Anna Louise Shepherd sent us this news:
First Portadown Presbyterian Church launched their Creation Carers Group on Saturday 4th March. We had 14 people present (12 and 2 children). We explained a little more about the Awareness Award that the church had been given by Eco-Congregation Ireland and what the categories involved.
We started with a community outreach activity, where by we have enrolled on the ABC council’s Adopt -A-Street scheme. Armed with litter pickers, high vis tops and gloves we divided up into small groups to mindfully and prayerfully walk around the area we have adopted. As we are an urban church many travel in to the streets purely to participate in worship or other church activities and rarely take time to study the area. We were fortunate to have a local resident in the the group who was able to tell us more about some of the issues in the area which was useful to understand.
Although the streets include several derelict sites we discovered a tunnel that few had ever explored which goes under the railway line to an area known as Hoys meadows, now maintained by the council Dept of Parks and Recreation. It includes picnic tables and frontage onto the River Bann, so now it has become a possible spot for a church picnic or outdoor activities in the future!
We also realised we had a roundabout on our patch and so are now hoping to submit a planting design to the Roads Dept so that we can sponsor and maintain that as a means of improving the environment. The group hopes to meet once a month and carry on ongoing litter collection, but also hope to plan some information sessions and engage the youth organisations in projects too.
