On The Road Together in Colchester 2021 – Report
Following the sabbatical forced on all organisations by the Covid pandemic, we are pleased to report on the first GC On The Road Together event for nearly two years.
This took place at St Stephen’s Church in Colchester, Essex on Saturday 2nd October 2021. It was truly a remarkable success, with 38 people attending!
The planning group was drawn from several Churches in Colchester and Ipswich, with publicity appearing in the Green Christian magazine as well as going to GC members in Suffolk, Essex and south Cambridgeshire. Separate publicity went to Churches in Colchester and north Essex.
A varied programme was designed comprising two main presentations plus 10 workshops – with guests choosing two workshop topics in which they were interested. St Stephen’s Church has a lovely octagonal worship area – conducive to the gatherings all together – and several rooms were available for the small group discussions.
Green Christian itself contributed very good presentations on the Joy in Enough project and the Way of Life Community. Keynote Speaker was Shilpita Mathews with two excellent inter-active presentations: Climate Crisis and Youth Activism, and Climate, Finance and Divestment. The small-group workshops included Carbon Footprint, Biodiversity for gardens, Biodiversity for churchyards, and a Deep Dive into Exodus 1 & 2; some workshops were presented twice. See original programme
There were plenty of opportunities in between workshops to network and make new friends. Guests brought their own food and we provided the drinks. Many sat outside in the church garden to have their lunch. Lots of resources were available to take away or sign up to.
The Feedback session was extremely helpful, with opportunities for the guest speakers to respond to questions and comments from the floor. And the worship times that began and ended the day anchored our thoughts and actions in God Who so loved His whole creation …
It was felt that all the guests went home more enthused about their place in the world, what they can do to reduce negative impacts on creation, and with lots of information to inform their lifestyle from now on.
One of the best outcomes was that 10 people expressed interest in forming a new Green Christian Local Group. This is very exciting, and we hope that in the New Year, we will get together – hopefully face-to-face – to do some real work locally to combat climate change and bring a little bit of “shalom” to God’s creation and our place in it.
Interested in joining / helping set up a Colchester Area Green Christian Local Group or other local group? – contact us
Would you like to run a Green Christian On the Road Day where you live? – read more
Next: On the Road Together in Dronfield
Previous: On the Road Together in Colchester
Comments on "On The Road Together in Colchester 2021 – Report"
Eleanor Gordon:
The service/worship time at the end was really moving and beautiful
Add your own comment to "On The Road Together in Colchester 2021 – Report"
This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.
Leave a Reply