Our vice-chair, Amanda, gave a talk in the service at Halifax Minster, on Ecology Sunday, 13/9/26.
Slow The Flow is a non-religious, non-partisan charity. However, our work carries many parallels with all groups that work together towards a common goal, particularly those who care for people and planet, as Amanda reflected. Here, we share the transcript:
Hello, thanks for inviting me back to the church in which I was baptised as a baby, a mere 21 years ago… to speak to you about the work of our very special charity, on Ecology Sunday.
First, I’d like a quick show of hands – hands up if you’ve heard of Slow The Flow before? [post-note: lots of hands went up!]
Introduction to Slow The Flow
For those of you who aren’t familiar with us; Slow The Flow is a Calderdale-based, national charity, looking at sustainable ways to manage water. We began in response to the Boxing Day 2015 flood event, which was devastating for so many people. But the community response was fantastic to witness.
Since then, Slow The Flow has been pioneering in harnessing that kindness; demonstrating, advocating for, and educating people about community-led, nature-based solutions to help prevent flooding.
The idea is that many small interventions, to hold water where it lands and release it slowly, can collectively make a significant difference. And if we can be guided by natural, ‘green’ solutions, they can provide multiple benefits to also improve water quality and air quality, and improvements to the environment for both people and biodiversity, that hard engineering solutions – big walls that disconnect us from the water and push the problem downstream – cannot.
Examples of rural natural flood management (which gets abbreviated to NFM) might include:
- attenuation ponds (dry much of the time but collect water in a flood event)
- Swales (shallow ditches that move water slowly)
- soil restoration and peatland improvement, making our landscapes more spongy
- planting trees and hedges, which stop water hitting the ground, as well as soaking it up.
- leaky dams in tributaries, like the ones you might have seen in our flagship scheme at Hardcastle Crags, where Slow The Flow and partners have built more than 1,000 leaky dams through volunteer efforts. The structures temporarily hold water back and allow it to move through the landscape more slowly, which we have proven through citizen science and monitoring.
Examples of urban sustainable drainage (which we shorten to SuDS) in towns and villages, might include:
- rain gardens – raised planters, like the ones we’ve put in at the bottom of downpipes at Hebden Bridge Town Hall, or they can be ground level rain gardens, collecting water running off from roads and pavements
- permeable paving/depaving drives
- green roofs, perhaps on sheds or garages, as well as large scale buildings, like at Halifax bus station.
- water butts, which as with many of these things, are great for drought resilience as well as flood – which will become increasingly important, as we have seen in recent summers.
Generally, we’re talking about removing unnecessary hard surfaces, and using planting and soils, to slow the flow of runoff.
The big idea of NFM and SuDS is, lots of small interventions, holding water as close as possible to where it lands, and releasing it slowly. We don’t stop the water. We slow it down.
Ecology Sunday
The reason that it works well to talk about this on Ecology Sunday is that ‘Green/blue infrastructure’ also brings other benefits that traditional ‘grey infrastructure’ doesn’t – including benefits to water quality, air quality, public amenity and health, and of course wider ecology.
One of our young volunteers-turned-trustees, Sam, has written a recent blog post on our website about the Masters by Research he undertook, part funded through a Slow The Flow bursary. His findings strengthen the evidence base to show that NFM has multiple benefits, contributing to both flood mitigation and water quality enhancement, and hence biodiversity improvements. NFM is good for both people and nature.
Faith and Nature
When I was asked to do this talk, and the brief came through with ‘could you please include reference to God and Creation for ecology Sunday’, I will confess that my gut reaction was ‘Help – I’m not a vicar!’
But after a moment’s reflection, I realised that it’s really very easy to spot the links between Christian faith, and what we at Slow The Flow educate people about.
Water is a huge theme in the Bible – it is rightfully recognised as fundamental to life on earth, and in particular, human existence. Day 2 of creation was water. The miracles are full of it. And ‘Noah and the Flood’ is, of course, a classic relevant story, universally known.
A friend of mine, who IS a vicar, reflected to me that the structure of scripture is that we see God’s good creation, then humanity messes up God’s good creation, following which God works to restore the mess, calling and empowering humanity to help, giving people signs and tools as to the solutions.
Initiatives such as the work of the Minster as an Eco-church, your recently published ‘sustainability strategy’, and the Church of England’s ‘Hope for all Creation’ document, all recognise that now is one of those times that Creation needs Humanity to help sort out the mess that we have inadvertently created.
Slow The Flow is here to help empower everybody to do their bit to address flooding through nature-based solutions, as flooding is one of the most obvious effects of climate change locally and globally.
A lot of the teachings in the bible are about the collective power of small actions.
- A single leaky dam won’t solve flooding.
- A single tree won’t solve climate change.
- A single rain garden won’t transform Calderdale.
But thousands of small actions can change the behaviour of a whole catchment.
The story of Noah is about flooding, and biodiversity – care for humans and creatures from the flood…Noah couldn’t prevent the flood entirely, and neither can we – but he heeded the warning, told people what he knew, and did what he could to preserve life, and as much diversity of life as possible. We can take inspiration from his story.
In combatting today’s climate crisis, we have an advantage over Noah. With modern science and communication, we can all learn, understand, and share the problem. We can share the actions we can take, individually and collectively, to address both causes and effects of flooding. We aren’t being asked to build an ark. But we are being asked what kind of world we are going to hand on, and how we can work together to make it a good one.
Slow The Flow is currently undergoing an evolution. Volunteer days have proven the principle, now we are shifting to more of an educational focus, and calling for more action everywhere.
Slow The Flow can’t solve it ourselves, we need a community effort to get everyone on the metaphorical ark.
What can you do?
Consider what you can do at home / in any place you have influence – there are lots of ideas on the ‘You Can Slow The Flow’ pages, at www.SlowTheFlow.net.
If you’re sitting there thinking ‘I’ve already done this, my garden is full of rain gardens / water butts / green roofs’ – please submit a case study, to help inspire others! There are lots of great case studies on the website to take inspiration from, and the more the merrier.
Sign up to the newsletter/follow Slow The Flow on social media – it’s an exciting time ahead as we are about to appoint our first paid staff, to develop a Flood Trail that will span Calderdale.
Learn more about climate science – go to see the People’s Emergency Briefing film, there is a showing 25th Sept, a week on Friday 7pm at the Orange Box in Halifax. Book tickets for free, and take a friend: ideally one who could do more to care for the planet, or needs help getting started. I went to one in Brighouse, it was a good watch – both shocking, and hopeful. There will be a future showing here, next year.
Halifax Minster have kindly nominated Slow The Flow as one of your ‘Eco Church’ charities, and we really appreciate your regular support. If you are also able to donate on an individual level, we have a Local Giving account where you can donate monthly, or as a one-off. We are also available on Easy Fundraising, where larger stores and online shopping gives us a % of your spend.
Final thoughts
Members of faith communities recognise that there is something greater than ourselves we rely on, need to value, and can influence together.
The Minster’s own environmental policy says that humanity is part of God’s created order and has a special responsibility to care for the Earth and its creatures.
Ecology isn’t just about rainforests, polar bears and distant wilderness.
- It is about this place.
- The Calder Valley.
- The River Calder.
- The hills around Halifax.
- The soil beneath our feet.
- The birds in our gardens.
- The trees in our streets.
- The rain that falls on this Minster.
Ecology includes us, our friends, family, neighbours, and future generations, who are part of nature, and whom we want to be able to enjoy this beautiful world.
The Church of England’s document says “The crisis calls for action in the here-and-now. By responding to it, we can recover our humanity and purpose.”
Slow The Flow is ever grateful for donations from individuals and local organisations such as the Minster, who have generously named us as one of their ‘eco church’ charities: without such support, we couldn’t do what we do.