Last autumn marked a significant milestone for Eco Church as we celebrated the achievement of 2,000 awarded churches since the program’s launch in 2016. Just one year on, we have now surpassed 3,000 awarded churches! Read the full article on the A Rocha UK website here.
Eco Church: what’s happening in Wales?
Delyth Higgins took on the newly created role of Eco Church Officer for Wales in 2022 – an exciting development for A Rocha UK. Here, Delyth updates on Eco Churches in Wales after her first 18 months: “My role is to promote Eco Church in my nation and encourage greater depth of engagement in the programme from those who are already involved. I thank God for the progress we have been able to make working with many others. There are now around 400 churches in Wales, across all denominations, registered as Eco Churches. The past few months, however, have seen an increase in the level of engagement with several more silver awards (there are now 41), the URC’s National Synod of Wales earning its bronze Eco Synod award, and the first gold Eco Church award in Wales. St Peter’s Church, Llanbedr Dyffryn Clwyd, near Ruthin, won that accolade within the last month.” Hear more from Delyth in the full article on the A Rocha UK website here.
St John’s Methodist Church, Settle – Church land transformation
St John’s Methodist Church in Settle, North Yorkshire, originally thought they had no land to include in their Eco Church application. They have now reached a gold level in the land section and created a space for people and nature to thrive! Be encouraged and inspired by all that is possible as their Eco team share the journey: The Initial Spark When we first completed our Silver Award application, we felt we couldn’t answer the section on ‘Land’ and marked it as ‘Not Applicable’. With 95% of our land being tarmac, we felt we could not use it for anything other than car parking. However, after encouragement from the Eco Church team, who pointed out the possibilities of this space, the Eco Group were energised to take action. We feel that we have certainly gone a long way towards creating spaces that celebrate God’s goodness and bounty in what we had previously seen as a desert. Action We focused our attention on a space at the back of the church, which was bare and forlorn, never used. As you see from these pictures, taken in early 2022, it was an uninspiring plot. It was no wonder that we never found …
Church on the Hill – Taking Church outside with St Michael’s, Bishops Cleeve
In the aftermath of the pandemic lockdowns, in July 2021, we recognised that some people still felt uncomfortable coming into the church building. As our Benefice is surrounded by beautiful hills, with many opportunities to get outside and walk, it felt not just appropriate to gather outdoors but entirely natural. This is how Church on the Hill started. The gathering is as simple as the name. We usually meet on Cleeve Hill one Sunday a month or occasionally at other suitable outdoor venues across our Benefice. The informal service is open to all, and there is a mix of ages who attend. We usually start with a question or observation challenge for the group to discuss as they journey together. We walk at varying paces before stopping for a short time of prayer and reflection linked to faith, life and often the created world that we are surrounded by. The children are usually found running around, finding treasures to share as part of our reflections. We originally intended to run Church on the Hill just through the summer of 2021, but when we got to October, the group decided it must continue, and two years later, it is still going …
Hear from gold-awarded Clitheroe United Reformed Church on how their Eco Church journey has transformed the lives of their congregation and impacted their local community
Clitheroe United Reformed Church is the first church in the North Western Synod to achieve a Gold Eco Church Award! As part of the NW Synod podcast, Lawrence Heath-Moore sits down with Wendy Higson and Izzy Lamb from Clitheroe United Reformed Church to share about their Gold Award. Discover the ways in which their Eco Church journey has transformed not only their buildings but the lives and spirituality of the congregation and brought a new dimension to their relationships within the community. Be inspired to find ways of making small, incremental changes that have long-term significance by listening to the podcast episode here (you’ll need to scroll down to find the correct episode).
Welcome to our new Eco Diocese Officer
Polly, who is passionate about bees, involved in a ‘stop using harmful pesticides’ campaign as part of her local Justice and Peace Group. We are delighted to welcome a new member to the A Rocha UK churches team in the newly created role of Eco Diocese Officer. Whilst Polly has recently started in her role, she is not totally new to Eco Church: “Since moving to Hertfordshire seven years ago, I’ve been worshipping at High Street Baptist Church in Tring. During this time the church gained a gold Eco Church award and I’ve enjoyed being part of a church that strives to ‘do’ creation care. Prior to this I lived in West Africa and saw first-hand the effects of the climate crisis on rural communities. I strongly believe that the environmental catastrophe we face is a justice issue and the church has a vital role to play. I think one of the ways to approach this challenge is to build our Eco Church community and encourage and learn from one another. I’m really looking forward to getting to know people within the diocese and supporting them as they progress with Eco Diocese.” We are grateful to the Church of England for …
First Gold Eco Church Award for Wales Achieved!
The Labyrinth contemplation area. St Peter’s Church in Llanbedr Dyffryn Clwyd, near Ruthin and part of the St. Asaph Diocese, has become the first church in Wales to achieve their Gold Eco-Church Award. As part of their work towards a gold award, they have developed the churchyard into a welcoming green space to support wildlife and biodiversity. They encourage native wildlife by providing bird boxes, a bug hotel, sowing wildflower seeds, and a labyrinth area with a seat and space for quiet contemplation. The church is a very popular spot for the start and end of walks in the area, and visitors can get a Fairtrade coffee inside. The ‘Capel Beuno’ area is popular amongst the youngsters of the church and wider community, where they meet regularly around the fire pit, sitting on seats recycled from wood pallets. Fallen trees have been crafted into two altar tables used for outside services. One of the Vicars at St Peter’s, Father Huw Bryant, shared, “We are delighted to have achieved this award and become the first in Wales. We have been working for several years towards this award, not for its own sake, but to embed good care for creation and …
Creation care prayers for Great Big Green Week from High Street Baptist Church, Tring
Thanks to High Street Baptist Church, Tring who are a gold awarded Eco Church, for sharing their prayers over Great Big Green Week.
Churches Counted on Nature
Churchyards provide thousands of acres of green oases in communities across the country. Last month’s Churches Count on Nature (CCoN), in which A Rocha UK was a key partner, was a fantastic opportunity to help people understand their local environment and explore the contribution that churches can make to monitoring and conserving wildlife. Between 3 and 11 June, over 400 CCoN events took place across England and Wales, with churches hosting activities to record the mammals, birds, wildflowers, insects, and fungi in their outdoor spaces. Many also used CCoN as an opportunity to reach out to their community and extended their activities to include photography competitions, history talks and picnics. You can see some great photos of a variety of events here. Llanidan Church in Brynsiencyn on Anglesey started their event with a service that focused on the environment and caring for their churchyard. After an opportunity to browse a selection of relevant books and leaflets over a cuppa, they got counting! Over 30 people took part, and the lists were compiled not only in Welsh and English but French too, as there was a Breton gentleman taking part! Almost 80 species of wildflowers were identified, as well as insects …
Montgomery Church’s Eco Group find a creative way to think about food miles at their monthly ‘bring and share’ lunch
St Nicholas Church in Montgomery, Wales, who achieved their bronze award in 2022, thought of a creative way to share their Eco Church ethos at their ‘bring and share’ lunch. Montgomery Church hosts a casual ‘bring and share’ lunch on the fourth Sunday of each month. It’s open to everyone and is normally well-attended. The Eco Church group saw this captive audience as a great opportunity to widen the message about eco issues. They decided to challenge the congregation to think about ‘food miles’, encouraging them to make low food-mile items to share. ‘Food miles’ refers to how far the ingredients of a meal have travelled to get to your plate. So it’s about making the best of what’s around locally whenever possible, rather than using items flown from across the globe. One of the young members created a beautiful poster, and the competition to bring along the dish with the lowest food miles was on! There were savoury recipes using homegrown herbs, local eggs and local vegetables. The puddings didn’t fair quite as well as the sugar, made with British sugar beet, all grown close to the factory, came all the way from Bury St. Edmunds. But, the only …
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