German inspiration to help the Church tackle climate change
This week our Principal, Revd Alex Jensen, joined an inspirational conference in Schleswig between representatives of the Diocese of Ely and Germany’s Nordkirche – the Lutheran Church in Northern Germany – to discuss best practice in the prevention and mitigation of climate change. A longstanding partnership exists between the Nordkirche and Ely: climate change is just one of the pressing issues that the partnership is tackling.
At the meeting the partnership celebrated its 30th anniversary and a renewed and updated partnership agreement was signed by Ely’s Bishop Dagmar Winter and Bishop Gothard Magaard of the Nordkirche (pictured).
On the agenda for the conference was shared learning on the work of both churches in mitigating climate change, but the war in Ukraine was also a key topic of discussion.
To learn from the Nordkirche’s experience, the group considered the Church’s new climate protection plan, looked at best practice examples from parishes, and visited communities at the forefront of this challenging issue. This included a church building in Schleswig which has been converted to a community centre with low carbon emissions and sustainability as a priority.
The Diocese of Ely and the Nordkirche are committed to their partnership for the future. Mutual visits, the exchange of ministers, participation in ordinations and partnerships of church communities are some ideas now in planning.
“I was so impressed with the progress that has been made by the Nordkirche, it was genuinely inspirational. Both churches face the same challenges posed by ancient historic buildings that need sympathetic improvement and repurposing to make them as sustainable as possible. I’m sure that working together on this urgent issue we will make faster progress than we could alone. The renewed partnership agreement also includes a planned collaboration on theological education, which is an exciting step forward and will closely involve ERMC,” comments Alex Jensen.
There’s more background and detail on the conference here.
