St Albans
We are a gathering of local Christians meeting 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.
In 2019, a number of members from churches in and around St Albans got together to see how we could respond to the growing climate crisis. We met together for inspiration and encouragement, and started sharing relevant material as newsletters, supporting and promoting local sustainability initiatives and wider campaigns to raise awareness and help bring about change.
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.
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.
Contact & Resources
We have developed a rich resource of material and publish this on our website: St Albans Green Christian Local Group
You’re welcome to sign up to receive our newsletters (where ever you are based): Newsletters
If you want to contact us, you can email us: stalbans@greenchristian.org.uk