Education and Engagement
There are many ways to introduce creation care to your congregation. Check out some of the stories below to see what churches are doing to help get the whole church on board the eco church journey. The education and engagement stories below feature among other things - a sustainability fair, small group studies, a thematic speaking series, running conferences and workshops.
If you’d like to get someone to speak at your church or event on creation care or related topics, check out the Speakers page.
A Rocha Aotearoa New Zealand Resources page
The RESOURCES page on the A Rocha Aotearoa New Zealand’s website contains theological writings and sermons on the theology of creation care from an Aotearoa New Zealand perspective and is especially useful for some deeper thinking around this topic. For a more wider range of international resources, check out the RESOURCES page at the A Rocha International website which combines RESOURCES from all A Rocha national organisations around the world, including from Aotearoa New Zealand.
At Your Service
A Rocha International’s repository of creation care resources for churches. If you teach, preach or lead worship, this is for you. ‘At Your Service’ has been designed for Christian groups who want to explore the biblical basis of caring for God’s earth. You’ll find sermon ideas, Bible studies, prayers, songs, children’s activities and much, much more.
Relevant Eco Church NZ stories
At St Heliers Presbyterian Church to help enable their congregation’s Eco Church journey, an Environmental Justice team was formed and one of their first initiatives was hosting The Week. Edina Kuki reflects on The Week - three hour-long documentaries which was followed by a group conversation to debrief and process what’s been heard.
Imagine you’ve arrived late for church and as you gaze through the glass doors on your way in, you see a line of people, some wearing black beanies and balaclavas. Do you continue to enter? Yes, at Cityside you do. The congregation were not being held at gun point, they were just learning about load shifting electricity use.
In true Waikato fashion, Saturday morning 23 March was wet. Proper heavens-open sort of rain. Yet that didn’t stop 35 people gathering at Anglican Action Mahi Mihinare to hear from several speakers about conservation and sustainability. Read what attendees have to say about the event...
Tied into Sunday’s Service of Creation service, was the introduction of Eco Awards presented by Tim and Anna Cox. The Eco Church awards are an acknowledgement of the actions by members of our parish towards environmental change and improvement.
Over the school holidays, we held our first He Māhuri Tōtara gathering in Ōtautahi Christchurch. What a week it was! with rangatahi from across the motu coming to explore caring for creation, leadership, Te Ao Māori and the Bible, and how those things are connected. He Māhuri Tōtara is a Christian environmental leadership development courses are for young people, young adults and youth leaders. The course explores the unique environmental challenges and opportunities of our world and the biblical imperative to care for creation.
Saint Columba’s Havelock North Environment Group (SCHNEG) has a long and impressive history, being created in the early 1990s and continues its valued work today, some 30 years later. We share some of their highlights over the years.
At All Saints Hataitai, we want to play our part and make meaningful and environmentally sustainable choices when it comes to the products we use and companies we support. We’re excited to let you know some of the steps we’ve taken recently, to be better stewards. Clergy, staff and ministry leaders have been working together to make exciting changes across our church – and we would love to share these with you.
A long awaited evening, postponed due to COVID, Tawa Anglican Church finally had the opportunity to host Liam and Hannah from The Rubbish Trip in Nov 2022. Around 40-50 people (both from the church and from the wider community) attended to hear about a huge variety of methods for living without a rubbish bin. An inspiring evening from the dynamic duo who walk-the-talk on their zero waste journey.
The local green space at Oxford Street, Masterton was starting to look like a party. Live music, balloons, lawn games and the smell of sizzling sausages could all be observed last Sunday as we celebrated Neighbours Day Aotearoa.
A Rocha hosted an Eco Church Kōrero about plastic waste with a focus on the UN Global Plastic Treaty in Nov 2022. The kōrero also included discussion on ways our faith communities can be part of this global initiative. The kōrero featured guest speaker Dr Trisia Farrelly from the Aotearoa Plastic Pollution Alliance (APPA). Read on to find out more including a link to the recording and further resources to explore.