Footsteps brings together faith groups in Birmingham to respond to the challenge of moving to a low carbon future
Footsteps: Faiths for a Low Carbon Future
Many faith communities are taking their own actions to help the environment; by coming together they can take steps side-by-side towards their common goal. The main way Footsteps does this is by organising interfaith and multi-faith events to explore responses to the high carbon present and take action towards a low carbon future. A small organising committee, with representatives from each of the main faith groups, meets once every few months to plan the events; currently two of the members are Anglicans. Footsteps is now a project under Birmingham Council of Faiths, an organisation set up to 'promote and maintain harmonious relations between people of different faiths in the city'.
Footsteps first came together to organise events in the run-up to the Paris Climate Conference, in November 2015. People were inspired by the Lambeth Declaration, signed by leaders from across the major faiths in Britain, which called us 'to care for the earth and have a responsibility to live creatively and sustainably in a world of finite resources.' Individuals, groups, churches, schools, worshipping communities and others that share the Footsteps vision receive newsletters and invitations to events and become part of a multi-faith network working for change. Since the start CofE Birmingham has been very much involved in Footsteps’ activities, including its most recent programme Saving Energy – Footsteps (footstepsbcf.org.uk) which is aimed at helping people to reduce their energy use in their faiith buildings and homes and to find the money to pay their energy bills..
For further details of the CofE Birmingham’s involvement in Footsteps and with the other churches and faiths that are part of it, click here.
Email: footstepsbcf@gmail.com
X (Formerly known as Twitter): @FootstepsBCF
Facebook: facebook.com/FootstepsBCF
Website: www.footstepsbcf.org.uk
Protecting Mother Earth
The above picture was taken at a seminar held to mark International Women’s Day on the theme of ‘Protecting Mother Earth’ at the Nishkam Centre, Soho Road in 2020. There were speakers from Sikh, Muslim and Hindu faiths, and Footsteps’ chair, Ruth Tetlow, spoke on behalf of the Christian faith. The afternoon concluded with the planting of a tree as an example of the need to plant many more trees to help absorb carbon dioxide. The Woodland Trust is making trees available free of charge.