Caring for Creation in the National Synod of Wales
The National Synod of Wales affirms that care for creation, a just and sustainable relationship with the earth, and an active concern for the whole of God’s good creation are fundamental Gospel commitments.
We know that human activity is responsible for the degradation of the earth through climate change. This is not the way that God intended it to be. It is harming the web of life, the balance of nature, and impacting most heavily upon the poorest people of the world. It has created a climate and nature emergency.
We seek to care for creation and to enable the earth to flourish, committing ourselves to actively combat the climate crisis. We do this by acting decisively on the ecological impact of everything we do and minimising our carbon footprint, in accordance with the URC Environmental Policy
National Synod of Wales
Caring for God’s creation is one of the Synod’s mission priorities and in 2023 we achieved an Eco Synod Bronze Award in recognition of our commitment to creation care.
Currently the Wales Synod has seventeen churches with Eco Church awards – two gold, four silver and eleven bronze. There are another eleven churches registered and working towards bronze awards.
Synod Meeting took the decision in 2019 to divest from fossil fuels.
The Synod Creation Care Steering Group (CCSG) has run webinars and roadshows, and created resources equipping churches to make creation care a priority in their witness and mission.
For further information please take a look at the Eco Church page on our website.
Synod Green Team
We are hoping to build a team of committed volunteers across the Synod to enable good communication, collaboration and support for each other as we seek to increase creation care awareness and take action to combat the climate and nature emergency.
Our vision is that the Green Team will include Synod Green Advocates, Regional/Pastorate Eco Friends, and Church Eco Friends in every congregation.
The Green Team roles:
- Synod Green Advocate
Eileen Newington is one of our Synod Green Advocates and we hope to appoint our second Advocate to share the role. Is God calling you to this role?
- Regional/Pastorate Eco Friend
The Regional/Pastorate Eco Friend is a new post which we hope will increase communication and collaboration between churches taking creation care action. Could this be you?
Whatever your church’s Eco Church journey or capacity for action, we hope that every church will have Eco Friends to encourage others in this mission. Please consider joining the Green Team as an Eco Friend.
If you are interested in taking on any of these roles, please contact Eileen Newington, Synod Green Advocate, at greenadvocate.urcwales@urc.org.uk