As we look back over 2024, we are humbled and grateful to God for all He has done this year across the Eco Church community. We want to say a huge thank you to all the churches taking action through Eco Church to care for creation. Join us in reflecting on some of the highlights we are celebrating this year:
- There are now 8,000 churches registered with the Eco Church programme – that’s nearly 20% of churches across England and Wales!
- We have seen a huge growth in churches deepening their engagement with creation care this year. Over half of the churches registered with Eco Church have now achieved an award – that’s over 4,100 Eco Church awards, all markers of churches taking practical action to care for creation. We also hit some new milestones in 2024 with 1000 churches achieving a silver award, and 50 churches reaching gold in the summer.
- Half a year on, we’re now celebrating 65 churches achieving a gold award, 1,300 Silver Eco Churches, as well as over 2,750 Bronze Eco Churches! We are so encouraged by the progress of many more churches continuing through the award levels, because of all that the awards represent in practice: churches going deeper on their Eco Church journeys, having even more impact for creation.
- We’re also encouraged to have new churches joining us all the time and starting their journey – and for all the work that is happening regionally and ecumenically as churches support each other to get started and spur each other on.
- In June, communities across the UK united to celebrate Churches Count on Nature with nearly 300 events taking place. Participants contributed by visiting their local churchyards to record the wildlife they encountered, from wildflowers to insects, birds, and mammals. Find out more about the wild discoveries made in churchyards and cemeteries through Churches Count on Nature.
- Another significant milestone this year was the refresh of the Eco Church survey, the framework for action at the heart of the programme. We have worked with churches in the Eco Church community, and key organisations, to refresh the survey questions so that by completing the Eco Church survey, churches efforts will have an even greater impact for climate and nature.
- We’ll be doing a bigger launch of the new survey in early 2025, with opportunities to connect online and bring the community together, including training sessions, further resources and more! In the meantime, if you’d like a summary of the new resources available for the refreshed survey, see our ‘One-stop-shop’ article and explore our new Eco Church survey summary page for the questions and overviews of each survey category.
- Finally, we also brought the Eco Church community together to pray for the work happening in churches, as well as environmental issues nationally and globally, at our Eco Church Prayer Forums. These are a great opportunity to connect with others, and If you haven’t yet made it to one of our online prayer gatherings, we’d love to encourage you to join us – starting on 13 February and look out for more dates for 2025 on our events page.
As we look ahead to 2025, we want to say a huge thank you for being part of the Eco Church community, and all you are doing to care for creation. We have some exciting plans for 2025 and look forward with hope and expectation for all that God continues to do through His Church. For now, we wish you and your church a blessed and joy-filled Christmas, and may you know the peace and joy of Immanuel – God with us, this season.
The Eco Church team
Helen, Sara, Lissy, Delyth, Polly and Karen