St Albans Green Christian Local Group is a gathering of Christians collaborating together to review progress our churches have made; for encouragement to carry on; and share ideas, resources and success stories for lightening our environmental footprint while increasing our impact in the community.

Responding to the Climate Crisis

Many of us have a fresh appreciation of the urgent need to act to avert the worst excesses of the climate and ecological crisis. Most of what has been done up to now seems to have made no difference – while there is some improvement in the UK, global (and UK) carbon emissions continue to increase.  We are beginning to see significant consequences of increased temperatures. One in seven UK species are threatened with extinction, and one in four globally. Hurricanes, forest fires, famine and vegetables rotting in flooded fields.

Do we know the facts and have we understood the consequences of “business as usual”?  And as Christians, do we hear the voice of God in this?  Throughout the Old Testament, God had to warn his people, and all the peoples of the earth, of the devastating consequences of carrying on with selfish exploitative lifestyles.  But he always gave hope, and the promise of a better outcome when the people turned back to Him and lived according to his love. 

There is much for us to do, and we are only just beginning.  God is calling us to dramatic lifestyle change as individuals and as communities.  He is asking us to speak and act creatively and boldly where people, nations and corporations are continuing to exploit the earth and its people.  We need our knowledge, our passion and our actions to line up – to step out in obedience to God and discover the hope which he has promised us.

We are local Christians wanting to help bring about change. We formed a network Hope in Action to support the churches’ response to the climate and ecological crisis through networking and the provision of resources.

Protests in St Albans & London

We take an active part with local organisations

Extinction Rebellion – getting our voices heard due to the urgency of the issues and lack of progress made so far. You can read more about getting active (and our resources for individuals and churches) here.

Sustainable St Albans - getting stuck in with our local Transition Town project, working alongside people who care like us.

Find your local Transition Town here

St Albans Friends of the Earth - we joined in local action here in St Albans, as part of Global Day for Justice during COP26.

 

A few years ago, many of our young congregation members took part in the school protests demanding Climate Justice.

 

We take an active part with Christian organisations

Tearfund - we joined the London march during the UN climate talks, COP26, to raise our voices to urge world leaders to take urgent action to end the climate crisis. People living in poverty are already suffering due to increasingly frequent extreme weather events which are devastating their communities. We are now on course for catastrophic global temperature rises which will put millions more lives at risk. But it’s not too late to change this. Join Tearfund’s Reboot campaign to call for a greener and fairer future.

St Paul’s receives Silver Award

Read about : St Paul’s Church, St Albans journey to Silver Award on our Eco Church page.

Churches get involved in SustFest

A number of St Albans churches have been getting involved in our local sustainability festival organised by Sustainable St Albans (part of the Transition Network).

St Albans Cathedral

The Cathedral Eco team put together a varied programme of events for SustFest 2021, and was thrilled at how staff, clergy, volunteer groups, and the wider Cathedral community worked together to deliver them and demonstrate our sustainable spirit. Building on the success of a 100-strong attendance at the online Lent course: ‘Treading Lightly on God’s Earth’, we undertook ecological surveys of the Cathedral precincts with the RSPB and Herts and Middlesex Wildlife Trust, hosted Hannah Malcolm and Anderson Jeremiah for an Abbey After Hours + live poetry evening, put together a lunchtime recital with the Abbey Singers, picked 5 bags of litter, cultivated a beautiful prayer tree and celebrated the tree trail. The youth groups and flower guilds also made small changes as part of the Cathedral’s ongoing commitment to sustainability. Having now achieved our Bronze Eco Church award, it feels really hopeful to be aiming for Silver Eco Church status, and SustFest helped show how a bit of imagination, determination, and teamwork goes a long way.

 

St Paul’s Church

Hatfield Rd, St Albans

 

We ran four events during SustFest21: two talks, a service and a film showing. The two talks were on Zoom; the service was in-person and also livestreamed and recorded on YouTube; the film showing was also made available on Zoom.

The Revolution in Nuclear Power 24th May. Philip Nalpanis introduced Simon Johnson, retired physicist, who then introduced his half-hour video presentation and answered questions. The presentation describes a new nuclear reactor type that could produce safe, cheap and plentiful electricity whilst emitting no carbon dioxide and burning existing reactor waste.

Responsible Investment 27th May. Mike Wilkins hosted a discussion with Alice Ross, Deputy News Editor of the Financial Times and author of “Investing To Save The Planet”. During this 45 minute introduction to green investing, we explored during a lively Q&A session how savings and pensions, however big or small, can be turned into a force for change. 

Sustainability Service 30th May. Our 10.30 service featured worship songs relating to God’s creation, a powerful message from the story of Noah, a look at our carbon footprint, intercessions in the form of video clips made in natural surroundings, a short video of our youth talking about what sustainability meant to them, and a talk on what we can do practically to live more sustainably. The communion that followed was also “earthed” in God’s creation.

2040 film 4th June. Father and filmmaker Damon Gameau looks into a near-term future when his daughter, Velvet, will be 24. He draws on the best minds from around the world to conjure a positive portrait of what ‘could be’ instead of the current dystopian future with which we are so often presented. He looks at specific approaches to adapting to, and surviving the effects of, climate change with positive projections into that future. These include: community solar power; regenerative farming; seaweed farms; driverless shared cars; and empowering women and girls through education. The film is encouraging rather than nagging.

 

Greenwood URC

Chiswell Green, St Albans

Thanksgiving Service

On the first Sunday of Sustfest we held a service of thanksgiving for the Natural world and recommitted to care for that small patch of it.  As part of the service our minister blessed our newly constructed ‘bug hotel’.  See Photos

Climate Sunday Service

Also during Sustfest 2021 the 5th Sunday  in the month fell and the  joint Service of the St Albans United Reformed Church Cluster was due to be hosted by Greenwood URC.  It seemed appropriate that we took this opportunity to hold a Climate Sunday Service  in preparation for COP26 as  suggested by Churches Together in Britain and Ireland  ( Climate Sunday | Home | Worship | Commit | Speak Up)  Earlier in the year we had already made a commitment towards becoming an Eco church.  Later we also signed the Climate Coalitions ‘The Time is Now’ declaration.  Declaration | The Time Is Now.

 

South St Albans Churches

 

‘Adopt a Plant Weekend’

The South St Albans Churches (St Stephen’s with St Julian’s CofE, St Bartholomew’s RC and Greenwood URC) together for the first time this year arranged an  ‘Adopt a plant Weekend’.  It commenced at Greenwood URC on the morning of Saturday 29th May, when they offered a wide range of vegetable, fruit and pollinator friendly plants for ‘Adoption’ by church members and the general public.   

Plants left over from this session were taken on to St Barts and added to those they had collected and offered in the same manner following their Saturday evening and Sunday morning Mass services.  St Stephens’ ‘Plant Adoption’ session followed the Sunday morning service with St Julian’s finishing off the weekend with an adoption  session following their afternoon service – plants left over then were taken to be adopted by Earthworks St Albans (Earthworks St Albans – Social and Therapeutic Horticulture for people with learning disabilities). 

It was a simple concept – we attempted to bring together experienced gardeners with surplus plants and knowledge  to offer to encourage novice gardeners and, as you can see from our photos, this ambition was, to a limited degree, met.   

It was a very much enjoyed experiment that we hope will be repeated next year.   Although, no charge was made for the plants donations for Earthworks St. Albans were accepted and we were delighted to be able, between us, to pass on a substantial sum.

 

St Luke’s Church

Cell Barnes Lane, St Albans

St Luke’s organises and hosts a popular Upcycle & Repair Fair as part of St Albans’ Sustainability Festival. This involves many local community groups who are able to showcase everything from upcycled furniture, to bicycle and jewellery repairs.

Green Christian St Albans

Who we are

We are a group of Christians who believe it is essential that the church responds to God's call for us to care for creation through a robust response to the climate and ecological crisis.

We aim to motivate our congregations and communities by:

  • Informing about the crisis - providing and directing to educational resources.

  • Inspiration - from the Bible, and through sharing stories, especially of what churches and individuals have been doing.

  • Action - suggesting ways and offering the motivation to get involved. Encouraging everyone to use their influence and to join local eco groups.

We will use:

  • Our website

  • Newsletters

  • Gatherings for members to share experiences

  • Prayer

  • Occasional public events

  • Supporting one another and sharing resources

We are multi-denominational, drawing strength from our shared faith and a common bond of neighbourhood.

We network with churches, youth workers, schools workers, and other networking organizations operating locally, such as Churches Together.

We may be part of a larger organization, but our focus will be to operate and influence locally.

You can read more about how churches are making a difference in St Albans here.