While still in the process of defining our own Spiritual Imperative, we as the Sustatinable Committee adhere to the endorsement provided by Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu to the South African Faith Communities Environmental Institute: “We, who recognise that all good things come from the Divine Creator, have taken too long to acknowledge that the living out of our beliefs concerns most deeply the care and nurture of all living things and the environment on which they depend.” Our logo in many ways represents our vision and purpose, while reflecting our awareness that our work is never done! From our Eco Audit flows a number of initiatives and functions – Lifestyle Choices, Worship and Liturgy, Marketing, Public Awareness, Green Initiatives – with monitoring and feedback to the community being a critical and ongoing component.

Our goal is to raise awareness in St Martin’s (and beyond) around the current fragility of our planet,  and encourage all to live more sustainably as responsible stewards of God’s Creation.

>> JAEI & Eco-Congregations

What is JAEI?
The Johannesburg Anglican Environmental Initiative is a formal body of the Anglican community of Johannesburg who are attempting to address the challenges being faced by this generation with regards to the environment. We believe it is God's will that we look after this precious planet we call home. We believe that we have an ethical and moral responsibility to work towards sustainability and social justice in relation to creation. One of the core activities of JAEI is to encourage parishes in the Diocese to become eco-congregations so that they can join us in this mission.

What is an eco-congregation?
A parish in the Diocese of Johannesburg is considered an eco-congregation when it has made a decision to take the journey mapped out in this document and thereby become aware of environmental issues facing us and the moral and ethical challenges to taking action towards addressing these issues. Any religious grouping anywhere in the world can and should commit itself to such a process, and many have already responded to the environmental and social justice issues they see around them and have taken on some form of environmental or sustainability programme. This is good.

For more information on JAIE and the route-map to achive an Eco-Systems, please download the document below: