Church in Society Committee highlights the plight of the environment
Proposing the report to Synod today, Revd Canon Walter Lewis (Connor) drew attention to the various threats to the environment. “Awareness of the fragility of the eco-system has been heightened by concerns about global warming, the melting of the polar ice-caps, the destruction of species of animal and plant life, and the consequences of the exponential demand for energy and materials,” he said. In response to this concern, the Ecological and Environmental Panel of the Church in Society Committee has helped to develop an internet-based, ecumenical initiative which aims at encouraging and developing good environmental practice in parishes throughout Ireland. Entitled Eco-Congregation Ireland, this project offers free resources which cover Worship and Teaching, Children’s and Youth Work and Property and Grounds Management, and are available to download from the scheme’s website www.ecocongregationireland.org.
Canon Lewis also paid tribute to Ms Stella Mew who retired as chairperson of the Ecological and Environmental Panel in 2005 and whose enthusiasm and dedication to the Eco-Congregation Ireland scheme was fundamental to its establishment. “In her four years involvement she worked energetically and untiringly on this project to which she was completely committed”, he said.
October 2005 also saw the launch of the Go and do likewise booklet, produced by Revd Canon David McClay when he chaired the Social Justice and Theology (NI) Panel. Mainly aimed at a Northern Irish audience, this booklet provides clergy and parish groups with the resources to engage in social action and outreach in their local communities. A companion document for groups in the Republic is currently being prepared for publication by the Social Justice and Theology Panel (RI) chaired by the Very Revd Gordon Wynne.
The Committee also continues to contribute to the political dialogues in Northern Ireland and the Legislative and Political Panel (NI) recently held talks with both Sinn Fein and the Ulster Unionist Party. A number of responses to Consultation documents were also submitted, such as the proposed Immigration and Residents Legislation in the Republic of Ireland (available on the Church of Ireland website http://www.ireland.anglican.org/issues/immigration.html), and a response to the Office of the Minister and Deputy First Minister on their consultation Victims and Survivors .
The Very Revd Michael Burrows spoke of the Church in Society Committee’s submission on The Family to the All Party Oireachtas Committee on the Constitution (APOCC). Dean Burrows told Synod of the upset he felt at the failure of APOCC to make a recommendation to extend the definition of the family in their report released in January. He called the Committee’s fear of a referendum on such an issue “gratuitous” and challenged the idea of only having such a referendum when a consensus has already been reached. He deplored that as a result of this failure there is now no forum for discussing our understanding of family in today’s society.
Reminding the Synod of the overall motivation of the Committee, Canon Lewis said, “In everything, we have tried to keep in mind the driver/motor for our involvement in these things – God’s love for us, his Church, and for society: and our responses, however faltering or strong, to that love.”