Archbishop heads to the beach to mark King’s Coronation

While most of us will be looking forward to a lie-in and day off work on the extra bank holiday to celebrate His Majesty The King’s Coronation on May 8, the Archbishop of Wales will be heading to the seaside. Not for a day out on the amusement arcade or building sandcastles, but for a couple of hours picking up litter, as part of The Big Help Out, a community volunteer initiative organized by the Together Coalition to mark the Coronation. We caught up with Archbishop Andrew John to find out more.

So Archbishop why are you forgoing this extra chance to have breakfast in bed?

Well, it’s wonderful to have an extra bank holiday and I want to make full use of it. As Archbishop my diary is packed to the brim with meetings, committees and, of course, church services. One thing I don’t get much time for these days is volunteering. Yet being in the Church I am acutely aware of how valuable our volunteers are – we are blessed with so many and we really rely on them to help keep our churches functioning, as well as our foodbanks, community hubs and raft of social projects. They are truly amazing and we are very grateful for all they do.

There’s a secret volunteers have that not many people know and it’s this: when you give freely, you always get more back in return. That’s why volunteering is such an amazing gift to celebrate, why giving is such an important part of our Christian faith and why The Big Help Out festival is the perfect way to mark our King’s Coronation. I think that’s worth giving up the occasional breakfast in bed for!

You’ve opted to volunteer at a beach clean at Dinas Dinlle in Caernarfon Bay. Bit out-of-season isn’t it?

Not at all! I love being outside, whatever the weather, and spending time at beaches all through the year, so this is a way of combining something I enjoy with something that will benefit others – I think that’s the key to successful volunteering. In actual fact, early May is the ideal time to clean beaches. The winter and spring storms will – hopefully – have passed so we will be collecting the debris left just in time for the arrival of holiday-makers in the summer.

Why Dinas Dinlle? Is it a particularly dirty beach?

Far from it. Like so much of Wales’s coastline it is a wild and beautiful place – in fact it is a designated Site of Special Scientific Interest for its valuable natural habitats. Sadly today, nowhere is untouched by the rubbish we create and all our beaches are showing the strain of the plastic pollution in our seas. Being on the west coast, Dinas Dinlle is hit particularly hard by the prevailing winds carrying rubbish onto the shore. Here’s a shocking statistic: at least 14 million tonnes of plastic end up in our oceans each year, and plastic makes up 80% of all marine debris, according to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature. Plastic is lethal to marine life – the United Nations has estimated that it kills about a million seabirds and 100,000 marine mammals and turtles every year.

Sadly today, nowhere is untouched by the rubbish we create

So on the beach clean we’ll be picking up plastic bottles, nets, cartons which might have come from thousands of miles away, as well as sweet wrappers, crisp packets, chip boxes, cans and so on that other visitors might have left. What we are doing might just be a “drop out of the ocean” but we hope a cleaner beach will make it safer for the wildlife around, as well as create a better impression on new visitors.

Hopefully our efforts will inspire people to keep the beach clean and take not only their own litter home with them, but perhaps one piece that isn’t theirs too – what a difference that would make! And of course we also hope we will raise awareness of plastic pollution and the need to prevent and avoid the use of plastic in the first place.

What will you do with the litter you collect?

We will ensure we dispose of it responsibly. That means recycling as much as we can so that it doesn’t end up back on the coastline.

Sounds like it could be a fun and productive day. Can anyone join in?

Absolutely! We’re meeting at the first carpark at Dinas Dinlle on May 8 and will clean the beach from 10am-12pm. Make sure you come prepared for the weather and bring sturdy waterproof boots and strong gardening gloves for picking up litter.

Or how about organising your own beach clean near where you live? If you want to do that, or take part in any other volunteer programme for The Big Help Out, have a look at the website where you can see what’s going on and register your event. Let’s make it a memorable way to mark the start of our new King’s reign!