Stephen Alexander's Response to Rev. William Hewitt

This was the response of Mr. Stephen Alexander to the Right rev. William Hewitt on the ocassion of the climate change reception at the Scottish Parliament.

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.

The Windsor Celebration of the Faith Commitments for a Living Planet

The Church of Scotland has been invited to The Windsor Celebration of the Faith Commitments for a Living Planet.

Adrian Shaw will be taking the Church of Scotland's Commitment on behalf of the Church of Scotland by the Moderator of the General Assembly, the Right Reverend William Hewitt.


The Church of Scotland welcomes the opportunity to contribute to the Windsor Celebration of Faith Commitments for a Living Planet.

We bring to the celebration the commitment made at the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland 2009 to respond to the challenge of climate change.

“The Church of Scotland is concerned that climate change poses a serious and immediate threat to people everywhere, particularly to the poor of the earth; and that climate change represents a failure in our stewardship of God’s creation. We accept the need to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases urgently to avoid dangerous and irreversible climate change; and to promote a more equitable and sustainable use of energy.”

To respond to this challenge the Church of Scotland is:

• Developing the project Responding to Climate Change by providing project funding for the project for three years from November 2009.

• Instructing Presbyteries to produce a plan setting out how they will measure energy consumption in their church buildings, ascertain their carbon footprint and achieve a year-on-year reduction of 5% of their carbon footprint

• Encouraging congregations to become eco-congregations and supporting the incorporation of Eco-Congregation Scotland as a charitable company.




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Prayer Day endorsed by the Right Rev. William Hewitt

the Right Rev William Hewitt, Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland has sent us this statement encourging congregations to join in a Prayer Day.

"Climate change is one of the greatest challenges we face in the twenty first century. The Church of Scotland is responding to climate change by asking all presbyteries to monitor and reduce their carbon footprint and I am delighted to join churches elsewhere in Britain and Ireland to call upon all congregations to join in prayer on the 4th October.

Particularly we would pray that world leaders and governments everywhere are alive to God's will; that we understand our duty of care for creation; and put aside our selfish interests to help all people in all countries become good stewards of creation."

Please join us the 4th of October in prayer.