Tackling climate change – that’s serious stuff, right?

But as our kids have proved, we can get the serious messages across without getting all po-faced and solemn about it. In fact, we can have a blast.
At last year’s Wellington synod, our bishop challenged us to look for ways that we as individuals – and as parishes and a diocese – can speak into climate change.

And last Saturday evening 12 month's energy and effort on that subject came together, as our cathedral became the theatre for the Kids’ Sustainable Fashion Show, and together we explored what it means to be kaitiaki of God’s creation.

We had the runway. We had the ‘Project Runway’ style screen. We had amazing lighting and smoke effects – and we had that high priest of haute couture, Bishop Justin Duckworth, as our MC for the evening.

Rubbish to runway

But most of all, of course, we had kids from 10 parishes and diocesan schools modelling 50 crazy costumes – which they’d spent months creating out of stuff that would normally get turfed in the rubbish.

Around 75 kids worked on costumes, and they had heaps of support from craft groups, parents and children’s workers.

Parishes worked together across generations to collect rubbish and recycling, and then to create amazing wearable art.

And on Saturday, the kids strutted their stuff.

They morphed into mythical characters. Robots. Animals and creatures from the ocean depths. Princes and princesses from fantastic balls – the breadth of imagination amongst our young people was amazing.

Particular highlights for me were the offerings from the parish of Pauatahanui – their young people created a giant fish and delivered a powerful message around washing cars on the grass to avoid chemical run-off into the inlet; and then there was the mermaid costume created by Charlotte Lubransky (11) which was amazingly detailed, and featured materials sent in by friends all around New Zealand.

Five cents worth...

If you’d like to see more of the costumes, check out the Cathedral’s Facebook album, and there’s also a short video here.  

We also had Amilie Paynter from Blueprint church with the dress she dreamt up – using old weed mat and five-cent coins – which won her the ‘People’s Choice Award’ in the ‘real’ World of Wearable Arts show in 2006.

Our koha for the night will help Fijian people who are still struggling in the wake of Cyclone Winston.

Josese Rokotakala, a Tawa high school student who was in Fiji when the cyclone struck, spoke to us about his experiences and about Fiji’s ongoing needs, and we raised over $1,000 for the Red Cross Pacific Disaster Relief Fund.

Every child went home with an eco-goody bag containing recycled crayons, seed bombs, re-usable cloth sandwich bags for lunchboxes, and a variety of activities.

And the verdict?

Not only was this a great way to engage with a really serious issue, but a great way to bring the generations in our diocesan family together.

Bring on next year!