Why does WCCM in the UK have a Special Interest Coordinator (SIC) for the Environment?
‘Special Interest Coordinators promote and support Christian meditation in their special interest area by developing and maintaining a network of interested people… They do not have to be an expert in the field.’
The Cambridge dictionary gives one definition of environment as: ‘the air, water, and land in or on which people, animals, and plants live.’ This highlights the interconnectedness of everything that sustains life on Earth. The practice of Christian meditation can transform our awareness of this interconnectedness and motivate us to seek a harmonious relationship with all life on Earth.
I am grateful to the National Council and the previous SIC for the Environment, Sarah Feeney, for producing Our Commitment to Eco-Friendly Practices, a WCCM in the UK document available on the front page of the website, which everyone in the UK community is encouraged to read. It gives clear guidelines to help us think about how our actions impact the environment.
It is often through person-to-person discussions that people are prompted to do things differently. Although I knew it was possible to recycle soft plastics at the
supermarket, I did not do it. However, not long after I joined the on-line Earth Crisis Meditation Group (Thursdays at 7pm UK time), I bumped into a friend who is part of her church’s Eco group. Following our conversation, I started separating out the soft plastic to take to the supermarket. The rubbish going into our household waste bin dropped significantly.
Why am I telling you this? Meditation opens our hearts to other ways of seeing the world, and perhaps if we shared the suggestions in the “Eco-Friendly Practices” with our fellow meditators more people would make a change or two and the result would make a significant difference.
At a recent Area Team Members and SIC meeting, John Rhodes, from Devon, was telling us about a pilgrimage group in his area. There are twelve churches and each month the pilgrims walk from one of the churches to the next one, completing the circuit over twelve months. At the end of each walk they visit the church. As with most walking groups people chat. John introduced the idea of walking in silence for the last mile, which is now their regular practice. This has sparked conversations about silence and meditation. When we walk in silence we see and hear so much more of the living landscape around us and gain a greater appreciation of its beauty.
My experience is that people often avoid being silent, but the experience of walking, breathing in fresh air and listening to the birds and the breeze, may be a gentle way to introduce silence in a familiar setting. Are you part of a walking group? Could you suggest doing something similar? Even walking in urban areas, you will see plants. They have a remarkable way of appearing in the most unexpected places.
Internationally, Earth Crisis Forums are organised on Zoom. These are regular events, prepared by meditators in different countries sharing their concerns, experiences of climate change and hopes for the future. Recordings of past forums are available on wccm.org – go to Outreach and then Earth Crisis: Climate and Ecology. The Thursday evening Earth Crisis Meditation Group is currently
preparing a Forum to go out on 23 April 2026 and on 14 February 2026 WCCM in the Netherlands hosted the Earth Forum 9 – A Celebration of the Earth.
Has your group considered using Jim Green’s course: Contemplating Earth course to reflect on the Earth Crisis and Climate Change? It is available on same link as the Forums.
One last question for each one of us, and especially those who campaign, volunteer or work in the ‘environment sector’: How can I bring the gift of meditation to my place of work or volunteering?
Whether you are already doing this, or have ideas about how to do it, please contact me by email.
Eilish Storey
Special Interest Coordinator for the Environment