Churches host the People’s Emergency Briefing
Across the UK people are getting together to hear about and respond to the climate and nature crisis, often in churches.
In April, Green Christian was part of a coalition of the UK’s major church denominations and Christian organisations that launched a Call to Action, calling on churches to host community screenings of the newly released People’s Emergency Briefing film.
Across the country, churches are taking up this call. I’m collecting reflections here from people who have run the film in their church. Be inspired and encouraged to do so in your church too!
St Peter and St Paul’s Church, Uplyme
50 people attended the screening at St Peter and St Paul’s Church in Uplyme (see photo above). The film was shown thanks to the efforts of the Uplyme Climate Community, a community of churchgoers and others.
After the showing people were encouraged to get refreshments and mingle, chat and debrief for a while. Then we offered some different zones for responses or more specific conversations. E.g. sign a letter to your MP, how do we discuss this well with youth?, what about the finances? etc. Uplyme’s vicar, Revd Nicky Davis, led a quiet prayer space where folk could come to reflect quietly and light a candle.
Revd Nicky said:
It felt like a very constructive and helpful evening. Many new friendships were formed and good conversations took place. Some people took notes and it was useful to have the ‘responding zones’ afterwards. My prayer is that the film will be shown on national TV as soon as possible.
Christ Church, East Sheen
Judith Russenberger organised a screening in her church, and said:
Over 50 people attended – and not all the usual suspects – and the discussion was animated and diverse. (Our MP didn’t attend, so I sent them a summary of the responses given by their constituents). The bishop did come and was later going to be facilitating the discussion following a screening at the cathedral. A couple of people went away keen to organise further screenings for their communities.
It was definitely worth doing. It can definitely be organised by one person but more people makes the load easier. Importantly it definitely has ongoing ripple effects.
Trafalgar Road Baptist Church, Horsham
Mark Francis, who ran our People’s Emergency Briefing workshop organised a screening at his church. 80 people came along and he found it hopeful that so many people were fully engaged in the conversations afterwards. Dr Maggie Weir Wilson said:
The beauty of watching the film in a small local venue like this is that we can respond together as this crisis is affecting everyone. It’s rapidly accelerating and the conversations with our neighbours and local leaders can help us decide together how to best respond and prepare for extreme heat or cold and for food shortages, rather than waiting for the government to help. We’ve known about climate change for half a century but very little has been done.
And Mark has the following tip:
Tell your local paper that you will have a story for them in a weeks time, and send them this link with supporting photos before the event to allow them to plan for your story. Then – day after the event – send them an article you’ve written with a couple of photos from the local event.
St John and St Stephen’s Church, Reading
St John and St Stephen’s church in Reading, an Eco Gold church, hosted a showing of the People’s Emergency Briefing on 23 April. Widely publicised in the local community and through church networks, it was even on nearby lamp posts. 71 people came, mainly from churches. Questions and discussion followed plus slides of some local signs of hope. Everyone was given a postcard with a message for their MP calling for the film to be shown on national TV.
And now – why not your church?
Comments on "Churches host the People’s Emergency Briefing"
SUE CHARLTON:
We held our Screening at St. Stephen's Ealing on 19 April. 64 people attended from our congregation as well as many from local branches of many organisations eg Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace, Ealing Wildlife. We are an Eco Church so many of the issues were familiar to us all. However, the PEB film provoked shock and silence from us all at the end. The informatikn shared by internationally respected scientists, the graphs and tables demonstrating the scale of the Climate Crisis was an eye opener for all. The discussion afterwards was great and many have since signed up to join a 'working party' to take action further. We've written again to our MP (having met at the Mass Lobby of Parliament last july) and are meeting again on 20 May to discuss further action.
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