Last summer, Eco Church team member Polly attended her nephew’s wedding at St Nicholas Church, Wasing. Guests were asked not to bring conventional confetti in line with the church’s confetti policy – avoiding glitter, plastic, or paper confetti. Embracing the challenge, Polly turned to the blousy roses in her garden, thankful for a spell of hot sunny days which meant they dried quickly, so she didn’t end up with a pile of mouldy petals! With the encouragement to avoid plastic confetti in place of real rose petals, a conversation around confetti and its impact had begun amongst the wedding guests. Traditional confetti may be small, but its impact is significant. Often made from PVC (polyvinyl chloride) and other plastics, which we know have a lasting environmental impact, it pollutes soil and waterways with microplastics. It can also harm wildlife, as they are attracted to the shiny material and may make nests with it or eat it. By contrast, thoughtful alternatives show how simple choices can protect creation. The little chapel of St Nicholas’ Church, Wasing, achieved their Bronze Eco Church award in 2023, and have not allowed artificial confetti for over fifteen years! As a small, rural church, they only …

Newport Methodist Church, Isle of Wight – Journey to the Bronze Eco Church award.  In 2020 during lockdown, Tearfund’s ‘Reboot’ campaign encouraged one of our small groups, meeting online, to think about building a better post-coronavirus world. An immediate step was to write to the prime minister calling for government action to rebuild in a way that would create a better, fairer and more sustainable world for everyone.  During Lent 2021, we continued online sessions for the wider congregation based on the excellent series Christianity and Climate Change featuring Katherine Hayhoe. The final session was entitled ‘What can we do as church?’.  We registered with Eco Church in 2022. ‘Worship and Teaching’, through the Bible studies we had done together, was the spur for action and continues to be fundamental in our thinking.  The ‘Land and Nature’ criteria were challenging in our urban ‘concrete and gravel’ site! We asked for suggestions via a display set up for several Sundays, and a management plan, ‘People for nature, nature for people‘ was developed. ‘Windowsill growing kits’ (seeds ready planted in pots filled with compost) allowed anyone to join in. Donations of plants and planters and offers of practical help followed, and there …

Adrienne Hughes, Eco-champion at St Michael & All Angels, Flax Bourton, shares some of their Eco Church journey to Gold.  I’m sure you are aware that a successful journey relies on careful planning and the right footwear! When the Flax Bourton Church Team started out on the journey to Eco Church Bronze back in 2022, we did a little planning but mainly wandered about in metaphorical flip-flops, letting a dandelion grow here and there, whilst sipping our Fairtrade coffee and dreaming of a greener church! However, a few months later, with the Bronze award under our belt, we put our best foot forward (in our gardening boots) and started work in the churchyard. Lots of people helped us with this project so that today we have, amongst other things, a bodged bench, herb planters, crab-apple trees, hazel fence and climbing plants. We also added all sorts of homes and feeding places for a host of creatures. Biodiversity surveys indicate an increase in the number of species that can be found in our churchyard, which is great news.  Success with a Silver award in late 2023 inspired us to put on our running shoes and set bigger goals to achieve, such …

Image: Susanne, church secretary, demonstrating how she cycles to church. Some of our recent journey:  “How are you helping the environment?” is the question we posed to our congregation in the summer of 2025.  In the photo above, our Church Secretary, Susanne, is demonstrating that she cycles to church! In an ‘Open Studios’ event, we displayed the twenty-nine photos received from church members and our local residents’ association. Each photo showed a different aspect of helping the environment, ranging from planting bee-friendly shrubs to installing an air source heat pump.  It was fun, and it engaged more people directly than anything else ‘green’ that we have done.   This is just one part of our Eco Church action plan, ‘Exploring Gold’.  We don’t know if we can get there but, having got Bronze and Silver Awards in January and December 2023, we are giving it our best shot.  Our experience is that the Eco Church framework and resources are very helpful tools for identifying effective action to address the climate and biodiversity crises.  Here are just a few of the ideas that we have picked up and acted on so far in 2025/26:  Worship and Teaching – have regular prayers and …