Christ Church, Higher Bebington, in the Wirral, has become the 30th church in England and Wales to achieve a gold Eco Church award. Read more

A year after COP26 in Glasgow, the next international climate summit is scheduled to start in Egypt on 6 November. A Rocha UK is offering two opportunities to get informed and take action on climate change and its links with nature. Read more  

Nearly 7 years since the launch of Eco Church in 2016, we’ve reached 2,000 awarded churches, 500 of which now have a silver award. Read the full story here  

(From left to right: Pam Martin – ARUK volunteer, Lucy Foster – Eco Church Officer for Northern England, Jo Phillips – Churches Together in Cumbria, and Anna Newlove – Carlisle Diocese)  Lucy Foster, our Regional Officer for Northern England, and Delyth Higgins, our Regional Officer for Wales, joined the Eco Church team six months ago. Here is a reflection from each of them on their first few months in post at A Rocha UK (ARUK).  From Delyth, our Regional Officer for Wales: It was a privilege to be appointed the new (and first) Eco Church Officer for Wales in mid-April, and what a busy first few months!  My first task was to look at Wales’ engagement levels and registrations. As I write, almost 300 chapels and churches have registered with the scheme, and we have 28 silver-awarded churches. But the figure is growing all the time, which is so encouraging.  From all corners of the country exciting activity is happening; in the North, ranging from creating bug hotels in Corpus Cristi Church, Tremeirchion, to the Bryn a Mor Mission Area leading a lent course (called Tenants of the King), and prayer sessions where people were outside in nature, connecting with …

Churches Count on Nature is a unique opportunity for those who love their churchyards and church spaces to take part in the largest ever nature count this June.  To find out more and to register please visit:  arocha.org.uk/churches-prepare-for-mass-citizen-science-biodiversity-events-after-huge-success-of-last-years-churches-count-on-nature/

The rural church of St Mary the Virgin in Ticehurst, East Sussex, has become the first in Chichester Diocese to gain the prestigious Eco Church Gold Award. The award recognises the top level of achievement as part of environmental charity A Rocha UK’s Eco Church scheme, which encourages churches to make changes to improve their climate impact, to care for the environment and to inspire and encourage others. Penny Evans, the convener of the planning group at St Mary’s commented that “Our journey started with our concern about climate change and biodiversity loss. This led us to the belief that, as Christians with a concern for justice, peace and healing, we must be active and visible in caring for God’s creation in every area of our shared life together. The Eco Church scheme seemed the ideal vehicle to help us achieve this.”    While significant changes, still ongoing, have been made to the building of St Mary’s as part of their aim to become carbon zero, the major part of their energies have been directed towards their 3-acres of churchyard. With the help of expert advice and biodiversity surveys, they have developed areas into summer meadow, have planted native trees, …

How can we become better at caring for creation and improving our lives and the lives of others through healthy, eco-friendly and sustainable living?  The Lenten 40-day period before Easter gives us the opportunity to reflect on the practice of fasting and commit to giving up something that brings a real benefit to nature and helps address climate change. Below are some changes you could make that will help the environment. Take time to pray, reflect and consider these options – pick one or two or however many you’d like (you never know the changes might just stick!) Go plastic free. Even if you can’t become totally plastic-free, make it your goal to at least reduce your use of plastic. Read Tom’s month without plastic blog here. Switch off from digital. Explore technology-free times or areas of the house, switching to ‘airplane mode’ for the first hour in the morning and the last hour at night, ‘switch off Sundays’, reaching for your Bible over your device(s) and writing a list of outdoor things that you enjoy. Boycott fast fashion. Emily reflects on how our clothes can bring us closer to our neighbour and have a lesser impact on nature. Read her blog here. Buy …

Image of Salisbury Cathedral by: Ash Mills A milestone we celebrate at the start of 2022 is the exciting news that all 42 of the Church of England dioceses have now registered for the Eco Diocese scheme. This shows a significant commitment to getting more churches signed up to Eco Church but more importantly, that all dioceses in the Church of England are united in taking collective environmental action. This is also the case for the Church in Wales where all six of its dioceses have already registered for Eco Diocese. In just 6 years since Eco Church was launched, we have met our ten year goal to reach 10% of churches across England and Wales. That’s over 4,500 churches across England and Wales now part of the Eco Church community, with more than 1,500 awards achieved. We are now looking forward, over the next five years, with a new goal to reach 25% of churches across the UK. This goal is in conjunction with Eco Congregation in Scotland and Northern Ireland, with whom we look forward to closer collaboration, building on the work we have done together in the Climate Sunday campaign. A future focus within Eco Church is …

By November, more than 4,300 churches had registered as Eco Churches since its launch in 2016. This took it ‘over the line’ of our original ten-year goal of reaching 10% of churches in England and Wales, more than four years early!  A considerable number of Eco churches were represented in the 2,300 churches who held a Climate Sunday service and petitioned the Government to take urgent climate action in the run-up to COP26.  We also surpassed 1,000 Eco Church awards, with the biggest jump in Gold award applications, now totalling 23 churches holding a Gold award, including the first Gold cathedral awarded to Salisbury Cathedral in June. Eco Church also worshipped together. At our online service in March, we celebrated the fifth Anniversary of Eco Church with our wider community of friends, partners and Eco Church members. Then, during Resound Workship’s Doxecology tour throughout COP26 in November, we spent time in praise for God’s wonderful creation and in prayer for the climate talks. Many Eco churches also took part in the first ever Churches Count on Nature in June which involved a week of recording wildlife in churchyards. 10,000 individuals across the country enjoyed discovering nature on their doorstep and …