ECO CHURCH COMMUNITY & GLOBAL RESOURCES ENGAGEMENT

ECO CHURCH COMMUNITY & GLOBAL RESOURCES ENGAGEMENT

How To Twin Your Church www.ecochurch.arocha.org.uk

ECO CHURCH COMMUNITY & GLOBAL How To Twin Your Church RESOURCES ENGAGEMENT

Twinning is a relationship between a Knowing real people in real situations helps THE WORLD CHURCH congregation at home with a congregation us to understand environmental issues www.churchofscotland.org.uk/serve/World_ Mission/the_world_church from the world church. faced by people across the world. Having a world perspective in a congregation can Church of Scotland guidelines say enrich worship and challenge belief. The congregations build friendships, share ideas, Church of Scotland share their guidelines work on projects together, and learn from here. one another. Churches come together as equals, acknowledging they have much to learn and share.

Twinning is not just about raising money to send to your twinned church – it’s about developing personal relationships. Congregations plan visits to each other’s churches, and these face-to-face experiences have a huge impact on both the relationship, and on the faith of those involved.

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ECO CHURCH COMMUNITY & GLOBAL RESOURCES ENGAGEMENT

Twinning is about koinonia GUIDELINES ON TWINNING This Greek word is translated many different ways in the New Testament – fellowship, community, www.presbyterianireland.org/Resources/ General-Publications/Guidelines-and- participation, sharing, contribution. Reports/Guidelines-on-Twinning?ID=6645

These reflect the relationship that John describes in 1 John 1:3-4. This is a relationship of sharing a common life with other believers – one we also share with God the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ.

This is a relationship, a partnership in the gospel where we share with one another spiritually and materially. The first few steps towards koinonia are simple but profound, and are described in Guidelines On Twinning, a helpful leaflet from the Presbyterian Church in :

– pray – spend a lot of time praying about twinning as a mission committee and church;

– network – contact mission organisations/agencies who can help you as you begin this journey;

– remember – building relationships is key.

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ECO CHURCH COMMUNITY & GLOBAL RESOURCES ENGAGEMENT

Encourage your church in ‘eco-twinning’ ECO-TWINNING churchofengland.org/media-centre/ The Church of has been encouraging ‘eco-twinning’ with the developing world as part of the news/2009/11/pr10009.aspx denomination’s efforts to combat climate change. ‘Eco-twinning’ is promoted between parishes in England and developing world parishes faced with the early effects of climate change. TREE PLANTING www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/ environment/climatechange/6487029/ Church-of-England-to-encourage-tree- Link with other churches for the environment planting-to-combat-climate-change.html Every in the has a link with another Diocese in the Anglican Communion. Here are some examples: DIOCESE TWINNING http://dioceseofyork.org.uk/people-and- places/ – the is twinned with three in South Africa - Cape Town, False Bay and Saldanha Bay. The purpose of the link is to encourage one another, in a mutual concern to help each other in their mission to make Christ’s love known. Each year, there are several exchange trips; – York diocese have found one of the benefits is sharing the experiences of youth work leaders. Youth work leaders from York have visited Cape Town to experience the rich variety of youth work in South Africa, receive training and give something back through practical work; – the is unusual in having a link with the Episcopal Church of the whole province of Sudan, spanning both Sudan and the new country of South Sudan. It is one of the oldest diocesan links, set up in 1972.

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ECO CHURCH COMMUNITY & GLOBAL RESOURCES ENGAGEMENT

Become part of a global family by twinning DIOCESE OF The Church in Wales Diocese of celebrated its partnership with Bangladesh in 2011. Moderator of LLANDAFF the Church of Bangladesh Bishop Paul Sarker visited Wales to sign the link agreement and spent a week www.anglicannews.org/news/2011/07/ llandaff-celebrates-new-partnership-with- touring the diocese, staying with Archbishop Barry. bangladesh.aspx ‘Sometimes it can feel very lonely being a Christian in Bangladesh,’ said Bishop Sarker, ‘but this link with Llandaff will give us courage as we will know that we are not alone.’

Archbishop Barry said that linking with another province of the Anglican Communion reminds them that they belong to a worldwide fellowship of Christians.

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ECO CHURCH COMMUNITY & GLOBAL RESOURCES ENGAGEMENT

Kick up a real stink about twinning DEER PARK CHURCH IN TENBY Twinning is a simple, quirky way to solve a serious problem – and save lives. Two-and-a-half billion JOINS TOILET TWINNING people don’t have somewhere safe, clean and hygienic to go to the loo. That’s more than a third of the PROJECT people on the planet. Tearfund decided that was bang out of order. So it invented Toilet Twinning. www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south- west-wales-15796427 That means people can now get excited about life-changing long-drops! By twinning your toilet, you help those in desperate poverty to have access to a proper , clean water and the information they need TOILET TWINNING to be healthy. www.toilettwinning.org

Christians are stirring up the message about toilet-twinning! Even the BBC have caught wind of it, and reported on church activity in this area. A Pembrokeshire church twinned its communal with those in a village in Cambodia in time for . Deer Park Baptist Church, Tenby, gave its backing to the Toilet Twinning project.

In addition, young people from Highfields Church, , raised £1,000 for the project. The Church in Wales’ diocesan office has also twinned a toilet with one in Burundi, Africa. Join this growing movement that’s flushed with success!

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ECO CHURCH COMMUNITY & GLOBAL RESOURCES ENGAGEMENT

See twinning as a two-way relationship RAMRIDGE BAPTIST Through twinning with a Bulgarian congregation, Ramridge Baptist Church hope they will learn a lot from www.ramridgebaptist.org/gpage3.html each other, share prayer needs and find many ways to collaborate.

Ramridge Baptist Church started to twin with the First Baptist Church in Varna. Varna is a Black Sea shipping port and holiday resort with a population of around 400,000.

The church came into being shortly after the fall of communism in 1998. But it was not easy for the Christians there to get their own building as all churches had been confiscated during communist rule.

Ramridge church members have visited Varna and have been impressed by the deep faith that the people have there. On one occasion there was an elderly couple who had asked for their marriage to be blessed before God as in communist times they had not been allowed to be married in church.

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