The Church of England has been working with The Conservation Foundation on a series of events linked to the Foundation's Parish Pump Programme since 2001. The programme aims to provide environmental information to individuals actively involved in their local communities, both rural and urban, many of whom planted trees in the Foundation's Yews for the Millennium initiative. This nationwide project provided local communities with young yews propagated from ancient trees estimated to be 2000 years old or more to celebrate the third millennium. As a result, many members are associated with their parish church and the Parish Pump Workshops are an opportunity for the Church to act as host for Parish Pumps and others to meet one another together with representatives of local authorities and environmental organisations.

Subjects range from theology to biodiversity, energy and fair trade. Often the events provide opportuntities for other organisations to be involved such as Eco-congregations and Christian Ecology Link. The Workshops also provide an opportunity for ecumenical and inter-faith initiatives. The Parish Pump Workshops are now in a second, three year programme with support from the British Government's Department for the Environment (DEFRA) and details of current events follow.

Workshops are organised nationally by Claire Foster and David Shreeve in association with a local 'team' which includes at least one Bishop.

These enable individual events to have a programme tailor-made which addresses local issues and interests. As a result of Workshops several dioceses are now organising their own events and some of these are also included below.

In addition to Workshops, members of the Parish Pump Programme also receive the Parish Pump News and can apply for Parish Pump Priming Awards - designed to help turn 'ideas' for environmental initiatives to improve local communities into 'action'.

Each event shares a light provided by the Earth Summit Candle which was first lit by the Archbishop of Cape Town at the inaugaural meeting of the Anglican Environmental Network in South Africa in 2002. The candle was brought back to England where it was lit at a special service at St Paul 's Cathedral. Since then it has brought its light to over 20 cathedrals and churches throughout the country. The candle was also a feature of the Canberra meeting of the Anglican Communion Environmental Network and celebrated Earth Day in San Francisco Cathedral. The latest lighting of the World Summit Candle was at a Workshop in Canterbury Diocese on 19th July, 2005 .

Following the publication of 'Sharing God's Planet - a Christian vision for a sustainable future', several dioceses are taking a closer interest in their own environmental management procedures and developing policies for diocesan synods to adopt. The book was commissioned for the Church of England's Mission for Public Affairs Council and written by Claire Foster with a foreword by the Archbishop of Canterbury and debated at Synod.

BATH & WELLS
Sat 22 Oct How Green Is Your Church?

ELY
Sat 5 Nov Stewards of Creation? A day conference on the Church and the Environment

GLOUCESTER
Sat 29 Oct Earth Care Day at Gloucester Cathedral

LEICESTER
Sat 29 Oct How our Modern World Contributes. Leicester Cathedral and The Grammar School Spend a day with the Bishop and discuss how we, as Christians, impact on the environment.

LONDON
Thurs 6 Oct Addressing Issues of Environmental Concern to the Churches LondonSCARE (London and Southwark Churches Care for the Environment) St Francis of Assisi Lecture for 2005 delivered by The Bishop of London

24 Nov Hope for the Planet - a conference for Church leaders. St Michaels Church, Chester Square , London SW1 with Prof. Sir Ghillean Prance, Dr Elaine Storkey, Prof Alister McGrath and Sir John Houghton.

PETERBOROUGH
Fri 14 and Sat 15 Oct Green and Pleasant Northamptonshire Faith Groups contribution to sustainable communities.

ST.ALBANS
13 July 2006 Kyoto Local: Concern into Action - St Albans Parish Pump Conference. St Albans Diocese is looking forward to a packed programme at its Parish Pump conference next July. The conference hopes to inform, inspire and resource those attending to explore further in their local circumstances (whether at home, Church, work or in the local community) what sustainable living might mean for them.

SOUTHWARK
Sun 6 Nov Multi-Faith Conference on the Environment. St Mary Magdalene Church , Woolwich. Hosted by Southwark Diocesan Inter Faith Group and London and Southwark Dioceses Christian Action Re the Environment and supported by Greenwich Multi-faith Forum. This conference is open to anyone interested in promoting interfaith understanding and care for the environment.

SOUTHWELL
Should Christianity affect my shopping? Thinking globally acting locally. Southwell Minster

TRURO
27 Sept Is Preserving Our Planet A Challenge to Our Faith? The faith communities role in thinking globally and acting locally. Chaired by the Bishop of Truro

Article By: Claire Foster and David Shreeve