Monday 16 July 2007

Technology and eco-friendly churches

In the light of Methodist Conference last week discussing 'Empowering and equipping the Church in the face of climate change, I was thinking a bit about the increasing amounts of technical kit that my church is using.
Don't get me wrong - I am a huge fan of data projectors in churches (when used appropriately - can see another topic here!) and of using technology to enhance services and the life of the church (in fact, I have been active in introducing some of the kit) - it's just that at the same time that we're being encouraged to use less energy, we're potentially increasing our churches' 'carbon footprints' by using more electrically powered equipment. Our church now routinely uses a data projector and powered foldback speakers for the musicians, whilst the Junior Church/youth make more use of DVDs etc. Whilst this doesn't increase our power consumption hugely, compared to say leaving the church lights on for a few hours, the point is that it's more power being consumed rather than less.
I'm not at all sure what the answer is to this - maybe we'd better take a closer look at energy saving light bulbs.......answers on a postcard......