Social Resposibility Group
In the beginning, God made the world.
Today, we have used up almost all of the world’s oil supply; the way we live is changing the climate of our planet, and half of humankind is starving.
The Social Responsibility Group at St Michael with St Mark (also known as the green group or the eco-group) is committed to providing a Christian response to these challenging world issues, which affect everyone on earth. We believe that, by making a difference in our own lives – making a difference here, in Ashton on Ribble, our part of Preston – we can make a difference in the world.
We worship God the Creator, and we celebrate and care for the world He gave us to live in. We believe that, as Christians, we should respect God’s world and everyone and everything in it. So we are committed to developing our church community as an eco-congregation whose mission is to work to meet the needs of our local community and the wider world.
To this end we have over the last few years
- Provided recycling facilities for the local community in partnership with Preston City Council
- Run a Traidcraft stall each Sunday and arranged and promoted special Fairtrade events
- Organised successful farmers’ markets four times each year
- Supported Christian Aid week, One World Week, Homelessness Sunday and Fairtrade Fortnight, and filled shoeboxes for orphaned children in eastern Europe
- Supported projects in the third world
- Cared for our church grounds – as a garden of Eden - and started a vegetable garden
- Aimed to put our church at the centre of our community- as a beacon and a point of contact
- Promoted green Christianity and encouraged people in our community to make small changes in their own lives which will make a significant difference in God’s world
- Become the first Eco-Congregation in the diocese of Blackburn