Eco.Group Meeting 23 June 2021

		Eco.Group Meeting 23 June 2021 St Ursula's Church Berne, Switzerland A Church of the Anglican Communion, welcoming all who seek the Lord Jesus Christ
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St Ursula's Eco-Group – Heading towards Gold

Notes from Wednesday 23 June 2021

Present: Helen Marshall, Alison Beindorff, Hector Davie, Agnès Derory, Sue Higson, Donna Goepfert, Mary Lou Melville, Johannes Hewel, Brian Morgan, Rosalind Richards, Maxine Wildhaber
Other input from: Cecily Klingler

Creator of our common home,
You fill the earth and sea and sky with life
Forgive us our neglect of your creation
The choking waste of our pollution
The damage done by careless habits
And our indifference to future generations.
Help us to amend our lives
To refuse more plastic if we can’t reuse it
To lift our voice for lasting change
And to live well and gently on the earth
To the glory of your Son, the Living Word
Through whom you made this fragile world. Amen.
Rt Revd Steven Croft, Bishop of Oxford
(https://www.churchofengland.org/prayer-and-worship/topical-prayers/prayers-world-environment-day).

Cecily reminded us in a note that the city environment department (Stadtgrün) were organizing local walks and visits for children and adults. She also drew attention to Swiss Clean-Up Day on September 17/18.

Hector had put a link on the church eco web pages to toilet twinning. This was something which should involve the congregation (the church itself had only four toilets).

We needed to encourage more young people on board, by a project involving Junior Church (as last year) or a discussion. Depending on age, we might involve them in a garden survey, or making illustrative panels, or simply in producing their own ideas. (They might also be enthused by taking part in marches and by joining clean-up exercises.)

A good idea would be to organize a talk by Stadtgrün, or better, a visit to the recycling centre. We could also take over an area (in Dahlhölzli, for example) where a multi-generational group took on tidying up. This could be done under the auspices of Trash Heroes (who provide bags and gloves). DG and MLM will find out about Trash Heroes. JH will contact Stadtgrün. (It was noted that there were possible safeguarding issues, and that parents might need to give consent.)

We should do a wildlife survey, but also make a list of trees and plants. We could make interpretative labels (metal, wood or sustainable plastic) for some of the parts in the garden (or even do an app with QR codes for people’s mobile phones, though this might require additional energy). The garden group would investigate information labels. MW has access to an app.

We had agreed on a meditation area, open to all. We could provide laminated cards with reflections (D/F/E?). The area on the Kirchenfeldstrasse side of the church was too noisy – though this area would mature. Helen was keen to have a cross. Maybe an artist could make a cross, in stone or metal, or coloured glass. BM would discuss with Helen and SH. The area nearby could become a meditation area, marked off with stones or natural objects.

It was noted that the plants in the garden should be low-maintenance &ndash: a good watering once a week should suffice.

As a church we have to examine our own carbon footprint. We do not clearly know how much energy we have saved with the 2018-9 energy project. Figures are currently awaited for the period April 2020-21. We also need to encourage our congregation to measure their own footprints and decide where to reduce them. An additional way to focus people’s attention on this issue would be to get people to say what they do to lead a more ecological life.

Notes by
Hector Davie
3 July 2021