Module 10 - Lifestyle Issues

Find your local Groundwork Trust, and perhaps you could contact them for help and advice if you want to develop your church yard, or glebe land into an allotment project or some other project which reflects a move to more sustainable living. They are experienced in regeneration projects in urban areas. They are also committed to learning outdoors, so could help you develop your church into an educational resource in conjunction with the local school.

Living Lightly offers a renewed vision of the world and alternative way of living; a virtual Christian community to be part of! It is not a long list of "dos" and "don'ts", but a journey of discovery, seeking to live with delight and gentleness in God's World.

A Rocha International is acting to combat climate change - and you can be part of it. Climate Stewards enables you to calculate the carbon dioxide you are currently emitting, gives advice as to how to reduce it, and enables you to give to tree planting projects in Ghana where local people's livelihoods are enhanced.

• Richard Foster: Celebration of Discipline 1980
• Leo Hickman (Guardian columnist):
  • A Life Stripped Bare
  • A Good Life
  • How to Buy
  • The Final Call: In Search of the True Cost of our Holidays
• Charlotte Mulvey (ed) The Good Shopping Guide Published by the Ethical Marketing Group, 2004
• Stuart Murray: Beyond Tithing Published by Paternoster 2000
• Nicky Scott: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Published by Green Books, 2004
• Ronald Sider: Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger Published by Hodder & Stoughton 1997
• Tom Sine:
  • Why settle for more and miss the best? (1981)
  • The Mustard Seed Conspiracy (1987)
  • Mustard Seed versus McWorld (1999
• Ruth Valerio: L is for lifestyle - Christian living that doesn't cost the earth Published by IVP 2004
• Catherine von Ruhland: Living with the Planet - making a difference in a time of climate change  Published by Lion 2008

Working with local advice centres gives you access to help and support when encouraging people to reduce their energy usage. They also carry out home energy checks. Find your local office or phone 0800 512012. They have information about grants for insulation.

Ethical Advice

www.ethicalconsumer.org – a UK guide to how ethical businesses are

www.newconsumer.com - magazine about fair trade and ethical living

www.greenchoices.org – a guide to greener living in the UK www.ethicalexchange.co.uk/direct.html - Directory of ethically managed organisations.
www.getethical.com – issues and shopping site
www.surefish.co.uk/ethical_living - Christian Aid’s ethical issues site
www.business-humanrights.org – Business and Human Rights Resource Centre
www.responsibleshopper.com – an American site to help you discover what your shopping supports

www.greenfutures.org.uk – claims to be the UK's leading magazine on environmental solutions and sustainable futures.
www.greenguideonline.com – shopping, lifestyle and environmental issues
www.ethicaltrade.org – Ethical Trading Initiative – alliance of companies, NGOs and trade unions working together to improve working conditions

Ethical Shopping Sites
www.greenshop.co.uk
www.naturalcollection.com
www.traidcraftshop.co.uk
www.oxfam.org.uk
www.tearcraft.org
www.cat.org.uk
www.greenfibres.com
www.ecotopia.co.uk

Ethical Finance

www.eiris.org The Ethical Investment Research Service carries out independent research. Its website provides details of how to find a specialist IFA as well as lots of useful background information on ethical investments.

www.uksif.org The UK Social Investment Forum promotes and encourages socially responsible investment.

www.ethicalinvestment.org.uk The Ethical Association is a nationwide body of IFAs specialising in ethical investments.
www.co-operativebank.co.uk, www.smile.co.uk Online bank of the co-op.
www.triodosbank.co.uk. Triodos bank only invests in activities that make a positive contribution to a sustainable future such as organic farming and renewable energy.
www.ecology.co.uk The ecology building society funds mortgages to help renovate or convert existing properties, or to build homes using natural or recycled materials.

Pressureworks: online challenges to ethical living from this Christian Aid site aimed at students.

• Alupro - Information on aluminium recycling.

• Computers for Charities - recycling computers for use by charities.

• Freecycle - local electronic networks for recycling between people rather than going straight to the tip (no money changes hands - all free!).

• WRAP - not-for-profit company created as part of the Government's waste strategy, helping to reduce, reduce and recycle.

• Recycle Guide - all you wish to know about recycling at home.

• Recycle-more - one stop recycling info centre.

• Reuse Networks - local electronic networks for local people to give, sell or lend.

• Recycle Now - a WRAP website to help people begin recycling.

• Recycling and waste - Government (defra) website

Contact the Mailing Preference Service to request to opt out of unwanted addressed mail (mailshots addressed personally).

Contact Royal Mail to tell them that you no longer wish to receive, or write to them at: Royal Mail Door to Door Opt Outs, Kingsmead House, Oxpens Road, OXFORD, OX1 1RX.

Autoholics Anonymous helps people to give up their car addiction! Actually, it does point out the deeper economic, personal and environmental consequences of our car dependency, and offers a 12 step process to try and get people out of their cars.

Car clubs are where a number of people share the use of vehicles for local short term car hire. Carplus is an agency which helps community groups to set up car clubs . They have lots of experience of lots of different ways of doing it, and workers in some regions facilitating emerging car clubs. Churches are well placed to enable car clubs in their locality, as they (hopefully!) are already committed to this idea (see Acts 4:32).

Lift sharing is where people link up for lifts. You join, then register your need or the space you can offer in your car, and then you are matched up online. The more members, the more likely you are to find a match! Here's a page of lift sharing/car sharing organisations from Carplus.

The ministry of CVAUK:

Environment and Health - Animal Rights and Welfare - Discipleship.

The mission of CVAUK:

Support and encourage Christian vegetarians in the UK.

Share with other Christians how a vegetarian diet can add meaning to their faith.

Show that a plant based way of life represents good Christian stewardship for all of God’s Creation.

They have produced study guides to aid discussion of the issues - you can download them from the website, under 'Resources' then 'Booklets'.

Live Simply is a project of CAFOD to try and encourage careful thinking and reflection about lifestyle issues. There is a website, and a book (published by Canterbury Press 2008). The website encourages promises of action, and the book provides resources to help fulfill those promises, including articles and prayers. It helps to make the links between how we live, and how others live as a result of the choices we have made.

Reconditioned Computers are available from the Arthur Rank Centre:  contact John Bennett at the Arthur Rank Centre for more details (024 7685 3066).

www.walkit.com is a website which gives you walking routes in major cities (London, Birmingham, Leeds, Newcastle, Gateshead and Derby). You simply enter your start and end points, press 'go' and it generates your walking route map and instructions, giving you the time needed to undertake the walk.

SEnd a Cow is a charity that enables poor farming families in 9 countries in sub-Saharan Africa to become self-sufficient by providing them with livestock, training and advice. They are keen to transfer knowledge about sustainable growing practices to us in the UK. They have produced a helpful leaflet with some techniques to increase yields, save water, grow with very little space, and other ideas.

Mukti Mitchell spent 2007 sailing around the UK talking about how to live a low carbon life. His carbon footprint is about 5 tonnes per year (about half the national average). He has written a detailed guide to low carbon living, which you can download (343kb .pdf)

The Sustainable Energy Academy is a great website for finding out more about making your home more energy efficient and generating your own energy.

They have a list of homes 'Old Home - Superhome' around the country where the owners are willing to show you round.

Ruth Valerio updated her book 'L is for Lifestyle' in November 2008, and alongside this has launched a website full of resources to help map a way through the complex issues of living appropriately in today's complex world.

Lots of information about all aspects of lifestyle from building to growing and cooking. They run many courses, and have some information available on their website, although most has to be purchased from their online shop.

Garden Organic tell you everything there is to know about organic gardening and growing your own fruit and veg.

ecocell is a journey into practical discipleship for the 21st century. It consists of a series of 7 studies exploring issues like waste, transport and food. It is available as a free download from Christian Ecology Link

This is a great website put together by a group inspired by their experiences of sharing in church. Instead of buying things why not borrow them. Thingloop enable you to do just that.

Owen, who founded thingloop says "I guess for most of us, generosity and sharing are an integral part of our walk with God. Certainly, the early chapters of Acts clearly demonstrate that sharing possessions was a hallmark of early church community life.

The idea for thingloop sprang out of someone else's attempt at sharing books in church. It was a great idea; to recycle all the old books we were never going to read again. It just failed due to practical reasons. It wasn't practical to store, move and layout all these books every week.

This was clearly an excellent idea and I wondered if it couldn't be approached from a different angle, and so the idea of thingloop was born. It's early days, but it's exciting to see the idea become reality. It's great to see the benefits firsthand, as people in my church small group have really bought into the idea. It's providing people with access to resources they might not otherwise be able to afford. It's saving people money, and also reducing the impact we have on the environment as consumers, as we borrow instead of buying.

Plus it also means I might get back some of those things I've lent out, as I can now keep track of who has them!"