The ECEN Eco-Management group has received funding to set up twinning partnerships between churches with strong Eco-Management programmes and churches who would like to develop them. Partnerships are already planned involving Sweden, Germany, Poland, the Czech Republic, Romania and the UK. More information is available from the Eco-Management group facilitator, Hans Diefenbacher, ecomanagement@ecen.org

The Commissione Globalizzazione e ambiente (GLAM) organised a seminar at Casa Cares, near Milan, on 18-20 September 2009. This brought together representatives of evangelical churches to discuss environmental approaches to church administration, meals and buildings. They shared good practice and established a network for further collaborative work.

A brief report of the seminar, its conclusion and recommendations, can be downloaded here (English and Italian, pdf, 97kb)

First a kind of vision for the year 2020 – like Rüdiger Noll for the CEC and for our centres suggested:

Challenged and pushed by more than 66 academies around Europe churches faced the global necessity of putting justice, peace and integrity of creation into action. Churches inspired by hope and faith, that the kingdom of God will come towards us, didn’t only publish memoranda, but became itself sustainable.

There are compelling reasons to act: Churches which have done no energy saving measures are paying twice as much for electricity, gas and oil as they did 15 years ago. Global climate change is happening faster than many expected threatening people, plants and animals worldwide. "Aktiv f?r Klimaschutz" is a brochure directed to local churches. It explains why churches should act and what they can do, for example: