The Northern Ireland Creation Care Network met on 15 October 2016 in Abbey Presbyterian, Monkstown Newtownabbey. Participants came from:
St John’s Presbyterian Church (Newtownbreda), St Michael the Archangel, Butterfly Conservation NI, Whiteabbey Presbyterian, Hillsborough Presbyterian, Eco-Congregation Ireland, Kilbride Presbyterian, Christian Aid, Drumalis Retreat Centre, A Rocha UK, First Donegore Presbyterian, Belfast Bible College, Northern Ireland Community Energy, Northern Ireland Assembly.
A small group of attendees walked a section of the Newtownabbey Way before the meeting.
The meeting was opened with short readings from Ps24 and Col 1v15-17 and a prayer by S Acheson, followed by a short report of actions in Abbey Presbyterian. The most encouraging to date was hosting this meeting. Good vibes were received when discussing environmental issues like recycling with the property convener.
In one church they had an environmental policy which was made available to all contractors on the site and the annual training on Health and Safety and Environmental issues were delivered together for its members. This appeared to be a good model to adopt more widely.
An issue arose concerning the Council’s additional charging for separated waste ie. recycling and it was thought that this could be followed up by the Presbyterian panel. It appeared to be confusion over the charging of commercial premises rates when the churches were charities.
The perennial issue of use of paper or plastic cups was again raised, with one church having sourced compostable paper cups. This at least meant that were people insisted on using disposable cups, for a variety of reasons not just laziness, then this was a better outcome.
We also touched on issues such as the adoption of the Paris agreement and the ban on HFC’s in fridges.
We had a brief update form Butterfly Conservation telling us about the winter talks and summer outings, and also highlighted the recent State of Nature report from a collection of environmental organisations including BC. It was noted that Northern Ireland has now sufficient data to have a butterfly indicator included.
The Environmental and Spiritual weekend at Drumalis on the second weekend in February 2017 was highlighted. The keynote speaker would be Lorna Gold. ‘Laudato Si’, Pope Francis’ encyclical continued to give many opportunities to discuss environmental issues from a spiritual perspective, as did Eco-congregation etc. There was also a “Ballynature” which has a large number of stalls by major players in the environmental scene in NI present, at what is ostensibly a ‘local church’ event which has grown!
It was also mentioned that there were many good hymns which taught similar theology for use in services, these included a new Getty hymn for Harvest and several hymns by Ruth Duck in the newest Presbyterian hymnal.
Jonny Hanson was working with Drumalis on a land management project on that site. Similarly A Rocha UK were looking at a couple of sites with the possibility of establishing its first site in N Ireland, managed for wildlife and with a distinctly spiritual ethos.
The Spiritual element of environmental stewardship was often neglected in our churches and this was one of the main failings identified in congregations undertaking the Eco-congregation awards path, as well as community involvement.
Next meeting will be in March 2017, venue and time to be decided.
The group is really keen for other individuals, groups or churches who may be interested in promoting eco/care of creation issues in their churches/church groups to come along. Please email Bertie Stirling on
[email protected] to get added to the email list for more information about the next meeting.