Representative image of a church.
Credit: Kerala Tourism
Thiruvananthapuram: The Malankara Mar Thomas Syrian Church in Kerala has made a call for eco-friendly Christmas celebrations by making Christmas trees with worn out materials, cribs with locally available eco friendly materials and Christmas gifts using recycling of used materials.
The ecological commission of the church has made the initiative with the theme, Christmas with all creation.
As a motivation, prizes are also offered to parishes that conduct the eco-friendly in the best eco-friendly manner by following the commission's directives.
"Celebrations often cause harm to the environment. Hence we decided to celebrate this Christmas in an eco-friendly manner," said the commission convenor Rev V M Mathew.
It is for the first time that the church is making such an initiative and hopefully more churches will make such eco-friendly initiatives, he added.
The commission issued a set of 14 instructions to the parishes to make the Christmas celebrations eco-friendly. About 95 per cent of the decoration materials used for Christmas are non biodegradable. Hence such items shall be replaced with ecological friendly items.
Worn out items could be used for making Christmas trees. Products like bags made from used clothes could be given as Christmas gifts. Avoid crackers and excessive decorative lights, the commission instructed.
All parishes are also directed to include at least one song based on ecological aspects in their Christmas carol songs and deliver a speech on ecology during the Christmas celebrations.
The community members are also advised to avoid using products that pose a threat to ecology during the fasting as part of Christmas.
The commission also urges the church members to reduce use of own vehicles during Christmas holidays and use vehicle pooling or public transport facilities.
The commission also asked the members to interact with various sections like endosulfan victims who are facing hardships owing to ecological exploitations.