Annie Merry, Faiths4Change gives us an Eco Diocese update for July.
The number of churches who have signed up to become Eco Churches continues to grow, we now have 37. We welcome and congratulate each church for taking this step to demonstrate their Rule of Life commitment, expressing their love for God's creation through actions to safeguard our common home as understanding and evidence of the climate emergency we are all facing requires a sense of urgency like never before.
Once signed up, undertaking the Eco Survey is the next step in the journey towards becoming an Eco Church. Answering questions and finding information on church and parish life on the 5 key areas:
Worship & teaching
Buildings
Land
Community & Global
Lifestyle
This helps us to identify what work we are already doing for responsible stewardship whether that's using fair trade refreshments, reusing service sheets, having regular prayers or readings on caring for creation, redistributing food that would have been wasted, encouraging walking to church and a host of other actions.
As we complete the Eco Survey our answers generate a bronze, silver or gold response. Once completed its clear which award we can register for and areas that we can plan and prioritise to work on.
One church who have been doing just this is St Anne's, Aigburth who have recently been awarded their Eco Church Silver - many congratulations to them. We hope to hear more about their journey and plans in a future edition of The Bulletin.
St James House have also received their Bronze Eco Church Award and are working towards Silver with a focus on reducing food waste and increasing sustainable travel to work in the building.
