One of the highlights of the past year was our parishes being awarded the Eco-Congregation Ireland Award (‘ECI Award’) for all our environmental efforts since our registration in October 2022. Helen Prendiville and Rachel Richardson accepted the ECI Award on behalf of Sandford and St Philip’s respectively at a joint service in June 2025. Maureen Rowan and Fran Brady from the Eco-Congregation Ireland committee presented the ECI Award and in her address, Maureen explained that one of the key things that we demonstrated was how “wide ranging our environmental work is and how many people are involved in keeping our activities going.”
Building on this success, a Green Team has been established to continue to oversee our efforts, and this report demonstrates the continued wide-ranging environmental work that everyone in our grouped parishes are doing in all aspects of parish life.
Spiritual
In all Church services, we have continued to include appropriate prayers, hymns and sermons, and in 2025 we had:
- A Creation Service on 16th February 2025.
- A Christian Aid themed ‘Messy Church’ on 11th May 2025.
- A service on 18th May 2025 marking the end of Christian Aid Week.
- A joint Eco-Congregation Award Service on 15th June 2025.
- A Service in Creation on 20 July 2025.
- Our annual Eco-Congregation Awareness Services on 19th October 2025.
We held three Messy Church gatherings in the past year at which we had approximately 30 adults and 30 children in attendance to take part in crafts, worship and food together. We endeavour to be environmentally conscious at all our Messy Church services and incorporate an element of recycling in our crafts when we can. Our Christian Aid themed Messy Church in May marked the beginning of Christian Aid Week. We learnt about the work of Christian Aid, and we grew egg cress heads and made a large Christian Aid sign out of recycled paper. At our Advent themed Messy Church at the end of November, we made Christmas tree and snowflake decorations from old Lidl magazines, and we made two beautiful Advent wreaths – one made from pinecones and the other made from old bottle corks – which were lit in each church during Advent.
We have also continued with our prayer walks in the grounds of both Churches.
Practical
When holding tea & coffee after Church services we use the parish cups and saucers, and use single use compostable coffee cups only when practical. Our tea & coffee is fair trade. We have reduced our use of service sheets at our regular Sunday services, making full use of the Church Hymnal and Book of Common prayer.
At all parish functions and events, we have continued to be eco-minded. We have tried to keep our waste to a minimum and to properly segregate our recycling and waste. When catering for large crowds, we have used compostable plates, cups, and cutlery so that they can be put into the compostable brown bin along with any left-over food waste.
We have continued with our Green Tips in each quarterly Sandmill News:
Winter 2024 – The Irish Peatland Conservation Council (‘IPCC’)
- Spring 2025 – The Environmental Impact of Easter Eggs
- Summer 2025 – No Mow May
- Autumn 2025 – The Climate Ambassador Programme
- Winter 2025 – Sustainable Christmas Efforts
Community
We continue to do a lot in the community and for the circular economy. At the annual St Philip’s Spring Bazaar held in May, we sold a large quantity of second-hand clothes, books, plants, toys, and bric-a-brac. Sandford held a ‘Bumper Book Sale’ in September in Sandford Church selling a wide variety of second-hand books for all ages and interests. The annual Sandford Christmas Market took place in December, selling, amongst other things, second-hand Christmas decorations and Christmas jumpers, as well as beautiful homemade wreaths and crafts.
In selling second-hand items, we are prolonging the life of these items which is part and parcel of what the circular economy is all about. At these events we endeavoured to keep our waste to a minimum and to segregate our waste appropriately. Any electronics donated to the Bazaar were brought to a WEEE recycling, while other left-over donations were collected by St Vincent De Paul to be sold in their charity shops across the country.
We continue to collect used stamps for the Irish Peatland Conservation Council (“IPCC). The IPCC is an independent conservation organisation and is a registered charity. Their mission is to protect a representative sample of Irish Peatlands. The IPCC turn used postage stamps into money by sorting them and selling them to collectors. We have sent several bags of used stamps to the IPCC over the course of the year, and they have been very appreciative. We continue to have boxes at the back of each Church to collect stamps to help their cause.
Our weekly ‘Garden Gang’ continue to meet on Saturdays during the Autumn and Spring terms, at the allotments beside St Philp’s Church for primary school aged children of the grouped parishes and their friends. In June, the Garden Gang again participated in the Rathmines Open Garden Trail and welcomed lots of visitors during the afternoon! Over 100 visitors came to the allotments that afternoon and between donations and refreshments, a total of €1,000 was raised for the Harold’s Cross Hospice.
We also continued with our initiative in the parish community to encourage those who have excess fruit vegetables to make jams, chutneys or in their baking etc.
A screening of the Dodder Action film ‘This is your River’ took place in October in St Philip’s Hall. This is a film looking at the importance of the River Dodder and the work of the volunteers who maintain it. The film was created and scripted by Victoria White from Dodder Action (and of Sandford Parish). The filming was done by John Gormley with additional drone footage from Dodder Action. The film was informed by the book by Dr Christopher Moriarty called ‘Down the Dodder’. The film introduces viewers to the wonders of the Dodder River system and why it is so special to communities up and down the valley.
Global
We continue to support Christian Aid who were celebrating their 80th anniversary in 2025. Christian Aid
provide humanitarian relief and long-term development support for poor communities worldwide. Their work helps people in other countries who are already feeling the direct impact of climate change. Just over €400 was raised at the bake sale on Palm Sunday and the retiring collections at the services during Lent, Holy Week and Easter Day.
In addition, we also continue to support Alexandra College students who travel to Kolkata each year with the Hope Foundation, which works with street-dwelling children and slum-connected children in Kolkata, India. Just under €400 was raised for the Hope Foundation at the family services in February when we were joined by a 5th year Alexandra College student (and parishioner), Catherine Leahy, who is travelling to Kolkata in March.
Promotion, Suggestions and Plans
We continue to put posters and information on each Eco-Congregation notice board in each Church.
The current members of our newly formed Green Team are: Greg Swanwick, Elizabeth Bothwell and Victoria White representing Sandford, and Rachel Richardson (Chair), Alison Byrne and Helen O’Kelly representing St Philip’s.
If you have any thoughts or suggestions for our continued environmental efforts, please speak to one of our Green Team members or use the suggestion boxes that continue to be at the back of each church. The Green Team