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Name: Victoria Beale
Email: srtp@srtp.org.uk
Location: Edinburgh, Scotland
Date: Tuesday, March 9th 2004 at 12.10
Subject: 10th Scottish Congregation to win an Eco-Congregation Award !

Inverurie West Church in Aberdeenshire has become the 10th church in Scotland to receive an Eco-Congregation Award in recognition of their wide-ranging environmental work. Their work falls into the three general areas of:

·         Growing in understanding of God's Creation and our responsibility to care for it

·        Practical changes and projects in church buildings and land

·         Changing lives: changing communities (working together with the local community)

See the Eco-Congregation Scotland website for more details

Name: Victoria Beale
Email: srtp@srtp.org.uk
Location: Edinburgh, Scotland
Date: Friday, December 12th 2003 at 13:45
Subject: Two Eco-Congregation workshops on Saturday 6th March 2004

Melrose Parish Church, Borders, Scotland, will be hosting an Eco-Congregation workshop on Saturday 6th March at 10.30am in the Church Hall. The workshop is free and open to anyone who is interested. For more information, or to let us know that you will be attending, please contact Victoria Beale.

Kilmore and Oban Church, Argyll and Bute, Scotland, will also be hosting an Eco-Congregation workshop on Saturday 6th March 2004 from 2-4pm. Hot soup will be available from 1pm (but please let us know in advance if you would like some). The workshop is free and open to anyone who is interested. For more information, or to let us know that you will be attending, please contact Margaret Warnock.

See also the Eco-Congregation Scotland website.

Name: Victoria Beale
Email: srtp@srtp.org.uk
Location: Edinburgh, Scotland
Date: Friday, November 14th 2003 at 10:20
Subject: Examples of local churches engaging with environmental issues

Seven Scottish Churches have now gained Eco-Congregation Awards in recognition of their achievements in integrating a care for the environment - God's creation - into their worship, teaching and practice. To see details of these churches and examples of what they have done, see the Eco-Congregation Scotland website.

Name: Victoria Beale
Email: srtp@srtp.org.uk
Location: Edinburgh, Scotland
Date: Wednesday, September 23rd 2003 at 15:35
Comments: Eco-Congregation workshop on Wednesday 24th September 2003

There will be an Eco-Congregation workshop at Mearn's Parish Church, Newton Mearns, Scotland, this Wednesday 24th September 2003 at 7.30pm.

This is open to any church members, clergy or others interested in finding out more about Eco-Congregation and how to get involved. Email me for more details of the workshop or see the Eco-Congregation Scotland website for general details about the programme.

The ECEN website is back on line again, after a brief period when we were changing service providers. Our apologies for any inconvenience. We will shortly be trying to get the Notice Board running properly again.

Third ECEN Assembly at Raubichi
The Third ECEN Assembly took place on 26-31 May 2001 at Raubichi, near Minsk in Belarus.
See our Raubichi Assembly pages for our Press Release, Letters from the Assembly to the EU Summit in Gotheburg and the US Churches on Climate Change, Discussion Paper for the Churches on Energy, a Theology Paper, and also photographs

Celebrating God's Creation, 2001
A Dossier of liturgical modules prepared by ECEN's Creation Time Working Group for Creation Time 2001 is available in English and German.

Hi,

You are cordially invited to join the world largest environmental journalists egroup.

Environmental-journalists egroup promoting education, understanding and awareness of the environment through the honest and accurate reporting of local, regional and international environmental and development issues. It is administered by Asia Pacific Forum Of Environmental Journalists (APFEJ) based in Sri Lanka. It has over 7000 Members from 67 Countries including journalists working for newspapers, magazines, radio, broadcasters, NGOs, environmental groups,UN, government departments,agencies and freelancers.

This egroup massages are been distributed to over 5000 print and electronic media officers/journalists and to nearly 120 countries in the world.This is not a discussion group and no attachments will be mailed.

If you wish to obtain free subscription please send a blank email to the following address environmentaljournalists-subscribe@egroups.com

Cheers,
egroup moderator

Press-Release :

Fifteen years after Chernobyl:
European Christian Environmental Network to meet in Belarus

In the fifteenth year following the nuclear catastrophe in Chernobyl (Ukraine), the European Christian Environmental Network (ECEN) plans to hold its Assembly in the country most seriously-affected by the nuclear fall out: Belarus. The Network’s Enabling Team (co-ordinating group) met from 27-31 October 2000 in the capital, Minsk, primarily in order to plan the sessions and also to meet with Church representatives and other NGOs in the country. Following these encounters, the Enabling Team decided ultimately to invite the members of the Network and the European Churches to its 2001 Assembly (26 - 31 May) at the winter sports resort of Rubnice, just outside Belarussian Minsk.

In choosing Belarus as the Assembly venue, the Network has responded to an earlier invitation extended by His Eminence Metropolitan Filaret of the Russian Orthodox Church (Belarussian Exarchate). At a reception which His Eminence offered to the Enabling Team, Metropolitan Filaret underlined how important for the people of his country it was that the ECEN Assembly will take place in Belarus. "We need to undertake any effort to support the people of this country, who are not only the most seriously-affected by the Chernobyl catastrophe, but who also endure many other hardships. Your conference will help to raise some important issues and to inform the international community about the real situation," he added. The Metropolitan also committed himself to encourage the other Orthodox Churches to send delegations to the ECEN Assembly.

The Enabling Team also heard similar reports from other NGOs. Gennadij Gruschevoi, from the Children of Chernobyl Foundation, said: "The situation is becoming worse . Many post-Chernobyl diseases have broken out only recently and to a large extent people are left entirely alone. In one hospital in Minsk, where victims of Chernobyl are treated, only 2.5% of all newborn children are healthy. At the same time, scientific assessment stations are being closed down and the annual report, issued to date by the government, has been cancelled. We need the support of the international community more than ever and we need to link Chernobyl to other environmental issues."

Prof Nestorenko, representing another scientific NGO, explained the extent of the damage caused by Chernobyl. In a very recent presentation to the Council of Europe, he offered the available data. Meeting with the Enabling Team, he added: "People who say that the impact of Chernobyl is somewhat small and ever-diminishing are lying. There is a need to raise awareness because even a few simple measures can make a huge difference. The public needs to face the issue."

Following these and similar appeals from Belarussian organisations, the Enabling Team desired even more to respond positively to the invitation of His Eminence Metropolitan Filaret: "Come and see for yourselves the continuing devastating effects of the greatest environmental catastrophe of our century."

It is expected that about 80 representatives from European Churches mandated to work on environmental issues will attend the Assembly next May. For many coming to Belarus this will constitute a new and valuable experience.

The main theme of the Assembly will be "energy" – the development of an environmentally sound energy supply; the possibilities and methods to save energy. Many of the Network’s working coalitions already deal either directly or indirectly with energy issues. It is expected that the Assembly and its context will provide further contributions.

Furthermore, the agenda will explore a deepening of the theological rationale for the Churches’ engagement in environmental issues. This aspect, to be introduced by a well-known Orthodox keynote speaker, will be followed by responses by representatives of other Church traditions.

For the duration of the Assembly, the geographic context in which it will take place will be of the utmost significance. Excursions as well as meetings with NGOs and Church spokesmen will provide the participants with first hand information.

In several ways, the Assembly will constitute a forum for an extraordinary encounter between East and West on environmental issues.

The Orthodox Theological Faculty of the Minsk University and the Saints Methodius and Kyrill Educational Foundation will act as the local organisers of the Assembly.

European Christian Environmental Network
c/o Conference of European Churches
Ruediger Noll
P.O. Box 2100
1211 Geneva 2
Switzerland
Tel.: +41-22-791 64 69
Fax.: +41-22-710 20 86
E-Mail: rud@cec-kek.org
For more details, see our ECEN Assembly 2001, Minsk web page.

Climate Change Sixth Conference of the Parties (COP 6)
Ecumenical Service

The ecumenical service held on Sunday November 19 in The Hague, will be webcasted live on the Internet.

The service starts at 17.00h local time and the URL for the webcast Internet site is: http://www.interpetto.nl/wcc.htm

Dear ECEN-friends,

Probably you know that next month the 6th Conference of the Parties (COP6), the international climate negotiations, will take place in The Hague, Netherlands (November 13-24).

As before, a delegation of the World Council of Churches will monitor the conference. A member of ECEN will be included in the delegation. Furthermore ECEN will provide a special prayer, to be said at an ecumenical service on November 19.

Currently a number of NGO's is lobbying to put some pressure on the negotiations. There is an international e-mail campaign, named 'Climatevoice', organised by WWF, Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth and a number of other organisations. Furthermore, on November 18 a big event will take place in the Hague: 'Build a dike'.

For more information on these activities, and to put your signature on the electronic petition Climatevoice, visit the website of Friends of the Earth Europe

If you can, come to The Hague on November 18 to take part in the Dike-event!

Marijke van Duin

New additions to the ECEN Website, 29 September 2000

See the Netherlands page for the Working Group on Church & Environment of the Council of Churches of the Netherlands

On the Environmental Education Coalition pages, see the detailed report of the Summer School for European Women Interested in Ecology Living better with less, 2 - 10 August 2000, AGAPE House, Sväty Jur, Slovakia.

Donald Bruce

We have now redesigned the whole ECEN website around the new ECEN logo. We hope you like it! Some more changes to the design may also be possible. The webmaster apologises for being slow to put some of the material on the website this year, because of a lot of lost time and energy due to illness. He is now OK!

See the Finland page for Evangelical Lutheran Church of Finland's Church Environmental Diploma. The plan is that a local congregation meeting the requirements can apply for the diploma.

See the Switzerland page for the Swiss Ecumenical Organization "Church and Environment" OeKU

The Water Coalition now has new material on its web page. Water pollution is a big issue for us all. Recent incidents serve to remind us how fragile is this precious and diminishing resource of fresh, clean water. If you would like to join this important work, please contact the Facilitator Roman Jurige, who is based at the Orthodox Academy Vilemov in the Czech Republic

CORDIAL INVITATION

Dear friends from the ECEN,

Maybe one or the other of you is interested in our forthcoming conference:

World Trade & Environmental Regulation
Consultation from Wednesday, October 11 to Friday, October 13, 2000
in collaboration with the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) and with the Development and Peace Foundation (SEF)

Speakers include: Prof. Klaus Töpfer, UNEP, Nairobi; Charles Arden-Clarke, UNEP, Geneva; René Vossenaar, UNCTAD, Geneva; Bernard Kuiten and Jorge Vigano, WTO, Geneva; Prof. Paul P. Streeten, World Development (Editor), Spencertown N.Y.; Prof. Udo E. Simonis, Science Centre Berlin; and: Beatrice Chaytor, FIELD - Foundation for International Environmental Law and Development, London; Peter Fuchs,WEED - World Economy, Ecology & Development, Bonn; Aimee Gonzales, WWF International, Bruxelles; Mark Halle, IISD - International Institute for Sustainable Development, Geneva; Dr. Carsten Helm, University of Magdeburg; Pradeep S. Mehta, CUTS - Consumer Unity & Trust Society, Jaipur, India; Ricardo Meléndez Ortiz, ICTSD - International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development, Geneva; Dr. Martin Rocholl, Friends of the Earth Europe, Bruxelles; Kristina Steenbock, Greenpeace, Berlin; Christine von Weizsäcker, Protestant Churches of Germany, Bonn

The Issue:
Seen globally, much of the environmental damage is due to the dynamic increase of economic activity. International trade constitutes an even growing portion of that growth of scale, making it increasingly important as a driving force of environmental change. - And, as economic globalisation proceeds and the planetary impacts of many environmental problems become more and more evident, there is bound to be friction between the multilateral systems of law governing both, trade and environment. Trade law is embodied in regional trade agreements and in the World Trade Orga-nisation (WTO); environmental law is embodied as national and subnational regulations, in regional agreements, and in various multilateral environmental agreements - many of them relying on trade measures as well.

Against this complex background, to prevent the rise of fundamental conflicts, especially with regard to vital needs and interests of developing countries, questions like the following need urgently to be answered: ·

• What institutions might help ensure that trade and environmental policies are mutually supportive? ·
• Where and how should disputes be settled? ·
• Should there be environmental impact assessment of trade agreements and trade policies?
• What role should civil society and the public have on these issues?

"The need to ensure that trade and environment policies are mutually supportive is more pressing today than ever before. However, successful integration of these policies can only be achieved through a constructive dialogue based on far broader awareness and understanding of the complex interlinkages between trade and our environment", says Klaus Töpfer, the Executive Director of UNEP.

You are kindly invited to share his initiative and to attend our forum for an open discussion.

Conference language: English;
Fees: DM 240,- / EUR 120,- including accommodation and meals;
Contact:
www.loccum.de
Andreas.Dally@evlka.de
Ilse-Marie.Schwarz@evlka.de (Tel. 05766/81-116, Fax: ...-128)

Dear friends,

I wish all of you may best greetings at the day of creation.
Ralf
Aufruf zum Schöpfungstag

Liebe Brüder und Schwestern,
wir rufen heute am Tag der Schöpfung (1.September) alle Gläubigen auf, ihren Beitrag zur Bewahrung der Schöpfung zu stärken. Das Leiden unserer Erde und aller Mitgeschöpfe braucht dringend auch unsere Hilfe und unser Gebet. Viele unser Mitbrüder und Mitschwestern arbeiten, meist ohne große Unterstützung und bis zur Erschöpfung, weltweit in Werken und Projekten an der Bewahrung der Schöpfung. Mit der Schöpfungskollekte wollen wir erstmals Unterstützung für die Bewahrung der Schöpfung sammeln. Diese Bitte richtet sich nicht nur an die Gläubigen sondern auch an alle die im kirchlichen Dienst bestellt sind, besonders auch an unsere Hirten. Unterstützung kann am besten dadurch erfolgen, das jeder in seinen alltäglichen Entscheidungen sich für Gottes Erde entscheidet und jeder seine Mitverantwortung für eine lebenswerte Erde trägt. Auch zahlreiche Projekte, besonders im kirchlichen Raum brauchen, dringend unsere materielle Unterstützung und Hilfe, wie wir auch aus eigener Erfahrung wissen. Heute suchen wir Paten für 80.000 Bäume in Paraguay. Bis zum Ende der Schöpfungsepoche am 4.Oktober werden wir dieses und weitere Förderprojekte auf unserer Homepage schoepfungskoellkte.de vorstellen. Mit der Bitte um Ihre Hilfe verbleibe ich
mit herzlichen Grüssen
Ralf Klemens Stapppen
Vorsitzender der Umweltkommission des Diözesanrats des Bistums Eichstätt
Geschäftsführer der Franz von Assisi Akademie zum Schutz der Erde e.V www.faape.org

The Orthodox Academy Vilemov prepares a new project. If you work for a Church-related or environmental group, let us know if you are interested in participation in
the project of the CENTRE FOR RENEWABLE ENERGY EKO- ELEMENT
which includes seminars, workshops and a training course.

The project of the Centre for Renewable Energy Eko-Element is a continuation of the long-term project Ecology and Spirituality of the Orthodox Academy Vilemov.The Project consists of the so-called “hard “ investment par and “soft“ parts which include research of various natural, environmental and economic indicators and their interdependency, feasibility study for the development of the renewable sources for the region and comprehensive educational programmes for various target groups. “Soft“ and „hard“ parts of the project are closely connected.

INVESTMENT PART
So-called “hard“ investment part consists of installations of renewable technologies, which will serve for the research and demonstration of various economic, environmental and natural indicators and for the renewable energy supply for the project office and conference centre of the orthodox church in Vilemov.

First installations will consist of the wind turbine Enercon E 12 (installed capacity 30kW) and two Stirling engines which will serve for the energy production (total installed capacity 20kW) Stirling engines should function as a subsidiary source and produce energy when there would be no wind.

Second installation will consist of ten solar collectors for water heating (1000L) and photo voltaic panels which will produce electricity for pumps used on pumping water in the solar system.

Innovation character of the project in the investment part is given by the inter-connection of various parts of the system using various types of the renewable energy and by the practical utilisation of the Stirling engine which should be one of the first in the world.

FEASIBILITY STUDY
The “soft” part of the project consists of realistic feasibility study which will concentrate on collecting available geographic, meteorological and hydro-graphic data about the region and on collecting economic, technological and technical information which would have influence on the utilisation of renewable energy.

At the basis of the evaluation of these data a realistic feasibility study will be prepared. The study will on one side suggest the most appropriate locations and conditions for implementation of various specific projects suitable for the region. On the other side the study will suggest models and types of financing for the most perspective projects. Results of the study will became the main basis for the development of renewable resources in the region. The research of all environmental, economical and technological indicators and preparation of specific projects will continue.

EDUCATION AND STUDY PROGRAMMES
Another “soft part” will be an extensive educational programme which will concentrate on several environmental issues. This part of the project will consist of five seminars and five workshops for various target groups. These seminars will be directly connected with 12 booklets and books dedicated to various environmental issues.

Seminars and booklets are prepared for these themes: The Environment and Christianity, Air which we breath, Water of life, Wastes, Bio-mass, Energy from the Sun, Energy from the Wind, Mobility, Renewable sources of energy, Ecology of the gardens and churchyards, Violence against nature – necessity or a sin?, Ecumenical textbook of Eco-theology for theory and practice should be one of the results.

The Orthodox Academy Vilemov is seeking possible donors and peaople interested in participation in this ambitious programme.

Dear friends,

here is a note from the ecen-Secretray to all of you who found their way to this notice board.

First of all, I want to wih you a nice summer and some relaxing holidays. As ecen we know how over-burdened and stressed many of you are, working on environmental issues.

As you know, ecen promotes the establishment of a Time of Creation in European churches. Therefore we want to submit to all European churches some liturgical material in the years to come. A workshop is organised later this year in order to review existing material and to develop some new hyms, prayers etc. If you happen to have some good material, please let us have a copy - especially, if we would need not to pay for a copyright usimng your material.

Any material is welcome at the ecen Secretariat:
c/o Conference of European Churches
attn: Ruediger Noll
P.O. Box 2100
CH - 1211 Geneva 2
E-Mail: rud@wcc-coe.org

Thank you!
Ruediger

Dear all, There are many interesting ideas,projects,publications,etc. from countries and organisations. Thanks. However it is not easy to learn more the issues, because there are not mostly email adresses. Please, let's write email adreses near names of organisations and titles of projects in the informations provided. Who can let me know the Syndesmos email? Thanks. Best wishes to all!

To all members of ECEN, especially coalition facilitators

The European Commission Environment Directorate has just published a general call for funding proposals. Some specific areas may be relevant to particular ECEN coalitions.
The webpage is http://europa.eu.int/comm/environment/funding/general/call2000_en.htm

Donald

Dear donald, we should have a possibility to see the ECEN pages at Vienna. Hans-Hermann

Dear members of ECEN

A new year message of congratulations on this excellent site from A Rocha International - thanks for all the work you are doing. We have also been working on our website - do have a look in case any of it is of interest - particularly maybe the events section for those in UK, France, Portugal, Lebanon or Belgium.

Thanks again
Peter Harris
Director, A Rocha International

Happy New Year to all those who visit the ECEN site! Some of you will have noticed that the site now includes an introduction to the Environmental Education Coalition. This includes sections on the role of the Coalition; Christian perspectives; Church/Christian-based organisations promoting environmental education; organisations producing resources; Resources; opportunities for environmental education and experience; grass-roots action. At the moment the resources and contacts are British, but only to give us a start, and to stimulate those of you in other parts of Europe to send in your suggestions - Email me with your Suggestions for Resources . I will periodically collect the suggestions together and ask Donald to put them on the site. The more examples and case-studies we can share the better!
Blessings on all your efforts to encourage more respect for the Earth Community - the planet and its peoples.
Ruth Conway

Happy New Year to all who came to the ECEN conference in October 1999 and to all who visit this site. On the Millennium New Year’s Eve in the UK there were pictures on TV from around the world. It links us together. When they showed the dawn breaking on Millennium Island, the commentator said (something like) that in 50 years time the island will not exist - it will be under the sea.

I enjoyed meeting everyone at Loccum. If any of you who came to the conference at Loccum come to Britain at some time, do email me and it may be possible for me to put you in touch with some members of Christian Ecology Link who live in the part of Britain you are visiting.

I have made a web page with some pictures of the conference at Loccum: http://www.users.daelnet.co.uk/allinson/cel/ecenpictures.htm
Also do visit Christian Ecology Link's website: http://www.christian-ecology.org.uk

West Virginia Greens are under heavy pressure from the Coal Industry and Senator Robert C. Byrd to rewrite the Clean Water Act protecting streams from dumping of coal wastes. We have had a series of newspaper notices showing coal miner families saying their grace at meals, while industry persons rough up peaceful demonstrators like West Virginia's senior public servant and Secretary of State Ken Heckler. Now the Coal Industry is showing expensive television segments scaring the public that the Mountaintop Removal court decision will hurt all mining activities and threaten the West Virginia economy. The West Virginia legislative in January will be under heavy pressure to accomodate the Coal Industry. Any help from the ECEN to green the churches of West Virginia would be appreciated. Thank you for this opportunity to speak.

NEW COALITION PAGES ON ECEN SITE
We have just updated the pages about Issues and Coalitions, following the 1999 Loccum Assembly of ECEN at the end of October. Now you will find contact details of the person to contact ("facilitator") for each of the 8 existing coalitions, plus the emerging coalition on genetic engineering, and how to contact people for potential new coalitions on biodiversity, water and soil.

We have also added two new pages to start off the Coalition sites on Environmental Education and on Tourism. Keep an eye on them for new material appearing in the next few weeks.

Nice to see some activity here. This is a test message anyway.

This is a great side and I am looking forward to the establishment of the Tourism Coalition's webpage as I would like to post some info material as announced in Loccum. Kind regards Annette

Here is a test message from the ECEN webmaster to say that the ECEN Notice Board is back in operation today, 3 November 1999, 12 noon UK time