An eco service held in south Dublin on 9th October attracted members of five congregations. The event consisted of prayer, worship and reflection on the theme ‘Celebrating Creation’.
The service was organised by the Three Rock Churches’ Environment Group. An initiative of Eco Congregation Ireland, Three Rock is an ecumenical committee which has met since early last year to explore ways in which the churches in the Dundrum area can promote environmental awareness within their local community. It consists of lay representatives from Holy Cross, Dundrum, Dundrum Methodist Church, Society of Friends, Churchtown and Whitechurch and Kilternan Church of Ireland parishes as well as the Church of the Ascension of the Lord, Balally, which hosted the ecumenical event. Most of the committee members present at the service played an active role, with a reflection on the theme of the service delivered by Robert Cochran of Dundrum Methodist Church. Robert, who is also a member of the ECI committee, said that, while our understanding of Creation was probably very different from the writer of Genesis, two “remarkable facts” were still relevant today – that all of Creation was inter-related and interconnected and that the world was “good, important and has value”.
Everyone had a responsibility to respect and care for the environment. “Today, with the unambiguous scientific evidence of climate change, and the serious consequences if this trend is not curtailed – or better, halted – we too need to read the signs of the times, and commit ourselves to do whatever we can to address the issue,” he said. “For Christians, environmental concern is not an optional extra; it goes to the core of our faith.”
Three Rock convenor, Helen Shiel (also of Dundrum Methodist Church and a member of the ECI committee), said there was “a great atmosphere” at the service and hoped it would be the first of many. The group has met together since last year when the Methodist congregation invited members of other churches to attend a showing of Al Gore’s environmental film, An Inconvenient Truth, followed by a discussion.
It was also involved in last year’s Stop Climate Chaos bell-ringing campaign and earlier this year organised a ‘Cherishing Creation’ poster campaign in which 600 children from seven local schools participated. A selection of posters was displayed in the Church of the Ascension of the Lord and Dundrum Library before moving to the ‘Cool Earth’ exhibition in Dun Laoghaire’s county hall as part of the Festival of World Cultures in August.
The committee is lobbying for feeder buses to the Luas and has requested the council donate a piece of wasteland that could be developed into a garden. Helen, who has had a keen interest in environmental matters for the past 15 years, says the group is “a wonderful ecumenical exercise” which is serving a real purpose within the community. “People can’t say any more that they are ignorant about climate change and the consequences of exploitation,” she says. “And, even if climate change was sorted tomorrow, I still think that we have an obligation to treat the environment respectfully.”
Fellow committee member Mairtin de Burca, a member of Balally’s parish pastoral council, believes there is an urgent need to encourage people to work towards protecting the environment at community level. “Here in the west, regardless of religious denomination, we have a big responsibility,” he says.
“We are wreaking so much misery on less fortunate people elsewhere in the world. I would see down the line that our churches, right across the religious divide, would have prayer for the environment as an integral part of their liturgy every Sunday. It should become as natural to us as breathing.”