated to prayer for the protection of Creation and the promotion of sustainable lifestyles that reverse our contribution to climate change.”

Don’t Stop at the Lights, priced £14.99 (ISBN 978-07151-4127-4), is available from Christian bookshops, or by mail order via the web at www.chpublishing.co.uk.