Encourage Others To Go Generous
Encourage a friend outside the Generous community to undertake one or more of the actions. One Generous community member has had several hundred save-a-flushes (see action 4) delivered to the local Bishop for distribution to his flushing flock (careful how you say that)
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Godalming, GB , 31 Aug 2005
So how did you guys spread the word? Inspire the rest of us!
06 Sep 2005
Ok, here’s one thing that came off. I heard that a senior cleric in the CofE was addressing the General Synod on the subject of the environment. I told him about the very clever hippo’s you can get for free from Thames Water for putting in the cistern – saving lots and lots of water with every flush. The very senior cleric said he’d use the hippo as an illustration in his talk – then we thought if I could get them, he would distribute free hippo’s to everyone at the debate. I called Thames Water PR and they said they’d love to deliver 900 hippo’s to his office. So they did and so he distributed them as part of his talk.
Godalming, GB , 08 Sep 2005
Thanks for that, LondonWroes. Hope the rest of you spill the beans, soon.
My own efforts in this area have been to concentrate on writing about this project and what I’m doing as a result in my blog, which I’ve not added to much recently.
I’ve also written about “generous” ideas in the church magazine, which I edit.
The next step is to launch a website for those (select few?) who found my church mag. articles interesting, and hopefully a wider local group. It also means I can put shorter articles in there and tell people to visit the website if they want to know more.
I’ve a horrible idea apathy will reign and the website will prove a waste of time, but I try to remain optimistic, and besides, it’s making me think about it all and sometimes do some research.
Nottingham, GB , 25 Sep 2005
We’ve been asked to run a ‘bar’ at our harvest supper (non-alcoholic – we’re Methodists!) so have decided to run it on the LOAF principles (local, organic, animal-friendly, fairly traded) and have some info available for people to look at. Hopefully this might encourage others to consider this way of shopping! Also I wrote an article on the generous project for our church newsletter.
Stroud, GB , 30 Sep 2005
I think our Bish is ahead of me on this…This very morning a letter came from the diocese asking us to do a green audit of the church, as a step on the way to becoming an eco friendly diocese. They’re working on becoming FairTrade too (and at least some of the coffee buyers at church have got the message: wish I could persuade them ALL that it’s something you keep on doing, though)
30 Sep 2005
reminded a jet set friend that he could buy trees or long lasting lightbulbs to offset the carbon emmissions that result from his flights, and he emailed to say that he was all signed up via: http://www.carbonneutral.com/shop/results.asp?cat1=Flights
02 Oct 2005
Yes, please tell me how you inspired others!! I got mixed responses from “I haven’t time, what with family and all…” to “oh you’re on one again!” and then just the blank looks, the raised eyebrows and plain old ignored emails! ho hum – not giving up though…
Godalming, GB , 03 Oct 2005
Well, Akte, the action is to encourage others, so whether they act on it is another matter.
Speaking for myself, I know it took several years for me to realise the need to make some changes and there were ideas I resisted when I started this project, which I am now putting into practice.
It seems to me that we all need time to accept new ideas and make new changes, so if we are to encourage other people to do so we need to operate a tactful system of drips of information, somehow striking a balance between being such a nuisance or bore that people just switch off to our message and being so tactful we never dare say anything. We also have to accept that not everyone will agree with us, and that those who do could be in the minority.
05 Oct 2005
We have decided to become Traidcraft representatives for our chapel. We are kicking this off at the Harvest Lunch a week Sunday. In addition I’m teaching the kids in the Sunday School and Youth Group about the need to act as responsible citizens.
07 Oct 2005
See this now as a basic part of our lives. Church members (St Paul’s Cambridge) have taken the Hippos, next door neighbour is looking into changing his investments to ethical, have set up a local generous group who will be doing a special event this christmas – watch this space!
Plaistow, GB , 08 Oct 2005
Just put an article in church magazine about the project, and drew the church’s attention to a composter offer via Newham Council.One person asked for the contact details for the composter. Hooray!
09 Oct 2005
Since going to the Living Generously Seminay at Greenbelt we are telling others about it locally. Lois was interview for an article about it in the Church Times!
Chester, GB , 14 Oct 2005
last year I told folk about the stuff generous was doing and what I was doing about it, this year in my next chapel session I am talking about the site. I aslo talk about it to my students in key issues for young people to be doing..
05 Nov 2005
Following this year’s Greenbelt, a group of us in Milton Keynes decided to ask our churches to join the Generous project. Our joint council felt this was a good idea and we have therefore made this our big project for 2006. We are looking into ways of helping non-internet people to do this through posters and magazine articles, and we are keen to help the project as a whole to grow and expand.
Worcester, GB , 15 Nov 2005
Within my church we have decided to promote Generous actions using the magazine and the web site. Over the next year we’re going to offer one generous action a month, with the plan being to write-up feedback from people who have tried things. Stage one will be to try and get a lorry load of Hippos!
25 Nov 2005
Got involved in the diocesan environment group and got to write a “Greener Christmas” article in the diocesan news magazine. Spreading the word about goaty presents, reducing, reusing and recycling. Hoping for some feedback.
30 Nov 2005
Just to update. The wife has managed to get her work to allow her to set up a Traidcraft stall selling biccies etc. We have got the church to commit to becoming registered as a Fairtrade Church. I’ve introduced my new housemates at my weekday house to become more organically minded and supply an organic veg box every week to them.
08 Jan 2006
Have e mailed 35 people about living generously and still passing on the word!
13 Jan 2006
I’m already planning a short series of Bible studies for my home group on the subject of looking after the planet and social justice so I’ll include lots of actions from the Living Generously website and also make sure everyone knows the website address! I’ve also volunteered to buy the tea and coffee for the office for the next couple of months so I’ll buy Fairtrade and make sure everyone knows about it.
16 Jan 2006
I got some Hippos and gave them out to people at church and other friends too. Am in the process of starting up a living generously group at church. Have about 10 families signed up and now we just need to arrange a date for our first meeting. Have also talked to 3 groups about the whole community and concept. Have had a good response. Just need to remain enthusiastic even when others put the whole idea down. It can be frustrating and difficult. But small steps are getting somewhere.
17 Jan 2006
Have decided to add this as an action as I plan to email the site link to any friends who will hopefully consider it, but plan to also help and encourage others to take part in some listed actions, some of which I do already (have you got an allotment yet they hear her cry!)...
17 Jan 2006
any tips for introducing living generously at work?
03 Feb 2006
Have had first church generous meeting!! How exciting!! Everyone enthusiastic and have committed to some changes already. We want to get the children involved and want to work towards becoming an eco-friendly church. Well done to everyone for getting others interested. It’s not easy, but keep going :) That’s a really good comment about LG at work. I work in a hospital and it’s heart breaking to see all the gloves and packaging that gets chucked away. However, you could introduce recycling collection points for cans, foil, paper etc or encourage everyone to bring their own mug to work. They are little ideas, not very dynamic, but a start. Will give it more thought ;)
Leicester, GB , 12 Feb 2006
Join the eco-congregation movement. You can find it at www.ecocongregation.org. They provide materials to audit how your congregation is doing at the moment and free resources to work through. It keeps God rather than guilt in the centre of a process of being accountable for how we use our resources. We’ve just registered and there’s a lot of ideas and interest. There are 12 modules, the first is an audit. We’ve started with children and youth, worship, theology, small group bible study resources. In the mean time, memebers are coming up every week with ideas. We hope to get eco-congregation status. We’re already a fairtrade Church and diocese, living in the first environment city (Leicester) so this is a natural progression. It involves working with the local community and there is a parallel eco-schools project too.
12 Feb 2006
Share news articles / ideas with people.
19 Feb 2006
Have e.mailed several friends about this site, afew have applied to join when membership is next available.
01 Mar 2006
Have just emailed various people to let them know about the site.
16 Mar 2006
My teenage son has now joined . GREAT!
08 Apr 2006
I’ve posted info about the site onto my blog.
GB , 21 Apr 2006
I recently had a big 30th birthday party. I asked people to consider buying me an alternative gift. Many people did rise to the challenge and I happily received: a healthworker (great as I am a healthworker), tools and materials to dig a pond and shared fishing-net for four farmers, storage for crops, an emergency cook set (from my ex-housemate!!), 50 trees, immunisations for a child, organic crop production, a desk and chair, a calf, another 50 trees, 2 mosquito nets, a toilet (which my friend said might be better than those we’ve braved at festivals!), a donkey, emergency shelter, another desk and chair, and 25 more trees. I wanted to write the list up here so that I could see how many of these presents I did receive. I think I made people think about buying this type of present again. Even some people who didn’t buy them for me commented on the idea or asked me what it was all about. And it was also nice when groups of friends joined together to buy the more expensive presents like the 6 friends who bought me the donkey!
Witney, GB , 10 May 2006
Our church Men’s Group has decided to challenge the church congregation to taking-on a Generous action every month. This month is Hippos! We’ll see how the year goes.
20 May 2006
Have been raising profile of Living Generously in local area. When I’ve visitted schools to talk about what churches do, I’ve talked about how we as a church community have committed to the Generous campaign. The cildren and teachers enjoyed logging onto the site and finding out what they could do at their school or at home. They were encouraged to see things they had already done, and how easy some of the other actions would be. TN
06 Jul 2006
I am pleased to say that I introduced the site to my daughter and she is beginning to live more generously too!
27 Jul 2006
I was alerted to being generous by a colleague – I had a look that night and joined the ever growing ranks. I thought that if I could join up so quickly, surely others at work could too. I teach – we’ve 260 pupils, and 45 staff, and they’re all captive audience after grace at lunch, as it was my duty day, I spoke breifly about the notion of generosity, that saying thanks for our food is part and parcel of it…. oh, and I spelt out generous.org.uk three times as a subtle hint to all. When we return in September, I’ll include it in the forthcoming School Council and Sustainable Development Plan Resources Section!
04 Aug 2006
Thanks Karin – i’m going to write for the church newsletter too. Perhaps there’s mileage in article for the local newspaper?
DE , 28 Aug 2006
I have sent this web link to many of my writer colleagues who are very environmentally aware people. I have also sent it to family and friends in 10 countries around the globe.
Redditch, GB , 22 Sep 2006
Just sent Living Generously link to friend and will pass it on to others also will endeavour to write about it for local village magazine when I get round to it and prompted by reminders from Living Generously.
28 Sep 2006
I regualarly put the advice from this site, and idea like it, into my church notices – and they’re really good as they normally run them for 3-4 weeks which means nearly all 200 members get to see them. My husband and I preach and we often talk about such actions in our sermons/services. It’s really encouraging when someone asks you for more information, and it may only be one person, but like the idea of this site says, many people doing small actions add up to big action!
14 Oct 2006
As hubby is a vicar, we have written about Generous in our parish news sheet and recommended it to our housegroup members. Many who are not computer literate enough to feel confident joining an e-community are still acting on things we pass on from the website, plus it’s tremendously encouraging to find out how much people around us HAVE been doing to live generously. Here we were, acting like the generous lifestyle is some new thing we just discovered, and some of our parishioners have been at it faithfully behind the scenes for years. Keeps us humble…. They’ve just smiled indulgently at our enthusiasm and tapped us for fresh ideas. On the other hand, to some it’s come across as almost revolutionary. The occasional appeal in a sermon has caused a few sparks too….
Birmingham, GB , 17 Oct 2006
I’ve recently handed out the Generous bookmarks (from Greenbelt)at church and have arranged for anyone interested in being ‘Generous’ to meet for lunch in Birmingham City Centre. Not sure who’ll turn up but I’ll keep you posted…
Cardiff, GB , 27 Nov 2006
Faeturing Generous inthis month’s church magazine which is not your average A5 B&W production of births, marriages, deaths and recipes but a professional looking 12 page A4 glossy we use as an outreach tool. Hope a few more people will look and / or join as a result.
09 Dec 2006
I have become like the annoying dripping tap, at work. As one of the only tea drinkers, only fairtrade teabags are available now. The coffee addicts are holding out, but two are now using Cafe Direct. They’re all using faily traded sugar (when I buy it)and think it’s ordinary brown sugar! Most people in my workplace are non-Christians, and faily oblivious to the concept of living generously, however, one person is now discovering the economic repression of developing nations resulting from him giving his hard earned cash to the local supermarket. Keep planting the Mustard seeds!!
09 Dec 2006
This is my very first action on becoming a member. I was so delighted to find this website while surfing the net for resources on simple, conscious living, that I immediately told all my yoga students about it (65 people) and sent them the web address so that they could have a look for themselves.
Durham, GB , 22 Dec 2006
I finally got my Mum to start saving up her cardboard to take it to the tip, rather than just throwing it out. We’ve been doing it for a while but she kept saying it was too much hassle. Then suddenly, one day, she announced that she’d started saving it up and wasn’t I proud of her! I think the trick was that I didn’t tell her she should, just that we did, and then let her conscience do the work. Oh, and once or twice we’d take her cardboard away with us to add to our next tip drop….
Calgary, CA , 05 Feb 2007
I am sending this out to the leadership at my church. Every week we try to find ways to open doors, share our blessings and carry water to the world.
Wandsworth, GB , 05 Mar 2007
I’ve actually bought some people at work their own mugs to stop them using 10 paper ones each day for cups of tea and coffee, and all my friend got a canvas shopping bag for Christmas!
09 Apr 2007
add this site as a link to all the websites you can (church, yahoo groups, whatever)
Ipswich, GB , 19 Jun 2007
Have already added the link to my website, but thanks to others for the ideas about encouraging my networks e.g. article in the church mag or distributing hippos. Will try to get my Companions group at church to sign up over the summer.