We all know the frustration of not being able to fix something that breaks. Why not let people share their fix-it knowledge and expertise, and run a Repair Café?

In October last year, The Village Presbyterian Church in Ōtautahi-Christchurch decided to tandem up a Repair Café event with our usual monthly Community Market Day. The idea was to have volunteers on hand to help fix broken items that members of the public brought along, thereby stopping stuff going to landfill.

When it was decided that we were not holding a church fair this year, we saw an opportunity to do something different – a Sustainability Fair! We imagined the church hall full of stalls that offered advice and connections, rather than jams, books, and cakes. And we set out to make it happen.

We at the Tribe Church are at the beginning of our journey exploring what it means to be stewards of creation. The journey started when our bible study group went through Tearfund's The Good Lives Project. This study really opened our eyes to seeing how our everyday actions can be an expression of our faith. It inspired us to see what changes we can make at church so we can have a lighter impact on the earth.

In 2019, our church, Massey Community Church in West Auckland, ran a four week series entitled ‘Creation Care’. For the first time in my long experience of church, I encountered in-depth teaching on the biblical mandate we have as followers of Jesus to care for creation – the earth as well as its people. 

At Grace, 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 to become better stewards over the past year. We’ve been working closely with the leadership team and over the past few months, we’ve made some really exciting changes across our church – and we would love to share these with you.

Outraged by the amount of landfill-fugitives (plastic waste) buried into a Wellington natural taonga, Anglican Advocacy decided to organise a four-month, all-ages, and stimulating challenge to inspire parishioners to take action at personal and political levels.

In late September 2018, A Rocha partnered with South West Baptist, Cashmere Presbyterian and Grace Vineyard churches to run a weekend of events in Christchurch to explore these questions.

In conjunction with Biketober Christchurch every October, Steve organises a build your own bike trailer workshop. Constructed from pallets (the frame), old plastic recycling bins, 20 and 24 inch bike & wheelchair wheels, and locally-made aluminium tow-bars and componentry, the trailers are low cost and hugely popular.

In 2019, A Rocha member Steve Muir started a personal initiative to share his love of cycling – he purchased ten e-bikes and is loaning them long term to church leaders in Christchurch.

In 2019, the Alpine Presbytery gathering in Christchurch made a stand for the environment. Fifty church leaders from the Canterbury region listened and then unanimously agreed to support a motion to make the environment a priority in their parishes.

What’s the chance of getting 100 people out on a cold wintery Saturday night to talk about faith and looking after our planet?