Care for Our Common Home

Join us in protecting our environment for future generations inspired by Pope Francis' teachings.

We are a small group trying to help everyone in our parishes to do something about our environment for the benefit of our world, ourselves and our childrens' children and beyoud. We are inspired by Pope Francis' encyclical letter 'Laudato Si'' on Care for Our Common Home (hence our name).

"As Christians we are inspired to be good stewards of the earth, to conserve and protect God’s creation and the earth’s resource." [Catholic Bishops of England and Wales]

"...there are no lasting changes without cultural changes,

without a maturing of lifestyles and convictions within societies,

and there are no cultural changes without personal changes”

Pope Francis, Laudate Deum (70).

What we have been doing

Planting trees

We have made a Woodland Trust urban tree pack available to all free of charge. Trees in the Urban Tree Pack for the Wales and West of England are:

• Crab Apple

• Rowan

• Silver birch

September

The Season of Creation

We celebrated the Season of Creation from 1st September, Creation Day, through to 4th October, the Feast of St Francis of Assisi.

• We gave a short talk at each Mass on 31sth August / !st September.

• There was a Payer each week during the Season.

• There was a Coffee Morning on 15th September with displays on our work.

• Our desire for an Ecumenical Prayer Service did not materialise (this year).

Clean Green Energy (Octopus Energy)

We offered people the chance to get a no-obligation quote from a major renewable supplier Octopus.

• Check if you are on a green energy tariff with your current supplier.

• If not, switch to your supplier's green energy tariff.

• If you're willing to switch supplier, we can give you a quote from Octopus Energy (clean and green) here.

October

August

Fitting Solar Panels

South Gloscester Council are trying to help enable homeowners to fit solar panels through a bulk buying scheme. Interested?

Register for free with no obligation.

June

Plastic-free July

We joined millions of people reducing their plastic waste. We chose to refuse single-use plastic when shopping as much as possible.

Plastic Free July® is a global movement that helps millions of people be part of the solution to plastic pollution – so we can have cleaner streets, oceans, and beautiful communities. Will you be part of Plastic Free July by choosing to refuse single-use plastics?

Re-imagining our parish

This month, at the end of the Great Big Green Week, we held a coffee morning with displays covering: food; recycling; green energy; planting trees; re-imagining our parish; making a green pledge; and featuring Christian Climate Action too. Our first face-to-face event for people to get to know what the Care for Our Common Home Group was all about; all with coffee, tea and delicious home made cakes. As it was Father's Day too, that prevented some people from attending. If you came, thank you, and hopefully you made a green pledge before you left; we can all do something more to care for our common home.

In March, some of us took part and counted our plastic waste for a whole week, uncovering that UK households are discarding a staggering 1.7 billion pieces of plastic each week. This collective effort highlighted the alarming scale of the plastic waste crisis in the UK.

The Results are in:

https://thebigplasticcount.com/results

January/February 2024

We started with recycling by promoting Recycling for Good Causes for our chosen charity CAFOD, to give people an opportunity to recycle their unwanted mobiles and gagets, cameras, jewellery and watches, currencies and stamps.

https://thebigplasticcount.com/results

Volunteer Days

Each month during the summer, there is a Volunteering Day at St Teresa's on the last Saturday of each mongh to care for the church gardens and surroundings. Come and join us.

The wonderful external estate of St Teresa’s, comprises of 6 main areas plus some additional associated areas: The Memorial Garden, Courtyard, Path and Side Steps; The Orchard, Fernery, Bank and Woodland Path; The Main Car Park, Rear Tree Line and Drive;The front of the Church – Front hedges, Courtyard, Paths and Planters; Small Car Park and Pavement area; The Old Church Hall, Small Car Park and Pavement area; Finnegan’s Corner and the front & rear footpaths of the Social Centre, plus the rear steps and waste area behind the Church Hall;

Let's care for our own patch as well as we can!

Where we are : our churches

St Vincent de Paul

Glencoyne Square
Southmead
Bristol
BS10 6DS

UK

St Teresa of the Child Jesus

71 Gloucester Road North
Filton
S. Gloscestershire
BS34 7PL

UK