Sustainable Church Flowers
There has been a growing movement in recent years towards “sustainable church flowers.” Indeed in February the CofE General Synod backed a motion encouraging us to explore ways of arranging that are environmentally responsible.
Essentially it’s about glorifying God’s creation (which is what church flowers do) without negatively impacting that creation. There are several facets to this thinking. Probably the biggest change is to move away from using oasis or floral foam entirely. It does huge damage to the water systems, does not decompose & anybody who has got oasis dust in their eyes can testify it’s painful! There are a myriad other ways of securing stems in place. The Coronation of the King & Queen and the installation of the Archbishop of Canterbury were both done in completely sustainable ways.
The other aspect is the sourcing of flowers, which should ideally be seasonal & locally grown. It’s thought provoking that in all our weekly shops, the flowers we may buy leave the greatest carbon footprint. They also often take precious water in countries where it is scarce and labour poorly paid.
None of us is keen on change - it seems one of our human short-comings. However, I see this as a God given opportunity for more people to become involved with the joy of church flowers. You might have a garden with greenery or flowers you could donate? You might feel able to try arranging yourself? Using a vase is far less daunting than battling with oasis.
You will see that we have started to take this approach at St Mary’s. I really hope that we can all embrace it, take seriously our responsibility to care for our environment, and move forwards in mutual support & learning. Angela Shepherd
For more information read this article from Eco-Church or the Sustainable Church Flowers website or the General Synod article. If you’d like to contribute, please get in touch via Tamara in the office.
