Beaconsfield church hosted a creation weekend to celebrate the environment and about tackling climate change.

More than 100 people of different ages united to attend the ‘creation’ weekend last month at St Theresa’s Church, organised by the newly formed Parish Catholic International Development Charity (CAFOD) group.

The event began on July 13 with a celebratory mass and climate change talk from local environmental campaigner Ed Gemmell.

The group then signed a petition addressed to the government asking for more effective climate action to be put in place, as well as various members of the church giving speeches.

Sue Seagrave, a parishioner and member of the CAFOD group, said: “Our youngest CAFOD group member was a shining inspiration to his peers with a magnificent talk.

“It was great to introduce our new group and talk with people about CAFOD’s ongoing work across the globe.”

After the mass the attendees all gathered to have a meal whilst games and face-painting were provided for the children.

Sue added how this was an opportunity to get young and old generations to have an open dialogue. She said: “There was a lot of great discussion during the lunch and everyone really enjoyed themselves.

“More senior attendees were encouraged to talk to their families about what recycling was done in years gone by before we had plastic, and younger people were encouraged to ask the adults how to recycle more.”

The creation weekend was one of many hosted around the UK, with the church being transformed as parishioners brought home-grown flowers to decorate, whilst the children’s group created two large crosses from recycled materials.

Over £500 was raised for the charity whilst CAFOD hope to highlight their growing concerns for the environment through these events.

Deborah Purfield, Beaconsfield’s CAFOD representative said: “Many thanks to everyone at St. Teresa’s Parish - Beaconsfield who supported the event and those who helped make it a success in every way and to parish priest Fr Sean Healy who was great and gave his full support.

“A special thanks to the CAFOD group who were amazing in their efforts to raise awareness of the effects of climate change and how we can all do our part to help. You are really such an inspiration!”

To find out more about CAFOD’s campaigns, visit www.cafod.org.uk/campaign.