As climate change has brought the planet to a critical point and the need to protect the environment has become imperative, the metropolis of Dimitrias is now joining a great effort to gradually “green” its parishes, where possible.

The effort started in Volos with the “green parish” of Evangelistria.

The parish of Evangelistria, extremely extensive in the center of Nea Ionia and having as its starting point the largest temple of Volos, joined the research program of the Academy of Theological Studies and WWF Greece, so that to become the first model Orthodox “Green Parish” in the Balkans and Southeast Europe.

The efforts have started, the people are participating and the messages are optimistic because apart from the theories, the tangible results have also started to appear since there are a series of actions and events for the development of the “Green Parish”.

It’s already set up Special Parish Committee for the coordination of actionsinformation material has been published for the ecological awareness of the parishioners, the “green” cycle of speeches on the topic “Church and ecological crisis” has begun, environmental parish excursionsare carried out through the catechetical, but also the schools, excursions, film screenings and excursions to inform the students, it is planned the installation of a Recycling Station, has been adopted for a long time n full use of low energy lampsthe change of all the frames of the church of Evangelistria with energy type.

The placement of a large one is also being studied photovoltaic system for the utilization of solar energy to electrify the holy temple and cover the energy needs of part or even the entire building.

Father Amfilochios, head of the church of Evangelistria, speaking to APE-MPE about the effort, noted that “the profit from limiting or zeroing the consumption of electricity derived from lignite will not only be a cleaner environment, but also economic, thus contributing to the strengthening of the valuable charitable work of the parish that has been going on for years. Let us not forget that the destruction of the planet is today the greatest threat to man, which directly concerns us. We are all now experiencing the consequences of the climate crisis. In order for a parish to acquire an ecological, i.e. green, consciousness it should first of all systematically deepen the basic Christian belief, namely that the world was created by God to live eternally and not to be destroyed. God entrusted his creation to his most perfect creation, man, to guard and protect it. Such an awareness leads to specific pastoral practices and a certain behavior and way of life, as a consequence of this teaching.”

Inside Evangelistria, a believer not knowing the effort, will be surprised to hear priests to show practices and give advice on proper recycling such as how we should separate packaging materials from the rest of the household every day, how we should throw packaging in bulk in the blue bins and not in tightly tied bags and how we should completely clean all packaging of residues .

It is striking that often even at the end of the liturgy, the priests urge the faithful and not only, to use environmentally friendly means of transport (by foot, bicycles or MMM when possible), to use local, seasonal and mainly organic products in the meals, avoid the use of plastic items such as plates, glasses and cutlery and choosing to buy sustainably grown products such as recycled paper and cleaning products.

All these suggestions and instructions have brought significant results recently and the parishioners learned that paper, which makes up 20% of our waste, can be recycled up to 4-6 times, but at the same time that by recycling a ton of paper, we save 17 trees, save 30,000 liters of water, two barrels of oil, 3000-4000 KWh of electricity and save 95% of air pollution.

During the recent visit of the Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew to Volos and to the church of Evangelistria, the great interest of Phanarios in the protection of the environment was also shown, since the Primate of Orthodoxy wanted to be informed about the overall effort being made in the parish and expressed his support of Patriarchate.