This week I was invited to present the concept of community Eco-brick collaboration to 40 Anglican priests in Bontoc for their annual assembly. I was excited to be there– I believe trash and pollution is fundamentally a spiritual/consciousness issue. To be asked by the Church to present my work on pollution, was an honor and a rare opportunity to talk about the spiritual and philosophical issues behind what I do. I also grew up Anglican in Canada, so it was an extra layer of connection and meaning.
I had their rapt attention! The priests were seriously interested. When I was done, an a flurry of great questions and dialogue ensued. The priests were interested in establishing a province wide movement.
Finally, the Bishop stood up and announced that rather than working separately in their own Church communities, the priests would focus on a diocesan-wide collaboration. The intention: to build a Church in a remote village for a congregation that didn’t have a place to gather. All the priests vigorously clapped the commitment. Each left with a PET bottle to start packing their plastics and on which they will inscribe their prayer for their community’s environment with a permanent marker.
And that is how the first Ecobrick Bottle Church began– literally built with prayers!
