Chile: Eco-churches

Creation - not for sale

Eco-churchers (Eco-iglesias)

 

Young reformers: Camila Vergara and Josaphat Jarpa

Church: Evangelical Lutheran Church in Chile

Implementation period: 2015-ongoing

How many people were involved? 3

How many people did you reach? 12

 

What did you aim at?

 

  • To promote good practices at the community level that allow for the development of initiatives that protect and promote the environment.

  • To organize youth from various local communities and diaconal services of the church to care for creation

  • To articulate cooperation networks that facilitate the implementation of the project

 

What did you achieve?

The project is still ongoing and so there haven’t been any achievements yet due to technical and organizational reasons. We expect to eventually achieve objective 1 and 2.

 

What did you do?

 

Installed containers for recycling in our church camp. (Specifically at the retreat place, which has cabins and is open to the public)

 

Interview with young reformers - Camila Vergara

what is the ongoing reformation you want to see in your church?

I would like to see the church united; especially where there is division within the church. Together we can become strong and we can reform our church all together. I would like to see more participation of the youth in the church.

What has been the reaction of the project among the youth?

The youth like the project. They appreciate that recycling is coming to the camp center and that we are taking care of the environment in our church.

how has been the participation of the youth in the reformation project?

We have a team of 3 volunteers and the project has been implemented at the church camp. As the recycling will be done at the camp center, youth from different parishes can learn about the project. There are 12 youth from all over Chile who can reproduce the learning at the local community.

what has been challenging about creating the project?

We have had some changes in the national youth council and it was difficult to do the project without the national youth council to help coordinate the implementation and participation.

did everything go as planned?

No, the timeline of the project has not worked as expected. We were late for the implementation. The national youth council could not support the project to be on time in its activities and installment.

 

how do you see the continuity of the project?

We hope that there are possibilities to continue and the youth can participate and implement the recycling in their local parishes and also improve the environmental conditions at the camp center. We hope the church continues to support the project.