India – Church of South India – Eco-Conference – Day Three – CSI College and Schools Green Awards

For much of today, the Eco-Conference was dedicated to the younger members of the Church. Each year during the conference, Green Awards are given to the colleges and schools of the Church of South India deemed to be the best at implementing green-campus initiatives.

This year, every educational establishment of CSI was invited to submit a 10-minute video depicting the work undertaken by its staff and students to green their buildings and grounds. Twelve colleges and ten schools sent in entries, and a conference-wide screening of the college submissions was held during the morning session, with the school submissions shown after lunch.

Among the list of initiatives included: bee hives; educational display boards; plastic-free grounds; botanical gardens; wormeries; composting pits; water harvesting; eco-snacks at break times; bird boxes; solar panels; energy and water audits; clothes recycling; biogas cookers; and, the preservation of 5-acres of virgin rainforest in the grounds of one of the colleges! Combine that list with the professionally-produced videos meant that the judging panel had a very difficult task on their hands, admirably achieved though, when Malebar Christian College received the college award.

And as a cultural finale to the day, the conference participants were treated to a performance of Tamil Nadu drums, enthusiastically and energetically performed by a group of 20 pastors and trainee pastors of the Madras Diocese. The decibel-challenging act juxtaposed raucously with the serenity of the start to the day – two representatives of the Brahma Kumaris had led the early morning reflection.

One part of the reflection was to sit for a moment and think of all that Mother Earth provides to us, and then to write a letter to Mother Earth expressing how you felt towards her, BUT using your non-writing hand!

At some point, preferably when you are in a group, please sit quietly somewhere and each write just such a letter to Mother Earth; and then – and maybe only then – will you see the powerful impact that such an exercise had had on the conference attendees this morning.

Julia

introduction to one video

greening rules

virgin forest on a college campus

tamil nadu drums

trainee pastors filming the pastors performance

stick routine to drums