I must thank the Moderator of the Church of Scotland for inviting me as the representative of the United Reformed Church Scottish Synod on the Eco-Congregation Steering group to his reception at the Scottish Parliament.
To see and get a chance to meet so many representatives from different denominations but with a like mind on the subject of global warming and the need for the Christian community to take action was most encouraging.
Hearing of the experiences of other congregations in their attempts to tackle this issue gave me personally a fresh impetus to drive this issue forward in the Synod.
At our last one day Synod in September 2009 the URC passed two resolutions supporting the aims of the eco-congregation movement, namely to appoint an environmental representative and to conduct a church audit. Since then 21 churches from this Synod have responded (nearly 50% of our congregations) to the resolution at September Synod to audit their church premises with a view to finding out their carbon footprint (and the amount of money they are spending on energy use!). Church and Society committee believes that we must continue to strive to reduce the damaging effects that people have on our environment, and work with our governments at Westminster, and particularly at Holyrood, in trying to achieve this - by gradually reducing carbon emissions from our heating and energy use. Despite the failure of the Copenhagen Summit to deliver effective measures, there are effective ways each individual and each individual community, including the church community, can take to limit and reduce damaging emissions. We will be recommending at our spring Synod this year, following the example of the Iona Community and the Church of Scotland, that churches reduce their carbon footprint by 5%, year by year, until 42% emissions reduction is achieved by 2020 – in line with Scottish Government proposal.
Stephen Alexander
United Reformed Church Synod of Scotland.
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