World Environmental Day: Walk or take the bus to Church this Sunday
World Environmental Day provides an opportunity for us all to share the ways in which we are being active stewards of
our world and caring for creation, says Presbyterian Church of Aotearoa New Zealand Moderator the Right Rev Pamela
Tankersley.
"As Christians we recognise a responsibility to all of creation including the generations yet to come; the efforts we
make now will allow our grandchildren to enjoy the lifestyle we too often take for granted.
"Throughout the country our churches are finding ways to recycle, reduce and reuse. They are also working with their
communities to initiate, or take part in, a large and diverse number or environmental projects."
In New Zealand, transport is our biggest energy user so the Church is doing what it can to lessen its use of car and
plane travel and encourage "green transport".
"The Church has an Ecological Task Group investigating how we can dramatically reduce travel by switching our meetings
to video conferencing. An increasing number of church congregations are car pooling and some congregations have given
their minister a bicycle instead of a car allowance. At the Presbyterian Church national office fifty percent of staff
has chosen to either swap their car park for public transport tickets or to regularly walk to work instead of driving."
Pamela says the Church fully supports the Government's ratification of the Kyoto Protocol, and advocates for the
ordering of our lives - as individuals and organisations - around sound principals of sustainability.
The Presbyterian Church is a member of the Interchurch Bioethics Council (ICBC). The ICBC have released a report titled,
Real Urgent and Personal: A Christian approach to global climate change. Written in easy to understand language it
spells out a few changes people can make that could make a big difference to our future. The report can be downloaded
for free from the Presbyterian Church website http://www.presbyterian.org.nz/4599.0.html#c16598.
ENDS