WORSHIPPERS from across south-east Hampshire and the Isle of Wight are helping to make the world a kinder place – bit by bit.

They have joined an online community of people who pledge themselves to small lifestyle changes to help save the planet and to help others.

Portsmouth’s Anglican diocese is the first in the UK to be given its own section on the ‘Generous’ website. It means worshippers can keep track of the actions that they and others in our congregations have promised to do.

The Generous community – which can be found at www.generous.org.uk – started as a conversation between friends in which they wondered about harnessing the power of today’s technology to help each other to live more generously. Over time, it became a community of over 2,000 Christians and others who have committed themselves to more than 10,000 different actions.

The actions they promise to do range from turning off the tap when cleaning their teeth to investing in more ethical companies; from not over-filling the kettle to improving the amount they give to charity.

Different actions are suggested each month and those who log in can add their comments, share tips on how it worked with others, and suggest new actions themselves.

Some actions involve helping to create a sense of community, such as looking out for strangers, becoming a blood donor or writing a letter to an old friend. Some are connected to environmental concerns, and some are about making us kinder.

Since its launch earlier this year, the Portsmouth section of the Generous website has attracted 50 people, who have signed up to do 170 different actions.

The site has the backing of the Anglican Bishop of Portsmouth, the Rt Rev Kenneth Stevenson, who said: "Generous is a great way of involving us all in reducing the footprint of Portsmouth Diocese. I urge you to join."

And diocesan environment adviser, the Rev Andy Norris, who is vicar of St Mary’s Church, Hook-with-Warsash, said: “We were approached by the Generous community to see if we might pilot this across an entire diocese. The time was right, as we’d just agreed a diocesan-wide environment policy. If it works then other dioceses will be given a chance to do it too.

“I’d encourage all of us to log in. We may be surprised at how many of these things we do already, or we may be challenged to do some things we’d never thought about. But it’s all part of our commitment as a diocese to be good stewards of the planet that God has created.”

As the American anthropologist Margaret Mead put it: “People might wonder what difference these small things might actually make. But we should never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can make a difference – in fact, it is the only thing that ever has.”

The Portsmouth part of the site can be found at www.portsmouth.generous.org.uk. Anyone can join, regardless of whether they share the Christian faith or not.