St John’s Church in the Norfolk town of Harleston is at the heart of an initiative encouraging nature recovery throughout the local community and its spaces. St John’s Church in Harleston is a bronze-awarded Eco Church in the Diocese of Norwich, which also holds a Bronze Eco Diocese award! The vicar at St John’s, the Revd Nigel Tufnell, has spearheaded the project since 2022. A short film about the community biodiversity initiative showcases the inspiring story of how a grassroots environmental programme in a market town can bring together a parish church, local school and the wider community. The initiative has given rise to what is now known as the “Harleston Model” of nature recovery. This approach has been officially adopted by their district council, with Norfolk and Suffolk County Councils also in the process of integrating it into their frameworks. Read on via the Diocese of Norwich’s website, and learn more from The Revd Nigel Tufnell about working with the local council and school. He shared: “Although this initiative may seem to have changed little on the surface, it has significantly altered the local community’s attitude toward nature recovery. It is now widely accepted that it is a …
‘One stop shop’ for finding resources to support you with the new survey
Accessing the new Eco Church survey You can access the new survey by logging into your account on the Eco Church platform, and starting a new survey. See our help guide section if you need support starting a new survey (please note this currently shows screenshots of the old survey – we will update this in due course!) View the new survey questions and overviews See PDFs of the new survey questions in both English and Welsh (complete set coming soon) and overviews for all five categories on our Eco Church survey summary page. If you’d like to see all of the survey questions for all five categories on one page, you’ll need to start a new survey on the Eco Church platform. Once you have started a new survey, Click ‘printer friendly version’ to view all the survey questions for all five categories in one go. You will need to select the appropriate pathway for your church first to see the buildings and land questions. See our help guide section for how to find the ‘printer-friendly’ view. New overviews for the five categories of the Eco Church survey: Worship and teaching overview Buildings and Energy overview Land and nature overview …
Wild Discoveries in Churchyards and Cemeteries
Wild Discoveries in Churchyards and Cemeteries From Hedgehogs to Hares, a rich and diverse array of species are thriving in our historic churchyards and cemeteries, a recent citizen science survey reveals. In June communities across the UK united to celebrate Churches Count on Nature, Love Your Burial Ground Week, and National Cemeteries Week, with more than 300 events highlighting the unique blend of history, nature, and community found within local churchyards and cemeteries. The Churches Count on Nature initiative, organised by Caring for God’s Acre and supported by A Rocha UK, the Church of England, and the Church in Wales, has generated an impressive collection of wildlife records that are still coming in. Read the full article on the A Rocha UK website here.
An Eco Church milestone – 50 churches hit gold!
In June 2024, A Rocha UK awarded the 50th Gold Eco Church and we are celebrating! Any church reaching a gold award is an impressive achievement and tells the story of hard work, prayer and committed action. As with all the award levels, they are markers to work towards, but the real goal is each and every action taken, prayer prayed, person influenced, and wildflower planted, because all of these are part of our worship and witness of a God who loves all of His creation. Read the full article on our A Rocha UK blog here.
Bees at St Mildred’s Church, Whippingham on the Isle of Wight
Photo caption: A newly formed very calm swarm cluster with their new Queen. It’s just like touching candy floss – they do not sting unless threatened! Bees are one of our Target-25 species at A Rocha UK. Target 25 is a project to help a range of declining species, taxonomic groups, and threatened habitats. Find our Target 25 resource page here, including our resource on bees. St Mildred’s Church in Whippingham on the Isle of Wight achieved their Silver Eco Church award in July 2024. Eco Coordinator and bee-keeper Ruth, shares the story of their church creating an *apiary whilst working towards their silver award: “When I joined St Mildred’s Church last year, I became part of the church committee as the Eco Coordinator. My partner and I have been registered beekeepers for over ten years and are passionate about the environment. I have always loved bees and realise the vital importance they have to our planet as pollinators. Creating our apiary has sprung from Eco Church and our love of bees. *An apiary (also known as a bee yard) is a location where beehives of honey bees are kept. The church has an area of woodland, which four …
New Eco Church survey – goes live 8th October!
The new Eco Church survey goes live on the 8th of October 2024! Since Eco Church launched in 2016, the Eco Church survey has guided churches to work through practical ways to care for creation, with over 7,500 churches registering with the Eco Church programme and over 3,500 churches achieving an award. Working with churches in the Eco Church community, we are refreshing the survey to help your efforts make the most impact on the climate and nature. We hope the refreshed survey will continue to support your church and its leadership in taking practical action on caring for God’s earth when there has never been more cause to do so. What if our church is well on the way to applying for an award? That’s fantastic news. Keep going. The existing survey won’t disappear yet! If you are most of the way through a survey and can submit it before the end of January, please do. If you have already started the existing survey, you have until the end of January 2025 to complete the work on it and submit it for an award. If you are not so far through, hop on over to the new survey, as we know this …
Inspiration from Churches Count on Nature
Churches across all denominations in England and Wales can now register to participate in Churches Count on Nature 2024 – an annual scheme where people visit church and chapel yards and record the plant and animal species they encounter. Often, this land is home to precious biodiverse habitats and managing them for people and nature is important. The biodiversity survey, supported by environmental charities A Rocha UK and Caring for God’s Acre, as well as the Church of England and the Church in Wales, takes place from 8th – 16th June 2024. Churches Count on Nature is part of Love Your Burial Ground Week. If you don’t have a churchyard or graveyard, you can still participate by connecting with another local church that does. Or maybe you could get a local school or wildlife group involved? Find out more, including how to access resources, record your sightings, and register your event here. There is also a map showing events already registered – why not explore what is happening in your local area? Inspiration from churches who hosted a Churches Count on Nature event last year St Giles Church, Hartington A wildflower survey during Churches Count on Nature identified 39 different …
Celebrating 1,000 silver-awarded Eco Churches!
At the start of 2023, 500 Eco Churches had achieved a silver award. In just 18 months, this figure has doubled! This is evidence of churches deepening their engagement with caring for creation and embedding it in their church life. Read the full article on our A Rocha UK blog here.
Registrations open for Churches Count on Nature 2024
Discover and delight in what’s on our church doorstep(s) Churches across all denominations in England and Wales can now register to participate in Churches Count on Nature, an annual scheme where people visit churchyards and record the plant and animal species they encounter. Read the full article on the A Rocha UK website here.
A reflection from our Eco Diocese Officer, six months into post
“There is room for everyone in Eco Church, we all have a part to play.” The Eco Diocese award scheme builds on the Eco Church programme by requiring dioceses to fulfil targets for the number of registered and awarded churches and integrate creation care across the diocese at a policy and practical level. Hear from Polly Eaton as she reflects on her first six months as our Eco Diocese Officer: ‘It has been fantastic to discover what’s happening across dioceses – I’ve seen many examples of good practice and been encouraged by the range of projects and initiatives. Since I started, we have seen eight more Church of England dioceses gain their bronze Eco Diocese award, bringing the total to 28 out of the 42 dioceses in England and Wales. I attended the Church of England Net Zero Carbon Conference a few weeks ago and was so impressed by the breadth of skills and level of knowledge in the room. What struck me was how essential each one of us is to the task of caring for creation. We need people with technical knowledge about heat pumps and solar panels, we need people who can connect with children and meet …