Some of our churches on the Eco Church journey can find the lifestyle and community engagement sections of the Eco Church survey a challenge. James Lee from East Church in Norwich (St Thomas’s) shares the lessons learned from their recent event that addressed both of these areas.
“As the Creation Care team at East Church, we decided to put on a community clothes swap event to encourage sustainable consumption in the congregation and community. As people are creation, we also wanted to simply bless and get to know our local community better.
“For the few weeks leading up to the event, we were asking the congregation to donate clothes in advance, which meant we had a large bank of clothes to start the event. This was because we did not want people who were unable to give or unaware of the event to have to give clothes to swap.
“As it was the first time we had run an event like this, we were really not sure what to expect. We were set up outside the Mitre coffee shop, on the Earlham Road, and at first it was very quiet with only a few Mitre customers having a quick look before going in. We had set up a sign at the front saying “Clothes Swap”, but many people walking past said they would like to get involved but they did not have any clothes to swap. So we changed the sign to simply say “Free Clothes”, and then we started to get loads of people.
“Instead of getting members of the congregation or people we had directly invited, almost everyone who came were people from the local area who were previously unaware of the event. But this was brilliant, because everyone was genuinely intrigued as to why we were giving away free clothes.
“This opened up some amazing conversations about sustainability, the church, and perhaps most significantly, simply getting to know our local community. There were also some people who were genuinely in need of clothes, who were able to take as much as they wanted.
“We had not necessarily planned to do another one, but so many asked when the next one was happening, that we’re going to have to! People were so genuinely taken aback and thankful for the clothes and chats, that it really felt like many of them were experiencing a glimpse of the unique welcome and kindness of Jesus for the first time.”
Have you started your Eco Church journey yet? Register as an Eco Church or find out more at: https://ecochurch.arocha.org.uk/
Sign-up for our Eco Newsletter here
Join the conversation on our Facebook group here
Watch the message from Bishop Graham here
For any further help, contact barbara.bryant@dioceseofnorwich.org