10 January 2005
Programme and Information for the Basel Assembly now available 2-12-04
The Fifth ECEN Assembly will take place in Basel, Switzerland, from 4-8 May
2005. The General Theme will be The Churches’ commitment to a Sustainable Europe '
Information about the 2005 ECEN Assembly in Basel Climate Change update (Dec 04) from the
WCC 10-1-05 The latest climate change update from the
World Council of Churches is now available on the Climate Change working group
page. Preliminary Programme for the Basel
Assembly now available 2-12-04 The Fifth ECEN Assembly will take place in Basel, Switzerland, from 4-8 May
2005. The General Theme will be The Churches’ commitment to a Sustainable Europe '
Contact details for ECEN coalitions and Enabling Team 1-12-04
Sadly, many ECEN coalition leaders and members of the Enabling Team who have put their email addresses on this website to aid networking have consequently had problems with unsolicited messages from rogue companies. For this reason, we will be giving all email addresses in the format nameATserver instead of name@server, so that they cannot be picked up automatically by programmes looking for new addresses. Please be aware that you will need to manually substitute in the @ symbol where you see AT before using the email address, in order to make it work.
The Environmental Diploma of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland 30-11-04
The Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland has an Environmental System and Diploma which is awarded to parishes which have made long-term efforts in an environmentally friendly direction. The parish must chart the effects it has on the environment and set goals to reduce detrimental effects. Parishes are also required to continuously monitor their impact on the environment. By November 2004, more than 100 local congregations had already either got the diploma or were working towards it. See also information on other church environmental award schemes, other examples of good practice and the page for ECEN's Church Environmental Management Coalition.
Book "Listening to Creation Groaning" now available 22-11-04
In March 2004, ECEN organised a consultation on Creation Theology which attempted to produce a survey of recent developments in this field - both in exegesis and theological discussions. A memorandum from this consultation has been available since June 2004. Now the full Report and Papers from the consultation are available in book form as part of the John Knox Series.
New information on national projects 22-11-04
There is new information on the Netherlands, Czech Republic and Italy pages, including details of a new ecumenical and environmental project launched by the Centre for Application of Renewable Energy of the Orthodox Academy in Vilemov under the title "Churches for the Future- 50 Solar Roofs". This project aims to demonstrate the possibilities of solar energy utilisation in parishes and diaconal and educational institutions of various Churches in the Czech Republic. Czech parishes and Church institutions have already submitted more than 30 applications and the first solar-thermal systems on the Church buildings will hopefully be mounted in Spring 2005. This website also features other examples of good practice.
Update on Climate Change 19-11-04
The Climate Change Coalition page has a new update (Nov 2004) (Word 40KB) from the World Council of Churches Climate Change Team. The update focuses on a document prepared by a recent ecumenical consultation on “Climate and Water: Common Gifts, Related Threats” held in The Netherlands. The consultation was co-sponsored by the WCC and ecumenical relief and development agencies and was hosted by the Dutch church’s organization Kerkinactie. One of the products of the consultation is a discussion document entitled Moving Beyond Kyoto with Equity, Justice and Solidarity”. It has been prepared for use by WCC member churches, ecumenical organizations and relief and development agencies as they engage with the issue of climate change. The full document will be available in the near future on the WCC web-site in the climate change section on the Ecumenical Earth page http://www.wcc-coe.org/wcc/what/jpc/ecology.html. Meanwhile, the major position statements in the paper are included in this update.
Environmental Speech by Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams 28-9-04
On 5 July, Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury (UK) gave a lecture on the environment titled " Changing The Myths We Live By". The text of the lecture can be found at www.archbishopofcanterbury.org/sermons_speeches/040705.html
EYCE Ecological Summer School 24-8-04
The Ecumenical Youth Council in Europe (EYCE) held a summer school on the theme "Water, Air & Earth - Celebrating Nature, Improving the Future" in Durham, UK, 15-22 August 2004, in co-operation with ECEN. 37 young people from many denominations and countries of Europe gathered together for a week to tackle this theme. EYCE have now issued a press release about the summer school.
2004 Creation Time Dossier 28-7-04
A background dossier of information, theology, ethics and suggested praxis is now available on the theme of Rice (2004 is the UN International Year of Rice). The dossier is a companion to the ECEN Liturgical materials prepared for 2004. Both are available to download on the Creation Time Coalition Page.
Update on Climate Change 17-6-04
The Climate Change Coalition page has a new update (June 2004) from the World Council of Churches Climate Change Team.
The Ecumenical Youth Council in Europe (EYCE) is holding a summer school on the theme "Water, Air & Earth - Celebrating Nature, Improving the Future" in Durham, UK, 15-22 August 2004. The event is being prepared in co-operation with ECEN. EYCE are now looking for nominations for participants aged 18-30 from across Europe and from all Christian denominations. See more details.
Consultation on Creation Theology 10-6-04
In March 2004, ECEN organised a consultation on Creation Theology which attempted to produce a survey of recent developments in this field - both in exegesis and theological discussions. A memorandum from this consultation is now available.
Fifth ECEN Assembly in Basel May 2005 29-4-04
The Fifth ECEN Assembly will take place in Basel, Switzerland, from 4-10 May 2005. The General Theme will be The Churches’ commitment to a Sustainable Europe '. see more details...
Liturgical Materials for 2004 29-4-04
A multilingual (English, Deutsch & Français) dossier of liturgical materials (pdf 373KB or Word 144KB) on the theme of "Preserving Land, Water and Air" is now available from ECEN's Creation Time Working Group for 2004. In the line of the tradition from previous years, ECEN offers this material related to God’s creation to its members and to the churches in Europe for use during Creation Time (1 September - 10 October 2004). For more information see the Creation Time Working Group page.
Water Dossier 29-4-04
ECEN has produced a dossier of texts (pdf 2,496KB or Word 1,216KB) related to the theme of water: 'Water - Source of Life.' Water has been in the focus of attention of ECEN recently and was the theme of the 2003 Assembly in Volos. This new dossier contains a summary of the discussions on water at the Assembly and other texts underlining the role and inevitability of water for life. It also speaks of the challenges related to the sustainable protection and use of water. A printed version of the dossier can be obtained from the ECEN office. The ECEN Working Group on Water would benefit from new members. Please contact Roman Juriga if you would like to know more.
A Rocha's first project in South America 29-04-04
A Rocha is an International Christian Conservation Organisation. With the opening of a new project in Peru, A Rocha is now a family of projects working in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, North and South America and Asia. See information about A Rocha in English, Français/French, Nederlands/Dutch or Português/Portuguese.
The ecological section of the Czech Christian Academy 2-3-04
We now have information about the the Ecological Section of the Czech Christian Academy. See the ECEN countries or ECEN organisations pages for more Christian environmental projects in Europe.
Saint Francis of Assisi Environmental Movement in Poland 19-2-04
We now have information about the The Saint Francis of Assisi Environmental Movement in Poland (REFA – Ruch Ekologiczny Swiętego Franciszka z Asyzu).
New information on Climate Change 4-2-04
The Climate Change Coalition has new material on its web page. The report "COOL IT! Climate Change and the Devon Churches" from Devon Churches Green Action (UK) has been added to the climate change inventory. There is a link to the paper in Nature on "Climate Change and Biodiversity Loss" (8 January 2004) which indicates that climate change may cause up to a 37% loss of animal and plant species. There is also a link to the Global Commons Institute, the organisation behind the "contraction and convergence" model of how we can tackle climate change equitably on a global scale.
An introduction to 'A Rocha' in four languages 19-1-04
A Rocha - the International Christian Conservation Organisation - has provided us with information about themselves in English, Français/French, Nederlands/Dutch and Português/Portuguese.
COP 9 Update 5-1-04
The ninth Conference of Parties to the UN Convention on Climate Change took place in Milan in December 2003. See information about the conference including a Report from the World Council of Churches Climate Change Team and a Report from Lukas Vischer - Chairman of the ECEN Enabling Team.
Renewable Energy for Churches 15-12-03
A wind turbine with an output of 100kW has been installed in the Orthodox Academy in Vilemov in the Czech republic. It is considered to be the most important element of the Centre for Application of Renewable Energy Resources, established by the Orthodox Academy of Vilemov, which also has functioning middle-size photovoltaic, solar thermal and biomass installations. The income supports the Orthodox Academy, its Centre for Application of Renewable Energy and a small monastery. See the full article by Roman Juriga, Director of the Orthodox Academy Vilemov or see other examples of Good Practice.
Position Paper on GM crops (EKD AGU)
EKD AGU is the German Protestant Environmental Co-workers Group. Their new position paper on GM crops (Oct 03) is available in English or German (pdf, 88KB)
How TRIPs threatens biodiversity and food sovereignty (EKD AGU)
EKD AGU is the German Protestant Environmental Co-workers Group. Their paper "The Power of People's Traditional Knowledge - How TRIPs threatens biodiversity and food sovereignty" (June 2003) is available in English, French or German (pdf 1MB)
New entries on the Countries Pages
There are now several new entries on the Countries pages, including the Dutch Youth organisation "Time to Turn" and new pages on "A Rocha" - the International Christian Conservation Organisation in English, Dutch and Portuguese. Please send us information on projects in your country!
ECEN - The First Five Years
This new document looks back at how ECEN began and what has been achieved in the first five years, and is very informative and readable. It is available in English (Word file, 236KB) and German. (Word file, 295KB)
Report from the Volos Assembly, May 2003
The Assembly Report is now available.
! ECEN website updating !
The Webmaster is currently in the process of updating and standardising the ECEN web site.
We would really like to have more material on Christian environmental projects or activities in Europe.
Have a look at the countries page or organisations page to see if your project is already featured, and whether the information is up to date. If you would like to send some new material or update existing material, go to our page on how to add material.
If you find any links which don't work, pages that need updating or features which are confusing, please email the Webmaster and she will try to deal with your suggestions promptly.
PLEASE NOTE that all the ECEN webpage addresses now end with the tag ".shtml", whereas before many ended with the tag ".htm", so if you have any ECEN web pages bookmarked, you will need to update the page addresses.
Summer school for European Christian women concerned about sustainable living.
This summer school, entitled "
What will our common future look like?" was organised by the Ecumenical Forum of European Christian Women and took place in Svaty Jur, Slovakia, August 2003. See the report.The Coalition on Creation Time / Creation Day has produced a NEW dossier. This introduces the coalition and the concept of Creation Time / Creation Day. It includes material on the theme (Water) for the ECEN 2003 Assembly, documents on the theology and ethics of environmental care and suggestions for praxis. It is available to download in English or German from the Coaltion on Creation Time / Creation Day page.
ECEN World Summit on Sustainability Final Report, 5 May 2003
|
Back to Top of Page
|
european christian environmental network
|
