Alastair McIntosh to encourage churches to take up the eco challenge
Scottish environmentalist, author and broadcaster, Dr Alastair McIntosh, will speak at an Eco–Congregation Ireland (ECI) event in Fitzroy Presbyterian Church, University Street, Belfast on Friday 28th February 2014 at 7.30pm.
Clergy and lay people from all churches are welcome to attend this information evening. McIntosh’s engaging, challenging and entertaining talks at ECI’s inaugural conference in September 2012 proved a real hit and many people are looking forward to hear him speak again.
McIntosh is Honorary Senior Fellow in the College of Social Sciences at the University of Glasgow, a Fellow of the Schumacher Society and a Research Fellow at the School of Divinity (New College), University of Edinburgh. A regular visitor to Northern Ireland, he has featured on BBC Northern Ireland’s Sunday Sequence programme on several occasions.
Taking as his title, “And the Leaves of the Tree are for the Healing …” (Ezekiel 47:12 and Revelations 22:2), McIntosh will consider how Christians can care for God’s Creation. “The task before us is to be participants in the healing of the nations, of the Earth and of our churches,” says McIntosh. “These tasks are all one.”
Both Ezekiel and John laid out a vision of the Tree of Life, the leaves of which will be for the healing of the nations.
“That vision is an ecological vision that implies a restored Earth,” he says. “It is also a vision of the healing of the churches, that we might be as nations under the shared vision of God’s kingdom come on Earth … as it is in Heaven.”
McIntosh’s talk will explore how the work of eco–congregations should be understood not just about the environment in any narrow sense, but about life on Earth and the life of the undivided church, in the broadest senses that can give life to us all, irrespective of our denominations.
The event will also include presentations by several eco–congregations about some of the environmental initiatives they have undertaken. Fitzroy has been eco–active for a number of years and received an ECI award in 2011 in recognition of its endeavours.
For further information see www.ecocongregationireland.com or phone +353 (0)86 1706923.