Christchurch

News - Upcoming and Recent Events - Past Events

We are a group of Christians from a variety of churches around Christchurch who are keen to connect our faith with our enthusiasm to care for God’s creation. We typically meet on the last Sunday of the month at Whare Ora (8 Athleston St) for discussion/speakers/action on particular issues. We also are involved in helping the City Council with reforestation and pest control at Kennedy’s Bush. Every second Sunday of the month, we do a circuit walking around the fairly rugged bush, checking bait levels, and occasionally help with tree planting and maintenance.

News

Christchurch City Council rangers are ready to catch some brown creepers to release in Kennedy's bush where they have been extinct for a long time. After 3 unsuccessful attempts at catching brown creeper in the Torlesse area, the Park Rangers are looking to other spots on Banks Peninsula where they can find some of these elusive birds to release in Kennedy's Bush. Tui are apparently about to be released at Hinewai and could wander over this way so keep an eye out!

Upcoming and Recent Events

For more information about upcoming events, please email us at new.zealand@arocha.org

Sun 22nd August 2010 (7.30pm) - Meeting. We'll be discussing the psychology of sustainable behaviour change from a number of angles, including the term "eco-pharisee" which (unfairly to Jewish traditions) implies a bunch of eco-rules that we should all keep or feel guilty about not keeping. At a recent seminar by an expert in psychology of sustainable behaviour change, there was enthusiasm about using cognitive dissonance (with similarities to a 'guilt trip'!) to induce changes in behaviour. For example see the abstract below:

Using Cognitive Dissonance to Encourage Water Conservation (2006) By Chris Ann Dickerson, Ruth Thibodeau, Elliot Aronson & Dayna Miller Journal of Applied Social Psychology Volume 22 Issue 11, Pages 841 - 854.

ABSTRACT: In a field experiment on water conservation, we aroused dissonance in patrons of the campus recreation facility by making them feel hypocritical about their showering habits. Using a 2 × 2 factorial design, we manipulated subjects "'mindfulness" that they had sometimes wasted water while showering, and then varied whether they made a "public commitment" urging other people to take shorter showers. The "hypocrisy" condition-in which subjects made the public commitment after being reminded of their past behavior-was expected to be dissonance-arousing, thereby motivating subjects to increase their efforts to conserve water. The results were consistent with this reasoning. Compared to controls, subjects in the hypocrisy condition took significantly shorter showers. Subjects who were merely reminded that they had wasted water, or who only made the public commitment, did not take shorter showers than control subjects. The findings have implications for using cognitive dissonance as means of changing behavior in applied settings, especially those in which people already support the desired goal, but their behavior is not consistent with those beliefs.

So - are you inspired about the power of the guilt trip???!! On one hand it doesn't feel right at all, but then if we don't encourage some behaviour change somehow in our unsustainable lifestyles, nothing will change. There's lots of good discussion to be had....

Tues 27 July 2010 (7.30pm) - Meeting. This month, we are joining in with Sustainable Otautahi Christchurch (SOC) who are hosting a public meeting at Oxford Terrace Baptist Church Lounge, cnr Oxford Tce & Madras St. "Hatched" is an e-book of Landcare Research's thought-provoking research on sustainability issues and is downloadable free at www.hatched.net.nz. Bob Frame, co-editor of Hatched with Richard Gordon and Claire Mortimer, and Principal Scientist at Landcare Research, talks about the book and what could happen now that it is... Hatched.
* How can NZ become a future maker not a future taker?
* How can businesses improve their sustainability performance?
* How could individuals live as citizens of a sustainable society
* What are the next steps for sustainable development practice?
* How can we create solutions to Wicked Problems?

A flyer for the event is available if you click here.

Sun 10th October 2010 (1-4pm) - Bike Maintenance. Please let us know if you would like to get rid of any old bikes to be restored, or if you'd like to help fix a puncture or two.

Past Events

June 2010 - Bike Maintenance. A few members of the A Rocha group are helping at a free bike maintenance workshop coming up at the Linwood community art centre. If you need your bike tuned, want to help out, or want to donate an old bike let me know. Water proof bike trailers are also available for free hire for a month if you want to try one to keep your stuff dry during winter bike commutes.

June 2010 - Meeting. Discussion topic: Economy Up, Environment down? The way money is created and managed in our economy, the consequences of this for the environment and sustainability, and how complementary currencies can help. Ian Burn is the Project Coordinator for Pegasus Exchange, a new local complementary currency being established in Christchurch. He led a discussion on the above topic at the next meeting, looking at issues around:

- how money is 'created' and managed,
- how it's become more than just a medium of exchange,
- the relationship between an economy focused on paying off interest, 'economic growth', and the environment and sustainability.
- the relationship between this economy, inequality and measures of health, education and social wellbeing
- How the use of complementary currencies can facilitate a more environmentally and socially sustainable society.

Ian has previously had experience as a Community Development Advisor with the Christchurch City Council, has been an active member of Sustainable Otautahi Christchurch and has managed multimillion dollar contracts in the health sector. He is also a long standing member of the A Rocha Christchurch organizing group.

May 2010 - Meeting. Professor Peter Wenz led some discussion on "How Much Should I Do to Heal the World?" In other words, how can we who live in industrialised countries make ethical consumer decisions without impairing our own flourishing? Prof. Wenz is from the University of Illinois at Springfield & is teaching philosophy at UC this semester and is a veteran writer and spokesperson on environmental justice issues.

April 2010 - Meeting. Philip Pattemore led a discussion that he did yesterday at Laidlaw college on Genesis and how we can understand it. It often comes up when talking about how we have been given the mandate to care for the Earth based on the authority of the early chapters of Genesis, but other bits like the 6 days are harder to take as authoritatively - a good discussion.

March 2010 - Meeting. We'll be starting a series going through various resources available for doing Bible studies/discussions on the theme of faith & ecology. Hopefully it will encourage people to use such resources in their own church/community settings to stimulate some further talk & action.

February 2010 - Meeting. Bring along an object that symbolises an important part of your ecologically friendly faith. It could be some of your compost, prototype wind generator, possum - anything that you find important in connecting your faith with caring for God's creation and that might be of interest to others and can fit through the front door.

February 2010 - Meeting. Planning for 2010.

Click here to see Christchurch events in 2009

Click here to see Christchurch events in 2008