CONGREGATION WALKS THROUGH OWN PLASTIC WASTE

A congregation was made to walk through their plastic waste in order to get into church during COP26.

New Kilpatrick Parish Church in Bearsden invited their congregation to collect their plastic waste for a fortnight and bring it all to church. A team then strung it all together along their walkway which formed the main entrance to their church, forcing the whole congregation to walk past all the plastic collected as a reminder of how much we use and then immediately throw away.

As COP26 begins the team, working with St Andrew’s Roman Catholic Church in Bearsden, wanted the congregation to have a visual reminder of how easily we discard so much plastic which damages creation.

Church minister the Rev Roddy Hamilton said: “It was quite a sight watching the congregation line up to go into church surrounded by all our plastic waste. That in itself was quite a lesson.”

“We take great care of our building and to have all this plastic hanging and blowing in the wind felt quite uncomfortable, as if we were vandalising the church, desecrating it even. It wasn’t too big a leap to realise we do the same to creation, daily.”

Following the service the same team gathered to dismantle and sort all the plastic so that as much as was possible was recycled. Mr Hamilton said: “That was another lesson in how much we are unable to recycle in East Dumbartonshire.”