Catholic Parish of Napier

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Care of Creation

Welcome to the Care of Creation group of the Catholic Parish of Napier. One of the main goals of the Care of Creation group is to inform our parishioners about what they can do to honour the call made by Pope Francis in his encyclical Laudato Si’ to look after our planet and the people on it much better than we have done lately.

The Care of Creation group of the Catholic Parish of Napier is a member of the global Laudato Si’ movement. For more information on the Laudato Si’ week itself, visit the laudatosiweek.org website.

The Catholic Parish of Napier has also become a member of Eco Church NZ. We are the first Catholic parish in NZ to do so. Click on the link to find out more about this great initiative.

We warmly support the Napier Repair Café. It is a wonderful way to not having to throw away and buy anew, but to get it fixed and you can use it again. For detailed information where they are every last Saturday of the month and what they can repair, see: Napier Repair Cafe 2023. They are also looking for volunteers: Napier Repair Cafe Volunteers needed.

One of our main current activities are the Reuse and Recycle (R & R) tables. You can find more information on this in:

The Reuse and Recycle tables are present at:

  • St Mary’s church, every third Sunday of the month at the 9 o’clock mass;
  • St Patrick’s church, every last Sunday of the month, at 10 o’clock mass.

 

For more information about our group, a bit of history and what we do, please follow the following links. We are always looking at people to join us. If you would like to become part of the work we do, please go the “contacts” link below, and get in touch. You will be most welcome.

Our meetings for 2024 will be held in the hall at St Mary’s, at 4:30pm on the fourth Thursday of every second month:
22 February, 25 April, 20 June, 22 August and 24 October.

One of the main goals of the Care of Creation group is to inform our parishioners about what they can do to honour the call made by Pope Francis in his encyclical Laudato Si’ to look after our planet and the people on it much better than we have done lately. To achieve this the group:

  • Started with ourselves, changing our own consumer habits – for example eating less meat; using less rubbish bags by more recycling; stop accepting plastic bags at the supermarket; turn off appliances at the wall, etc.
  • Regularly publishes an eco-tip or an inspiring statement from Laudato Si’ in the parish newsletter.
  • Organised a formation day on eco spirituality in March 2017, given by Fr. Neil Vaney SM and attended by over 25 parishioners.
  • Held “Save the environment and save money” eco fairs. Over the months of April, May and June 2017, we visited each church community in the parish, with a set of six tables, each with a topic with lots of tips to save both money and the environment.

For more information on this see Care of Creation Eco Fair

The group has also undertaken a number of actions to help the environment. We:

  • Joined the Anglican community for beach clean ups.
  • Talked with parish staff on how we could reduce wasteful consumption in the parish.
  • Completed a comprehensive eco-audit of the Parish buildings with recommendations how we could reduce the impact on the environment in the use of these buildings.
  • Helped organise the first World Day of Prayer Service for the Care of Creation, 1st of September 2016. This has become an annual event in our Parish.

Results of Beach Clean

In October 2015 a large number of parishioners attended two workshops on a new encyclical: Laudato Si’ – On Care for Our Common Home. This encyclical letter on ecology and climate was issued by Pope Francis in May 2015. Its key messages are that we need to take the ecological crisis seriously and that it is our duty to care for God’s creation as its stewards, not its owners. This requires an ecological conversion and move away from the current throwaway culture.

In December 2015 a number of people who wanted to keep Pope Francis’ message alive, set up a “Care of Creation” parish group. Its purpose was twofold. First, to support each other in living out the simpler, less environmentally damaging lifestyle Pope Francis is calling for. Second to find ways to encourage the whole parish to understand – through education, formation and prayer – that care for our common home is an authentic part of living out our faith. At the end of each year the Care of Creation group produces a work plan.

In September 2016 the parish promulgated its Vision and Mission. It includes: “to be wise stewards of God’s creation”.

In April 2017 the Care of Creation group accepted the Parish Pastoral Council’s request to help it develop and implement a plan to encourage action for the environment as part of the faith life of every parishioners.

Some achievements are the inaugural World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation service, as called for by Pope Francis. This has become an annual event. Other achievements include the organisation of a formation seminar on eco spirituality, the Care of Creation Expo held at all three faith communities of the parish; beach cleaning activities twice a year with the Anglican Cathedral; a detailed audit of the buildings of the parish from a eco point of view; change in our behaviour with regards to energy use and minimising waste.

 

We continued the organisation of the monthly R & R (reuse and recycle) tables at St Mary’s, and also started them at St Patrick’s.

We organised 1 beach clean up in September 2023. The February one was cancelled because of Cyclone Gabrielle.

We organised a talk on the Napier Repair Café.

We organised a presentation by Caritas on some of their overseas programmes.

The Catholic Parish of Napier became a member of Eco Church New Zealand.

We established a regular link with Reignier school.

We are writing to NZ manufacturers in relation to their packaging and making this more recyclable, especially where there is double packaging or packaging using plastics that cannot be recycled. This has generated commitments for change from these manufacturers.

We contributed to the Sunday Masses’ Prayers of the Faithful.

We wrote regular notices for the Parish Newsletter.

We revamped these pages of the Care of Creation group as part of the total revamp of the parish website.

Meetings of the Care of Creation group take place on the fourth Thursday of every second month of the year, from 4:30pm – 5.30pm in the St Mary’s Centre, Osier Road
Meetings for 2023 are: 23 February, 27 April, 22 June, 24 August and 26 October.

The Care of Creation group is looking for more members. We exist in response to Pope Francis’ call to take concrete steps, personally and as a parish community, towards ecological conversion. We meet 5 – 6 times a year and organise various events throughout the year, as you can read about on our pages in the parish website.

For more information, contact Maree Diamond, email: mareecl.29@gmail.com

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