Sunday February 5th, 2017
A Rocha UK’s hugely popular Eco Church award scheme will celebrate its first birthday in the New Year! To mark the occasion we’re inviting churches across England and Wales to hold a ‘Green Communion’ as part of their worship services on Sunday 5th February, 2017 – a unique opportunity to celebrate together the biblical truth that the saving work of Christ is for all creation.
To take part in the ‘Green Communion’ celebration your church should use a green communion cloth or frontal on the communion table/altar on Sunday February 5th. By using this colour cloth, your church can join with other churches across the denominations in a deeply meaningful and symbolic act that affirms the commitment of each to care for creation.
Some of you are in churches that will already be using a green altar frontal (due to February 5th being in Ordinary Time in the Anglican calendar). If that isn’t the case for your church then you simply need to pick up some green cloth to place over your communion table. All the other resources you need for your ‘Green Communion’ can be downloaded free of charge from the Eco Church website:
- We have a specially commissioned order of service, written by the Precentor of Canterbury Cathedral, Matthew Rushton, and with a Foreword by the Bishop of Dover, Bishop Trevor Willmott. This features liturgies, Bible verses and prayers that you can either use in its entirety or select from and adapt as you see fit.
- You can also download a recipe for baking your own, earth-friendly bread for use at your ‘Green Communion’. The bread recipe has been supplied by the community at Hilfield Friary, our very first Eco Church Gold Award winners. (Don’t forget to source some Fairtrade wine (or your preferred alternative) to accompany your home-baked bread.)
- To help you publicise your ‘Green Communion’ we’ve provided a press release template that you can download and use to inform your local media about your event. It could help you get the good news story of what you’re doing featured in your local paper or on local radio.
You will be able to upload photographs of your ‘Green Communion’ celebration to the Eco Church website, helping to create a mosaic of community expressions of commitment to care for God’s earth across England and Wales.
Please join us, and hundreds of other churches, in this simple, yet profound celebration of the truth that the gospel is good news for God’s earth. If you’ve not yet registered with Eco Church, this occasion provides the perfect opportunity to do so. If you’ve already started your Eco Church journey then why not press on towards your Award with a view to having it presented as part of your ‘Green Communion’ service on Sunday February 5th?