Becoming an Eco-Church
What is an Eco-Church?
Eco-Church is a scheme run by A Rocha UK equipping churches to care for God's creation through their worship, buildings, land, community engagement, and individual lifestyles.
By completing an online survey, churches can be considered for an Eco-Church Award at either Bronze, Silver, or Gold level. As of the end of 2022, there are 1155 Bronze, 401 Silver, and 23 Gold Church of England Eco-Churches, and our first two gold cathedrals; Salisbury and Chelmsford. The scheme is a fantastic resource for encouraging churches, cathedrals, and dioceses to embody the fifth mark of mission.
There are five areas that a church must demonstrate environmental engagement with to receive an award:
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Worship and teaching.
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Management of church buildings.
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Management of church land.
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Community and global engagement.
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Lifestyle.
Find out more from the
Church of England here
Read about St Andrew's journey towards becoming an Eco-Church
LOAF
Bread is full of symbolic meaning for Christians. In the gospels, Jesus described Himself as “the bread of life”. When you next go food shopping, especially if you are buying for your Church, why not adopt some of Green Christian’s LOAF principles? LOAF stands for:
Locally produced
Organically grown
Animal friendly
Fairly traded
Find out more:
https://greenchristian.org.uk/gc-campaigns/loaf-2/
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First Saturdays, 10.30am-12.30pm
We encourage our bakers to follow the LOAF principles.
Details about sustainable food provision are available via the link provided on the Eco-Church Arocha website: Sustainable Food Provision in Church.
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Daily Prayer for the Earth
Who, when & where
For a year from January 1st 2024, a group of Hertford residents will meet daily in Hertford's Salisbury Square at 12noon.
What?
We will read a prayer or a poem from a number of different parts of the world and spiritual traditions, followed by a short period of silent reflection.
Why?
"It is now impossible to deny the harm humankind has inflicted upon our Earth. Prayer inoculates us against the despair that leads to inaction, connects us back into the Earth's beauty, and gives us the courage to take small compassionate actions and to face whatever is coming." Satya Robyn, whose idea it was to say a Daily Prayer for the Earth
How can I get involved?
Join us as little or as often as you would like and let your friends know about Prayer for the Earth.
What else can I do?
Small actions add up. Join a local or national group working to protect our planet (see below). Above all:
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Engage with politicians of all parties at all levels
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Talk to people
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Share your concerns and what you are doing about them
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Join with others to make change happen
Friends of the Earth North Herts
peterfoord@gmail.com
Greenpeace Welwyn Garden City: Helen Beckett:
wgcplusgreenpeace@gmail.com
Extinction Rebellion East Herts
xr-eastherts@protonmail.com
Climate Cafe Hertford
kateyearle@ntlworld.com
Herts & Middlesex Wildlife Trust
www.hertswildlifetrust.org.uk
RSPB Southeast Hertfordshire
https://group.rspb.org.uk/southeasthertfordshire
Lovely Grub Community Garden
lovelygrub.hertford@gmail.com
You have the power to bring about positive change.
Every action makes a difference - try these powerful, realistic, up-beat and fun actions yourself!
Creating an Eco-Church for God’s planet
Building a sustainable environment for future generations - Jenny Mutch reports
As a small child I always had a fascination for the natural world and I now recognise that I have been lucky to have worked in the environmental and sustainability sector for over 25 years. When I first started, there were few environmental jobs and it was seen as a quirky profession.
How attitudes towards environmental protection and associated human and planet health and well-being have changed! Wild flowers are grown to encourage birds and butterflies; rivers are restored, hard concrete surfaces are being transformed into habitat friendly urban drainage, new houses are built with more sustainable goals in mind and plastic bags in shops are almost a thing of the past in the UK.
I would be surprised if anyone reading this isn’t aware today how we, as humans, negatively impact our planet, God’s planet, and wonder what we can do to reduce the damage. At home, Forbes and I, like many of you, try to do what we can to support sustainable living. We grow vegetables (including enough to share with slugs, and pigeons!); we cycle, walk or catch the train when we can. We recycle, upcycle and aim to avoid harsh chemicals getting into the water system.
Can we do more?
I decided to test how well we were doing at home using the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) carbon calculator: https://carbon-calculator.climatehero.me. Our carbon footprint must be lower than the average, I thought smugly! It wasn’t. One flight to the USA to see our son and our score was averagely bad or worse! I was despondent at first, but then I carried on reading the helpful WWF website with the support of ‘Climatehero’ (have a look) about what we can do to reduce our carbon footprint but still have the quality of life we have come to enjoy.
The more I looked, the more information I found out.
Can St Andrew’s become an Eco-Church?
You may have heard already that St Andrew’s is planning to become an Eco-Church, which is supported by the Parochial Church Council with a sub-committee of Maria Henriksson-Bell, Andrew Goodman and myself.
It is early days, but we are doing well. Fairtrade coffee and sugar, swift boxes, wild garden areas, recycling, use of energy-efficient light bulbs and environmental-based worship are but a few of the good things we do. But to be truly successful, we need to spread the word and encourage all who are part of our community to engage in the initiative. A Rocha is an international network of environmental organisations with a Christian ethos which leads the Eco-Church ambition. Its UK website (arocha.org.uk) states that ‘Churches are the body of Christ in every local community... and can help demonstrate God’s loving care for his creation’.
Our plans, your plans
Becoming an Eco-Church means demonstrating that we have delivered on a range of activities. These questions can include:
Our commitment, your ideas
The Eco-Church Group, with support of the St Andrew’s Communication Group, is hoping to deliver a series of engagement events and discussions around the eco-church topic. If you have any ideas, we would love to hear from you.
Maybe you know of some simple ways of living that engage with the environment or encourage sustainability. Maybe you
know a speaker who does something that can inspire us in this area? Please let us know. In the meantime, have a think today about doing
one thing in your personal life that will help us all on the journey of sustainability.
On that note, I am going back into the garden to try to replenish our bean crop! Any sustainable ways to manage slugs will be gratefully received. And keep a look out for more details on our Eco-Church endeavours.
Jenny Mutch, June 2022
Jennymant@me.com
Eco-Church Survey - the responses are in!
From the March edition of St Andrew's parish magazine
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What can our church do that it doesn’t already?
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How do we embed sustainability into our everyday worship and teaching?
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What do we do with our land (at home and at church)?
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How do we engage and support community and global initiatives?
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What can we do together?
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What can we do as individuals?