Climate Response

Climate Emergency Working Team

One of the promises we make at baptisms is to “safeguard the integrity of creation”.  This means not to control or dominate the natural world, but to care for it as fellow creatures intimately connected to one another.  At our bi-annual regional Anglican convention called Synod, we voted to declare a Climate Emergency, and to allocate funds for a new position – a Minister for Climate Response – in the Diocese.  Mother Joyce, our vicar, is that Minister!  She works with a team from across the Diocese – currently called the Climate Emergency Working Team or CEWT – to inform, inspire and integrate Anglican parishioners throughout the region to help us address this emergency.

Mother Joyce spends 40% of her time working on climate response for the Diocese and 60% of her time working for our parish.

To find out more about the climate ministry and to subscribe to its newsletter, visit the CEWT website here.

Photo credit: Li-An Lim, Unsplash.

Garden Project

St. Bart’s church sits on the corner of Gibsons Way and North Road in Gibsons. Our grounds are visible to everyone travelling through that major intersection. As part of our responsibility to creation and to address the impacts of climate change, volunteers from the Parish are working diligently to restore native vegetation and reduce the impacts of potential wildfires.

In the Spring of 2023, the Garden Group at St. Bart’s began an exciting and important project – to return its land to its previous indigenous character.  We are gradually removing the flora introduced over the last century by incoming settlers, replacing it with native plants.  We commit ourselves to this work foremost as a sincere gesture of reconciliation with the sḵwx̱wú7mesh and shíshálh peoples of the region. We pledge to take every opportunity to learn from and collaborate with them.

Second, we wish to blend our property again with the surrounding landscape, its beauty, and its ability to nurture.  Third, mindful of climate change, we wish to cultivate a healthy garden that can sustain itself, be FireSmart, and be drought tolerant.  We trust that our garden expresses our praise and thanksgiving to the Creator at the heart of all religions.

The Douglas Firs appeared in our region about 6,000 years ago, but for millennia, the flora of the Sunshine Coast have been shaping our landscape and nurturing the peoples of the region.  St. Bart’s gratefully resides on a tiny portion of land belonging to the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Nation.

If you are interested in volunteering with the St. Bart’s Garden Group, please complete the Volunteer Sign-Up Form and someone will contact you.