Small Steps of Possibility

In our office we have a large map entitled ‘Devon’s Green Churches’ which contains a series of dots and stars covering the county from Ilfracombe to Ivybridge. Each symbol represents a church with a composting toilet or solar panels, or has completed an energy survey, or is registered as fair-trade or an ‘eco-congregation’, or runs a wood-burning heating system, and so on. They are examples of church eco projects. In total there are more than 200 coloured symbols and we add more each few weeks.

None of them is totally perfect and the initiatives they demonstrate will have their flaws. Not one church is completely carbon neutral or self-sufficiently sustainable.

So are these schemes important? Are they just insignificant little drops in an ecclesiastical ocean, or are they something more?

I believe they are actually significant as they point to a different way of life being possible. They are powerful because they are symbols of gently alternative lifestyles and therefore of hope of a better world.

Every dot and star on our map points to the need for, and potential of, behavioural change.

It is salutary to be an illustration of a different way of trading, or of being more independent of multinational power or water corporations, or of sharing local resources with local people. In small projects they express resilience and an opportunity to break the mould. Often such activities are led by community ‘pioneers’ motivated by a desire for justice, compassion and connectedness.

To me it seems clear that the weather chaos that we have been experiencing is a result of millions of people pursuing excessively consumerist lifestyles, the snowballing effects of which are damaging pollution and disruption to natural ecosystems. By acting care-lessly with our carbon emissions we contribute to environmental destruction. In small ways billions of us contaminate the Earth with chemicals when we travel, clean our homes, discard our ‘waste’ and produce our meals.

But this cuts both ways. If we can begin to take small steps to reverse these trends there will be positive, not negative, cumulative consequences.

The Anglican Dioceses of the SouthWest are promoting a Lent Carbon Fast, the main aim of which is to encourage members of churches to examine their lives and reduce their fossil-fuel needs. Hundreds or thousands of very small personal actions growing to make a difference. ‘Change today to save tomorrow’ as the strap line of the Fast exclaims.

Recently a packed meeting in the city expressed its support for a Exeter Community Energy initiative, run with the interest of the wider community and environment at heart.

These are two more instances of local steps towards making a difference. As author and speaker Charles Eisenstein suggested last month, “we need to change minds and systems… but we also need to empower small, even invisible choices, as well… Paradoxically, it is through the totality of billions of [apparently] useless acts that the world will change.”

That is why the map of Devon’s green churches serves a valid purpose.