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 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.  

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.      

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 …

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.      

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.  

  “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 …

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.    

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.    

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 …