St Cuthbert's awarded Eco Church Silver Award

First published on: 1st April 2019

 “As a Community, we believe in Gods Beautiful creation and our Church sits amongst the beautiful Croxteth Park which is made up of Woods and parkland and belongs to Croxteth Park Estate; so nature is very much on our doorstep. St Cuthbert’s had already been registered as a good custodian for the environment two years ago and our gardens had been awarded a 'good' award.  Our liturgy reflects our creation and environment and we change our liturgy to reflect the seasons and our Triptych reflects the creation in its artwork and is the central focus of weekly worship. The Second was when we were made aware of the Eco-Church Survey that the diocese was encouraging all to take.

The church is really lucky in that it is a young church, so our buildings and small garden area are well maintained and all windows and doors were already double glazed with a modern boiler. Smaller changes such as the newer liturgy which reflected seasons had already been started in November, and the simple small changes like ensuring signs were up on walls to turn lights off, were already in place. 
A new thing we have done is that we now have in place an Environmental officer who is leading for us on stewardship for the environment. Rachel is passionate about ensuring we care for the environment and is a recycling champion, bringing environmental issues to the PCC on a regular basis so it’s always on our radar is important. I also spoke to our local Scouts group and our Sunday school children about becoming 'youth reps' and some of the children were keen to make a team up, to support the officer to not only maintain standards but to improve them.

Our brand new 'Gentleman, Dads and Lads' group have also been challenged with making changes within the garden area to make different elements come through, from sensory, to wildlife, to food for the 'APlace2B' group which is our new Community Cafe. This would help to cut down food miles and would provide the simple lunch that we provide, as well as offering any surplus to our local community.  The cafes ethos if to help everybody through the doors, support with their mental health and wellbeing, and encourage 'mindfulness' as part of this. So helping the environment and encouraging simple crafts means the ladies are at the moment making out of 'non-recyclable charity bags', strong, washable 'bags for life' by crocheting the strips of plastic. This is removing non -recyclable plastic off our landfill sites and making them into something that will last and is very strong means that over 20 charity bags are no longer heading for landfill and our seas and are being recycled.

I would say to any church thinking about becoming an Eco Church to go for it! Easy small changes make a huge difference. I'm sure many churches will get their awards fairly soon, if not silver then bronze.

As Christians, the environment, climate changes and pressure on our wildlife means we must encourage all in our communities to understand and improve what they do. Simple measures such as ensuring signs are in place, and telling people about environmental issues within the services cost little. Use recycled paper for printing or better still use screens if you have them. Don't use paper cups, turn the heating down by a degree, ensure your gas and electric are provided by green providers. If you have a garden, use water catchers off drainpipes to recycle rainwater. Easy measures such as encouraging parishioners to be 'Eco champions', is there a young person who is keen on climate changes and the world around them who could take it forward for you? Update your website, ensuring individual tips are available and raise awareness in articles online and in magazines. I hope you can see small changes add up to huge ones! We are all responsible for caring for this planet so encourage one another in simple ways.

Looking toward the future, we are going to try and maintain what we have achieved and grow and learn too. It would be great if in the future to have solar and wind power to run our heating and lighting but we are some way off that at present. We are hoping to hold a celebration service in the near future and to use our outdoor garden for worship.  We also are hoping to put bring to fruition some of the things mentioned above with the gardens. We will keep pushing our boundaries and ensure our practices are as good as we can make them. Small changes add up to big ones. Such as a litter pick of our community with the younger ones and ensuring we care for not just the church and church grounds but the community in which we live.”

 

Eco Diocese Update - April 2019

Annie Merry, Faiths4Change gives the latest Eco Diocese update:

We now have 18 churches registered as Bronze Eco Churches and two awarded Bronze Eco Churches

Congratulations to St Martin's Church, Kirkby and St Luke's Crosby on their Bronze awards. 

One awarded Silver Eco Church - St Cuthberts Church, Liverpool, which is our main story feature for this month.

Just two more churches registering will mean Liverpool is halfway to becoming an Eco Diocese...incredible in just three months! 

It's a really straightforward - 3 steps & it's free
1. Register - Eco Church linkneeded but error on page
Enter the required details to register with Eco Church - A Rocha UK's environmental award scheme for churches in England and Wales.

2. Log In 

3. Complete the Eco Survey linkneeded but error on page (it's easily saved if you only have a few minutes to begin)

At the heart of Eco Church is a unique online survey that enables congregations to record their progress and plan future initiatives.

 

Eco Diocese - The story so far

Catch up on our previous Eco Diocese updates - 

March 2019 - 'Giving it all away – resourcing others' linkneeded but page not found

February 2019 - Eco Church St Helens

#DoTenThings 
#EcoDiocese 
#GoForGold

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