Portishead Church has collaborated with its local community to create a giant fish out of recycled materials, which will be showcased at this weekend's Portishead Summer Show on Saturday, 27, and Sunday, 28 July 2024. The fish is part of a large seascape, developed over the past few months by the church community with the assistance of local schools and organisations such as Turn the Tide, for their underwater-themed recycling and upcycling extravaganza. At the end of the weekend the team from St Peter’s are hoping to have put together a wave of prayers using recycled bottle tops.
This year, they have chosen the theme of re-creation for their stand at the show. Alongside the giant fish, they will display other sea creatures such as turtles and jellyfish, made by the church community and local schools, using recycled materials. During the show, the team will run an interactive junk modelling activity for all ages and will be creating a wave of bottle-top prayers.
The church engaged with their local community to transform their willow boat into the giant fish. Pupils from local primary schools helped collect materials, such as crisp packets and felt-tip pens, and worked with the team at St. Peter's to create the fish's scales and tail. Revd Lindsay Smith says, "Each year, we have a stand at the Portishead Summer Show. As we are starting to think about Eco Church, we decided to develop this year's theme around the care for creation. We started with the idea of using the local symbol of Christianity, a boat, and then we came up with the idea of creating a big willow fish."
During the two modelling and summer show, the team will create a wave of bottle-top prayers, organize junk modelling, and host a Songs of Praise session to share their love for God's creation with the wider community.
Lindsay says, "It's about community engagement. It's saying to people that we care about the things you do, we care about creation, we care about our planet, and we want to work with you to help take better care of it."
