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.
And now why not your church?
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