Faith and Transition in Wales


Transition sometimes has the energy and vision of a revivalist faith. Transition can help local communities re-discover their inner strength. Wales has only a few formal Transition groups and there are other communities that do similar work without using the name. Some groups have close involvement with local churches. For example the group in Llanidloes, Mid Wales is led by the Quakers.


The Fishguard Transition group www.transitionbrogwaun.org.uk began in a small way by encouraging shops and their customers to use alternatives to plastic bags. Then in 2008, three people who met up at the weekly farmers’ market invited Rob Hopkins, founder of the Transition movement to speak at a special meeting, which turned out to be one of the largest meetings ever held in Fishguard. That meeting created the impetus and the core group to take things further and several new projects and ideas have been developed as a result.


Activities now include a skills training programme, for things such as cooking (which includes demonstrations at the farmers market). A recipe book has been produced with the Soroptimists, focusing on local recipes and locally available ingredients. There has been a successful campaign to get


support renewable energy from wind generation for example. Local small scale, community owned solutions do have great potential, such as wind generation or tidal power but require significant investment to deliver. In food, too, this area could provide almost all of its food needs across the range needed for a healthy diet.


more land allocated for


allotments in the area, and a new contact point created for a Credit Union. A survey of local individual energy saving installations is underway in conjunction with the eco-centre at Newport, Pembrokeshire. A small grant from Environment Wales has provided good display materials for use in the regular public meetings and more training events for the growing number of interested people.


Key principles for the work include finding partner organisations and ensuring leadership is shared, so that it is not dependent on one or two strong people. This enables others to develop skills and means that the projects do not rely on just a few people to deliver them.


Transition Bro Gwaun still has the challenge to raise awareness with the wider population of the issues being raised and addressed by peak oil and climate change. Pembrokeshire may be one area that could generate most if not all of its own energy needs. But this would need public opinion to change and


12 www. countryway. org. uk


Churches have an opportunity to join in with this growing movement. By doing so they can contribute to the fifth mark of mission: to strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of the earth. Just one idea could be to find appropriate ways of adapting buildings that have large south facing roofs to site solar panels. See the English Heritage publication: Microgeneration in the Historic Environment http://www.helm.org.uk/upload/pdf/ Microgeneration.pdf


Another challenge is to encourage a change in lifestyle for many who as yet, have little regard for the wonder of creation.


Jeremy Martineau


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32