The Diocese of Leeds’ Justice and Peace Commission hosted a meeting of the Northern Dioceses’ Environment Group on 8 June, at Wheeler Hall in Leeds. This is an open group of interested people from each of the northern dioceses which meets about four times a year.
Five out of the seven dioceses in the North were represented, along with several people from our own diocese. The meeting opened with a reflection led by Paul Kelly from St Mary & St Michael Parish in Settle.
The major portion of the morning session was taken up with a workshop given by John Paul de Quay. John Paul works as a project manager for the Ecological Conversion Group. This charity was started after the Pope published Laudato Si’ and is dedicated to inspiring action on care of creation.
John Paul’s website, Journey to 2030 is highly recommended for parish resources and ideas to help church communities continue – or start – on the journey towards the year by which we should be reaching net zero emissions.
John Paul explained that much of his work is about working alongside people to answer two basic questions:
- What will our communities look like once we have achieved net zero emissions?
- How do we get to that position – what are the things that we need to do?
With limited time he asked everyone to focus on the first question – in the style of Pope Francis’s exhortation to ‘Let us dream’. So, in groups of four or five, attendees were asked to come up with a drawing that would communicate the key aspects of our local community once net zero emissions were achieved.
In the areas covered by the Diocese of Leeds, Diocesan J&P Commission member Helen Hayden is also the executive member of Leeds City Council with responsibility for the council’s response to the Climate Emergency. In the afternoon session, Helen spoke about the interconnectedness of Climate Change with other issues experienced particularly by people living in poverty. She explained how retro-fitting some properties has enabled tenants to have their heating on more often. In one case, the ambient temperature in a property had been measured at 12C, whereas after the work had been completed it was 18C. As one mother put it, this allowed her children to have a quiet space in their bedroom where they could comfortably sit and do their homework. So, not only did this work reduce carbon emissions, it also directly reduced energy bills for the people involved. Longer term, being able to do homework in a suitable space means that educational outcomes will be improved for the children living in those properties.
Helen spoke of the challenge with this, such as the Council having funds from central government to retro-fit relatively few properties – and even then, funds were provided in competition with other local authorities. To complete this work in all those Leeds properties which need it will require £6billion of funding and so in terms of both action on Climate Change and the Government’s ‘levelling up’ agenda, this should be given much more priority.
This really brought to life the interconnectedness of action for Climate Change and action on poverty!
Where do we go from here?
During the final part of the afternoon session, people reflected on the rest of the day to see if any ideas for action were emerging. Several suggestions showed great creativity: for example, replacement of fixed pews in churches with chairs so as to create a more flexible space.
The Bishops’ Conference meetings at Hinsley Hall (in November 2022 and April 2023) had discussed Climate Action and the resolutions from their deliberations from the Autumn 2022 Plenary Meeting are published on the CBCEW website. In addition, our own diocesan pledges made by Bishop Marcus and his fellow Trustees are published on this site.
Looking ahead, 2025 will be the tenth anniversary of the publication of Laudato Si‘. The idea of holding a joint event with the Bishops from the Northern Dioceses was suggested. This could both celebrate the work done to date and review what the next steps were for all the northern dioceses to achieve net zero by 2030.