EMBA and the Baptist Union Environment Network (BUEN)
About BUEN
BUEN (Spanish for 'good') aims to inspire and enable the Baptists Together network of churches, Associations and colleges to:
- recognise the goodness of God’s creation
- share in God’s mission to care for it and respond to the climate and environmental crisis in practical ways at local, regional and national levels
- work for justice for creation and people impacted by environmental change
We are called to care for God’s creation, together.
Get involved through BUEN Midlands.
BUEN Midlands launched in June 2021 as the regional hub for BUEN, covering the East Midlands and Heart of England Baptist Associations.
Our goal is to support the Baptist family in the Midlands region in our shared mission to care for our environment and tackle the climate emergency.
We do this by:
- Connecting people, to build a network of passionate advocates for the environment in their churches and communities
- Creating opportunities for Christians in the Midlands to exchange ideas, learn from one another, dream big and be inspired, through BUEN Midlands events, social media and networking
- Signposting people to the fantastic resources and campaigns that are making a difference at a local, national and international level Eg Climate Sundays, Eco Church (an A Rocha Project), Tearfund and Green Christian initiatives, and many more.
The EMBA and the environmental and climate crisis.
As an Association we recognise our responsibility, shared with the whole human race, to steward God’s good world (Genesis 1:26-28). This is nothing new, but the current and worsening crisis has strengthened our resolve to care for creation in practical ways. Our response starts with a heightened consciousness that all our activities have a carbon cost which has a detrimental impact on the environment. Aware of this, our commitment is to reduce our carbon footprint and offset what remains.
The priority of the EMBA Team is to support its churches and ministers in their ministry and mission (which we believe include care of creation). This often involves being present in person in local churches, or when the Baptist community gathers together for regional events. However, the pandemic has shown us that video conferencing platforms like Zoom work very well for many things and that virtual meetings can save time, travel costs and carbon costs.
The intention post-pandemic is to travel to churches or gather regionally where the benefit of in-person meeting are clear, but to make good use of video conferencing where this is advantageous. In other words, we wish to operate with heightened consciousness of our carbon footprint as we fulfil our purposes and reduce these where possible.
Carbon neutrality in the EMBA is not an achievable goal in the short term by reductions in carbon expenditure alone. Our aim, therefore, will be to achieve this important goal by a combination of reduced carbon expenditure and carbon offsetting via the BMS World Mission Carbon offsetting scheme. We encourage local churches to do the same, ideally through the Eco Church Scheme, details of which can be found on the BUEN page of the Baptist website below.
Useful resources for churches and individuals on the topic of the environment and the climate emergency
Please check out the Baptists Together website BUEN pages, for video stories and resources and useful links.
Rev Dr Rod MacRorie is the HEBA/EMBA Buen Rep. If you would like more information about how you can get involved, contact him by email