Eco-Congregation Scotland Newsletter
Helping you to care for God’s creation
Coming to a place near you…
In April this year we heard the exciting news that
Eco-Congregation Scotland has been awarded a
three year grant from the Scottish Executive’s
Sustainable Action Fund. This is a real
affirmation that Eco-Congregation is highly
valued not only by churches but by wider society
as well. The funding has made it possible to plan
ahead, expanding our series of regional
workshops, bringing the Eco-Congregation
concept out to meet you and your church.
So far, workshops are scheduled for Dundee and
Orkney in September; Glasgow, East Lothian
and East Renfrewshire later in the autumn; and
Kilmarnock, Stirling and the Borders early next
year. If your area isn’t covered but local churches
are interested, then do get in touch as we may be
able to squeeze in an extra workshop or two.
We have also redesigned Module 1 – The
Churches Environmental Check Up. It is now
quicker and easier to complete. Please ask if you
would like a copy of the updated Module One.
All Eco-Congregation Scotland contacts have
now been transferred to a single database held
by Victoria and Margaret. Your details may very
occasionally be passed on to a relevant
environmental officer in your region, but never for
commercial purposes. If you would prefer to be
removed from the database, please let us know.
St John’s Church, Hamilton
Award Winners
Issue 3
July 2003
St John’s Church of Scotland in Hamilton gained
their award in May after completing a whole host
of initiatives. They used Eco-Congregation
modules to develop their care for creation in the
spiritual life of the church and in practical work
both in the church and with the wider community.
They:
 Held a ‘Going for Green’ service at which 13
church organisations pledged support for the
programme and outlined the actions they
were taking to be more environmentally
friendly
 Gave each member of the congregation a gift
of bulbs planted in a recycled plastic cup,
made up by Sunday School children as part
of the Going for Green service
 Ran adult bible study groups on a "Creation
and Christianity" theme
 Involved Guides in recycling cans, mobile
phones and cartridges , collecting in the
church and in their halls which are widely
used by the community
 Have on-going monitoring of their energy use
and recently installed an energy efficient
modular boiler system
 Reuse and recycle paper and use recycled
paper in the church office
 Looked into their investments to ensure they
are ethically sound
 Use their website
(www.stjohnshamilton.org.uk) to highlight
their involvement in the programme
 Invited the local primary school and their
parents into the church to perform "The
Emerald Crown" (about rainforest
conservation) as part of the ‘Going for Green’
week
 Supported the work of Floresta in enabling
sustainable agriculture in Haiti
Having gained the award, they are not resting on
their laurels but have many plans for ongoing and
future environmental projects.

Is your church ready to apply?

Do contact us for further information or advice
about applying for the award.
In each edition of the newsletter we plan to focus
on one particular aspect of the programme, giving
background
information,
practical
advice,
contacts and resources, as well as a story from a
church where they have taken action. Please let
us know if there is any issue you would like us to
cover in future editions

Aim to stop growth in the amount of municipal
waste produced by 2010
Reduce landfilling of municipal waste from
around 90% to 30%
Provide widespread waste minimisation advice
to businesses
Public participation is essential if Scotland is
to meet these objectives. We are all consumers
and waste producers so we all have a part to
play. Most Scottish people are already
enthusiastic for change and the plan includes
ongoing national and local education and
awareness campaigns to build on this and change
the very way in which we perceive and deal with
our waste.
National Waste Plan for
Scotland
Copies of the National Plan and all 11 Area Waste
Plan summaries are now available from:
 The Waste Action Line 0800 389 5270
 Online at www.sepa.org.uk
Bruce Reekie of the Scottish Environment
Protection Agency (SEPA) explains the
national and local plans to help us minimise
waste.
Putting Waste Minimisation into
Action in Perth
Scotland’s National Waste Plan was launched
earlier this year by Ross Finnie, Minister for the
Environment and Rural Development, and Ken
Collins, Chairman of SEPA. The Plan is a
blueprint for the future of sustainable waste
management in Scotland and forms the keystone
in the implementation of the National Waste
Strategy over the next 20 years.
Brian Hendrie of North Church, Perth tells
what his congregation have done to minimise
waste:
The National Plan integrates eleven Area Waste
Plans, which focus on the waste produced by
households and some commercial premises that
is collected and managed by Local Authorities.
These plans were drawn up after extensive
public consultation.
It became apparent that in a church where there
was lots of “tea and fellowship”, many milk
cartons were always lurking in our rather large
fridge ! Additionally, since youth organisations
were “guzzling” cans of fizzy drinks, it became
obvious that we should begin re-cycling the used
cartons and aluminium cans in our church hall.
As our church embarked on the EcoCongregation project, two or three of us
considered some practical initiatives which might
involve large numbers of the congregation.
The National Plan will reduce the environmental
impacts of waste both locally and globally, and
aims to remedy the environmental injustices
suffered by those particularly affected by waste
issues.
The Implementation of the National Waste Plan
will:
 Achieve 25% recycling and composting of
municipal waste by 2006, and 55% by 2020
(35% recycling and 20% composting)
 Provide widespread segregated kerbside
waste collections across Scotland (to over
90% of households by 2020)
 Recover energy from 14% of municipal waste
 Develop markets for recycled material to help
recycling become viable and reduce costs
Therefore, last autumn, I approached the
Manager of our local Homebase store and told
him of our re-cycling plans, asking (very politely),
if he’d be willing to donate two green bins for this
specific purpose! He agreed and we launched
the initiative at our all-age Harvest Thanksgiving
worship. The response was both immediate and
plentiful.
 Buy Fair Trade chocolate We spend £700
From that time onwards, many in our
congregation began to bring plastic milk cartons
to our hall both on weekdays and on Sunday
mornings, and it soon became obvious that one
ordinary green bin was not enough to cope with
the supply! Indeed, from the launch of the
initiative, our volunteers have taken at least three
large sackfuls of used milk cartons PER WEEK
to the local authority re-cycling centre in Perth.
As a result, I contacted the local authority about
this and they happily provided us with a large
“Wheelie Bin” in order to cope with the supply.
So, all in all, this project has been successful and
has engaged with all ages in the congregation.
We probably take a sack of aluminium cans
every couple of months to the local re-cycling
centre, and as a church, we also re-cycle paper,
printer cartridges and recently we have begun recycling polystyrene cups.
We also remind
members in January to re-cycle their used
Christmas cards in the appropriate local shops.
Resources Review
Many churches publish a regular newsletter and
some Eco-Congregations have begun to include
a “Green Tips” section giving people ideas on
how they can be more environmentally friendly
as individuals and families. A handy source of
these tips is a book published by The Ecologist
called Go M.A.D! The Ecologist is happy for
green tips to be reproduced from their book as
long as the source is acknowledged.
million extra on chocolate at Christmas. In the
last 10 years the price of cocoa beans has
halved but, during the same period, the price
of a bar of chocolate in the UK has increased
by two-thirds so it¹s definitely not the farmers
who are making the extra money. Visit
www.divinechocolate.com, or call 020 7378
6550 (page 19 Go M.A.D!).
 Use low-phosphate washing powder For
every litre of Persil you use, 20,000 litres of
water are needed to treat it until it can reenter
our
water
system
safely.
Visitwww.ecozone.co.uk, or call 0870 600
6969 for more details. (page 21 Go M.A.D!).
 Use your bike for all journeys under two
miles Catalytic converters that cut down on a
car¹s carbon monoxide emissions only start
working after you have driven for two miles.
Yet 25% of car trips in the UK are less than
two miles and 58% are less than five miles.
(page 39 Go M.A.D!).
 Donate your leftover paint. Of the 300
million litres of paint sold in the UK each year,
6.2 million litres remain unused. The
Community Re-Paint scheme run by Save
Waste and Prosper runs paint collection
schemes.
Find
out
more
at
www.communityrepaint.org.uk (page 45 Go
M.A.D!).
Go M.A.D! costs £3.99 (+£1 p&p), available
through telephone mail order hotline on (01626)
832225. Lines open between 8.00am and
4.30pm. (All cards accepted except for American
Express). Website: www.theecologist.org
The Celts, Creation & the Bible –
A Rocha Conservation Sunday Pack 2003.
Available for £6 from A Rocha UK, 13 Avenue
Road, Southall, Middx UB1 3BL.
Tel 020 8574 5935. e-mail uk@arocha.org
This is the latest in a series of packs produced by
A Rocha
- Christians in Conservation, for
Conservation Sunday (1st Sunday in June) but
suitable for use in any creation care service. The
Celts, Creation and the Bible examines the
origins, history, beliefs and art of Celtic
Christianity and considers the reasons for its
continued appeal today.
Go M.A.D! stands for Go Make A Difference, and
is a paperback book full of fascinating facts,
thought-provoking statistics and 365 practical
daily ways to save the planet, such as:
The fact that many Celtic Christians lived lives
that fully integrated spirituality and practicality
interests many today who are seeking a more
sustainable future. The pack goes on to suggest
ways in which worship can be linked to
conservation, through valuing biodiversity (seeing
God in all things), through integration (avoiding
the divide between ‘sacred’ and ‘secular’), and
through involvement (with other people and with
the earth).
6 - 10
12
21
19-26
Energy Efficiency Week
Seed Gathering Sunday
www.treecouncil.org.uk
Apple Day
One World Week: theme ‘Moving
Stories’ www.oneworldweek.org
NOVEMBER
1
Christian Ecology Link Conference and
Members Meeting, London
23
Buy Nothing Day
26 – 7
Tree Week www.treecouncil.org.uk
Material in the pack is varied so that it can be
used in a variety of denominations and settings,
and it includes sermons, a children’s talk, music,
songs and prayers.
Dates for your diary
ONGOING
28 June - 10 September, Edinburgh, “Eden's
Orchestra” - An exhibition highlighting the
importance of the world's flora in music-making
Tel. Gwen Ritchie on 0131 248 2897
email. g.ritchie@rbge.org.uk
JULY
2
Mammals and Biodiversity Day, events
organised by Local Biodiversity Officers
all over Scotland.
www.scotland.gov.uk/biodiversity
AUGUST
1–8
Lindisfarne Summer School on Ecology
and Spirituality at Holy Island,
Northumberland.
enquiries@bordersschoolforlife.org.uk
31 - Sep 8
Biodiversity Week
SEPTEMBER
1 - Oct 4 Churches’ “Creation Time”, designated
by ECEN (the European Christian
Environmental Network). Materials
available from www.ecen.org
11 – 14 Durham Celebrating Creation – God’s
Glory Revealed, organised by Affirming
Catholicism.
www.affirmingcatholicism.org
14 – 22 Red Squirrel Week
16 – 22 European Mobility Week: In town
without my car campaign
www.22September.org
22
Car Free Day
OCTOBER
5
Animal Welfare Sunday
www.aswa.org.uk
The Scottish Wildlife Trust organises a wide
variety of events around Scotland, far more than
we could list here! See www.swt.org.uk/events
Christian Ecology Link (CEL) regularly update the
list of events on their website, see
www.christian-ecology.org.uk/whatson.htm
Contact Eco-Congregation
Scotland:
To enquire about the programme, request an
introduction pack, or for advice and support
contact Victoria Beale or Margaret Warnock:
Victoria Beale
Phone: 0131 556 2953
Email: ecocongregation@srtp.org.uk
Write:
Eco-Congregation Scotland
Society, Religion and Technology Project
John Knox House
45 High Street
Edinburgh
EH1 1SR
Margaret Warnock
Phone: 01786 471333
Email: margaret.warnock@encams.org
Write:
Eco-Congregation Scotland
Keep Scotland Beautiful
Livilands Lane
Stirling
FK8 2BG
Eco-Congregation Website (general):
www.encams.org/ecocongregation
Eco-Congregation Scotland Web pages:
www.srtp.org.uk/ecocongs.htm
Eco-Congregation in Scotland is supported financially
by the Scottish Executive’s Sustainable Action Fund.