Rupert Read and Judith Allinson with Rupert’s books
Personally, I spent a lot of the event in the kitchen with the very important job of ensuring there was enough tea, coffee and cake for the 80 attendees, so spent a lot of the day checking the cakes still tasted good and feeling grateful for Colin Andrews, our technical guru, for recording all the sessions for me – and you – to watch later (videos being edited and are coming soon).
But as I understand it, the day went like this:
After the Annual Members Meeting and Rupert Read’s keynote speech, people were given a task to do over the lunch break – to answer the question “Climate breakdown is happening – how can churches help their communities prepare for what’s coming?” on a pink Post-It note in no more than six words.
Lunchtime conversations
After the three other speakers, these answers were used as a basis for eight discussion groups, and from each group one short self explanatory sentence was fed back to plenary, identifying the actions churches should take in public leadership, building social resilience, provoking discernment and serving local communities. The speakers then summed up and the day closed in prayer.
Following the conference Green Christian issued a “Call to Action” for equipping every church, large or small, rural or urban, to be a beacon of resilience and hope in a time of upheaval. These are the actions we call on churches to take:
Give truthful, creation-led learning, leadership and worship – learning from others and aspiring to be prophetic in the present crisis
Be a good friend and neighbour – exploring ecospirituality with hospitality, hope and care, and offering a living oasis to support everyone through good times and bad
Become catalysts, hosts and convenors – collaborating with MPs, councillors, agencies and people of all faith backgrounds for prayer, learning and resilience planning
Open wide our churches – creating interconnected hubs which signpost activities, resources and ways of developing practical and spiritual resilience
Here are some quotes from people who attended:
Howard:
What an amazing conference – one of the best I have ever attended! One of the best parts (for me) was how the post-it notes combined to produce in the small group discussions a succinct sentence – marvellous stuff!
Group discussions
Steve:
As the challenge of the day seemed to be confining thoughts to six words – thought-provoking, friendly, engaged, pertinent, open-minded, concentrated.
Sandie:
Rupert Read’s exhortation to the church to set up ‘lighthouses’ (emergency hubs) is a very fine way of responding practically to the challenge. We do not know what crises are just round the corner.
Jim and Sue:
First, the day was very well structured, from a good mix of speakers, time for interaction, a purposeful lunch and focussed workshops to end.
We came away encouraged that engaging with our churches to be part of the Transformative Adaptation that Rupert spoke about confirms what we are already engaged with and excites us to take it as far as we can.
Vanessa gave us five things to think about but ‘What is mine to do?’ helps focus, not on doing everything, but on finding joy in your something.
And we also came away with a very useful little book of Rupert’s.
Vanessa Elston closing statement with panel behind
Andrew:
Rupert’s encouragement for us each to look for the ‘unique spiritual contribution’ we can make made me realise that each parish/local neighbourhood church might look to be a ‘hub of community resilience’ in its own particular, specific way.
Rosemary:
The gift of the church is our ability to proclaim and inform (preaching), and to give pastoral care. We are in every community and the church could become ‘life houses’ during any community crisis. The crises (climate, AI & geopolitical) are all from a primarily spiritual cause (selfishness / greed).
Anxiety is combatted by action – and one important action is disaster preparedness (and to make a box with food/torches/blankets).
Judith:
We are facing the collapse of the way of life that we are accustomed to. This will seriously challenge everyone both practically and spiritually. We all need to be ready, prepared and involved in both areas..
Robbie:
I’d like to thank the board, trustees and organisers for all their efforts. It went to time, while allowing space for questions and comments. It allowed for meeting others in the group, which is often the best bit, which can only be done in person, and there were plenty of people to meet. (That’s more important than the speakers nowadays when you can usually watch the main speakers on a recording.)
Particular thanks to [the keynote speaker] Rupert Read. He does lots of talks to lots of groups and I had the impression that, rather than repeat a template talk, he made particular reference to our role in the church.
Particular thanks to Colin Andrews [who recorded the talks]. We forgot a round of applause for him. When I mentioned this, he said it’s for the best. If people don’t notice the tech, it’s obviously working properly!
Mary turned her thoughts into a Haiku:
Rock in the Storms
Love folks in times tense. Beacon of resilience. Place of Hope commence.
Show up, serve fully. Care, share, prayer. Humbly Lead community.
And she wrote this prayer when reflecting on the day:
‘Lord, I want to be a resilient person myself,, AND I want to help built resilience in our children and our grandchildren; in our church and our community. Eternal Spirit, have your way in me and through me.’
Feeding back from the group discussions
Ruth Jarman is Green Christian’s Information Officer
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