Climate Sunday Report

Grangewood & Kingswood Methodist Church, part of the Nottingham Trent Valley Circuit organised a Climate Sunday as part of Arocha UK Eco Church programme on Sunday 13th June. Based in Wollaton and Bramcote they are hoping to influence the community around them to care for God's earth and the environment, joining in community initiatives where they find them.

Our Climate Sunday today is part of a country wide initiative. Churches are being encouraged to hold a climate-focused service on any Sunday before November. We are part of over 1,000 churches that have joined in, so far.

The vision is to leave a legacy of thousands of churches better equipped to address Climate Justice as part of their discipleship and mission and to make a significant contribution to community efforts, to secure adequate national and international action at COP26.

The service was held at Kingswood Methodist Church for a limited number of people, observing the social distancing rules. It was simultaneously broadcast on Zoom for the rest of the congregations at Kingswood, Grangewood and Radford. Shortly after the service it was uploaded to Youtube and accessed via the church websites. Our service focussed on Beginnings. Looking at the creation story, we reflected on what our role of being good stewards of creation really means today in the context of Climate Change. We learnt how we can be a voice in influencing governments in the lead up to COP26 and holding them to account for the promises they make.

Both churches have attained their Bronze Eco Church Award and will be looking at our property, worship, teaching and community involvement to see how they journey towards the Silver Award. We are interested in making links with other groups in Wollaton with a concern for our environment, so please get in touch if you would like us to partner with you.

We need people with an interest in gardening, wildlife, recycling, craftivism, re-purposing and waste reduction to help us take our journey to the next level. We want to be able to work with global partners to use fairly traded and environmentally friendly products and twin our toilets so that developing countries can build toilets in their communities.

Climate Change is a lived reality for our Pacific communities. Their islands are disappearing; they are having to re-locate and leave behind the graves of their parents and grandparents. The real scandal is these people have the lowest carbon footprint and yet they are suffering the impact of our carbon emissions.

As Methodists today, we believe that the love of God is shown through our actions, and the commitment to ensure that everyone can live a full and flourishing life. 2021 will be a key year in the fight for our planet. We must do all we can to live gently on our earth making small changes where we can and at the same time speak out on the bigger problems that will have more impact and require actions from governments and businesses alike.