St Luke’s Hedge End, who received their Silver award in December 2021, found a creative way to share their eco church journey through this wonderful poem ‘lots of small things.’
As we approach the year ahead, take inspiration that the ‘lots of small things’ add up, and consider the ways your church can come together as a community this year to take action.
‘Lots of Small Things’
The folk at St Luke’s know we must
Take action, pray, and thus be just
Prayer means action, so we’ve started
To make our God less broken hearted
Climate change has made us think
Of ways of drawing from the brink
Climate change weighs on our heart
So onwards we must play our part
First we started Eco church
And in small ways began our search
To find the ways to change our practice
And thus to become climate active
We aimed first for bronze award,
And soon found we had worked towards
Carbon neutral, less emissions,
And this is coming to fruition,
We do not own a large church yard,
But have a strip of green grass sward
Now there is home for bugs,
Tho eagerly welcomed by the slugs
Our building is modern, shiny and new,
But there was stuff which we could do
We’re working towards carbon neutral
Thus oil and coal met our refutal,
For community engagement we knew
There was far more that we could do
And so we met with our MP
Who came along for cakes and tea,
They know we hold them to account
For national emissions – what an amount!
We stepped up money for Christian Aid,
So poor nations are not betrayed
On Sunday we got in a preacher
Where climate justice was a feature
And to each member we gave a kit
To help them change a little bit,
Fairtrade teabags, wash stuff and seeds
Which would supply our wildlife’s needs
In videos we told of swaps
To buy much better at the shops
And so we must continue to alter
So that justice may roll down like water
And strive to continue our dream
Righteousness like an ever flowing stream
God has given us his creation
For regeneration, not violation
And so we strive to heal the earth
And pledge our prayer for its rebirth.