Sefton North is being hailed the Diocese of Liverpool’s first ‘Eco Deanery’, with all 14 churches now holding either a Bronze or Silver Eco Church award.
The deanery set an intention four years ago for every church to secure an Eco Church award, and now seven hold Bronze awards, and seven hold Silver.
Area Dean Rev Canon Anne Taylor said the success lay in working together as a deanery, identifying an Eco Champion or eco team to lead the work at each church, and sharing progress at regular meetings.
Canon Anne said: “We set the intention in July 2020 for every church in the deanery to have an Eco Church award.
“There was a number of us already working towards this in our own churches. We decided that having everyone working towards an award would be the most practical and helpful way forwards.”
“I’m delighted now to have all 14 churches now with an Eco Church award. It’s great to have a sense of what we have achieved together, for the environment and for our witness, it is fabulous to have this many parishes and PCCs who have taken their environmental responsibility seriously.
“Now that we’ve done this we need a firm pat on the back to everyone involved, and to keep building on this. This is really just a starter to show parishes what they can achieve, for those on Bronze they can start looking towards Silver, and for those on Silver to Gold. I didn’t want to leave anyone behind and now we all have a platform that we can move on with together.”
Canon Anne’s church St Peter’s in Formby was among the first in the deanery to gain a Silver award, alongside St Luke’s church in Crosby, and All Saints with St Frydeswide, Thornton.
All three are now helping pilot a new Net Zero Plan with the Diocese of Liverpool’s Net Zero Carbon 2030 Programme team - a resource to equip churches to develop a strategy for how they will reduce their carbon emissions 2030. St Luke’s have had a heating feasibility study completed, to help them consider alternative heating sources for their buildings.
Rev Canon Amanda Bruce, Vicar at St Luke’s Crosby, said: “There’s a real sense that we've partnered with God in this, and we are looking after His creation better than we were, as a result.”
“It’s been really helpful to do this together as a deanery, there are people who are quite knowledgeable among our churches now, and if someone needs help with something, there are people we can call on, and expertise that can be accessed.”
St James church, Maghull was the most recent church to secure their Bronze award in North Sefton, achieving this with a focus on their church grounds to install bird boxes and other measures to encourage biodiversity.
Nearby St Peter’s Church in Maghull secured their Bronze award after hosting a family eco workshop with Faiths4Change, and are now partnering with Church4All, a Joshua Centre initiative, towards a community garden.
Rev Ian Hopkins, Team Rector of the Maghull and Melling team, said: “It was encouraging that all the churches found that once they began the journey, actually this was more straight forward than they thought.
“We found each church was actually doing enough already that one major push was enough to take them to an award, and they have each done this in their own way.
“We have learned a lot of lessons about working together, and how actually we can achieve a lot more as a deanery rather than on our own. I am proud of our churches for taking it on.”
Rev Ian added: “When people start to see this is something worth doing and that it's valuable, suddenly you see how part our Christian faith is being involved in this, and helping care for and develop God's world, as we were made to do, it's about growth as a church, and individual disciples.”
“In each church, we've celebrated the fact that we’ve got the award and I think that gives a momentum to continue to maintain and to build on it.”
Eco Church is ARocha’s award scheme for churches that take the environment seriously and want to demonstrate that the Gospel is good news for God’s earth.
Currently 115 churches across our diocese are registered the scheme. Of these two have Gold awards, 18 have a Silver Award and 35 have a Bronze Award.
The group accessed support for their journey from each other as a deanery group, from ARocha, and Faiths4Change - the Diocese of Liverpool’s delivery partner in Net Zero Carbon 2030 Programme.
Annie Merry, Director of Faiths4Change and Prophetic Lead for our diocesan Net Zero Carbon 2030 Programme, said: “For a whole deanery to have secured Eco Church awards is splendid news.
“It’s a joy to witness how the churches in North Sefton have worked together to achieve this. It is good news for the communities these churches serve, good news for the diocese and good news for the environment.”
Phil Leigh, Diocesan Environmental Officer and Net Zero Carbon 2030 Programme Lead said: “This is wonderful news, congratulations and thank you to all the churches involved.
“As an Eco Diocese working towards net zero carbon 2030 we look forwards to continuing to journey with churches across the diocese, as together we help care for God’s creation.”
When North Sefton began their collective journey in summer 2020 just four in the deanery held Eco Church awards. Those now with Bronze Eco Church awards are: St Stephen, Hightown; Holy Trinity, Formby; St Giles with St Peter, Aintree; St Michael, Blundellsands; St Peter, Maghull (Maghull & Melling Group); St Andrew, Maghull (Maghull & Melling Group); and St James, Maghull (Maghull & Melling Group).
Those now with Silver Eco Church awards are: St Thomas, Melling - (Maghull & Melling Group); All Saints with St Frideswyde, Thornton and Crosby; St Peter, Formby; St Luke, Crosby; St Luke, Formby; St Nicholas, Blundellsands; and St Michael and All Angels, Altcar.
Canon Amanda said churches are now looking forwards to their next Eco Church awards, she said: “We've got a Silver Eco Church award (at St Luke’s Crosby), and our church eco group has just asked PCC if they're happy for us to go for Gold, which we have said yes to. So that's quite a big step, and we've also been working with the diocese on the Net Zero Carbon Programme.
“That's helped us to look further at how we're using our facilities, and how we might reduce our carbon footprint. That support and encouragement from the diocese and Faiths4Change in terms of taking it a step further, has been really helpful.”
For support with your Eco Church journey contact our Net Zero Carbon 2030 Prophetic Lead Annie Merry - email: nzc@faiths4change.org.uk
Please read on for insights St Peter’s church Formby, plus a Q&A about how the group worked together.
Case Study - St Peter’s Church in Formby
Measures to achieve a Bronze and then Silver Eco Church award at the Grade II listed St Peter’s Church in Formby, have included:
- reviewing use of consumables – not using plastic cups, and introducing recycled paper
- fitting remote timers and sensors to control heating and lighting
- stopping mowing periodically to encourage biodiversity on church land
- shredding recycled paper bulletins to be donated to the local stables for bedding
- introducing a community library in the church porch, and veg boxes for the public to enjoy church-grown produce
- including a regular ‘eco tip’ in the church newsletter and an ‘eco window’ for harvest donations
- encouraging the church community to walk where possible, and car share if driving
- arranging a meeting with the local MP to talk about Eco Church activities
- turning off an outside tap and installing a water butt
Vicar at St Luke’s, Rev Canon Anne Taylor, also Area Dean for North Sefton said:
“As a church we’ve always tried to be very environmentally friendly, we got a small group together and we started looking at what we can do, and we got our PCC on board quite easily, because of the other people on the team who also believed in what we were doing.
“Some of the recent changes to gain our Silver award were around how we use the office, what consumables we use and what do we not need, fitting the building with led lights and timers, installing heating timers controlled remotely and putting in sensors in the toilets to turn those lights off.
“Those were some of the more recent things that we’ve done, and we’ve become very aware of what we are using at parish functions, we don’t use plastic, if it means a couple of people have to wash the dishes that’s what we do.
“It’s built in to the way we run things now so the church warden will phone me and ask which bit of the church yard are we not mowing, what sections can we leave uncut.”
“We also accessed Faiths4Change resources and also resources from ARocha.”
Canon Anne said: “A lot of this is common sense. A lot of our paper gets shredded and we take it to the local stables, because they use it for bedding.
“It’s an awareness as well in your congregation of waste.
“You try to encourage people to walk when they can, to car share, and we offer encouragement – we put an eco-tip in the magazine every month with something simple that people can do.
“At harvest we have an eco window – for things like toilet paper to toothbrushes. We have a community library in the porch so that people can drop books in.
“Another thing we did in that group was to arrange a meeting with the local MP to talk about what the church is doing.
“It was very good for our representatives to know they had a voice.”
Canon Anne added: “I also think people have got a lot of fun out of it - when you start seeing the benefit of developing your grounds with things like veg boxes or veg patches, when you start seeing things growing, and places looking used and loved.
“Once people got over the initial hurdle of where do we start, they enjoyed it, and it’s an enjoyment in knowing that you are making a difference.”
“I know how much our church yard is used, and when one of the parishioners started to grow veg it was fun for people to be using the church yard, and there was a note on it saying ‘please take’ – all ready to eat, please help yourself’.”
“You find people sat on the porch looking at the books. I think it’s opening up church yards that they are a place that’s enjoyable to be.”
“At times it this will save you money too - like when we turned off our outside water tap and put in a water butt.”
“We have a Christian responsibility to look after the world around us, and how we are as consumers of that world, but also if you are properly insulated, if you are using the right lightbulbs, all this might save you money in the long run as well.”
How the North Sefton Churches worked together - Q&A
- Area Dean Rev Canon Anne Taylor, vicar at St Peter’s Formby
- Rev Canon Amanda Bruce, Vicar at St Luke’s Crosby
- Rev Ian Hopkins – Team Rector, Maghull and Melling team
Q - How did this come about?
Area Dean Rev Canon Anne Taylor: “We set the intention in July 2020 for every church in the deanery to have an Eco Church award.
“There was a number of us already working towards this in our own churches. We decided that having everyone working towards an award would be the most practical and helpful way forwards.
“We asked for a representative from each church to meet, that was Covid year so it was done on Zoom and Faiths4Change came along to the meeting.
“They met every four to six seeks on Zoom to discuss their progress from September that year, and became a support network for each other’s Eco Church progress. It will be four years in September since we started the main campaign to do this.
“The target was just to keep discussing what can you do, for those who have become eco representatives was a very good support network.
“It’s stayed on our agenda. We discuss it at Chapter meetings, it’s stayed on the DMPC (Diocesan Mission and Pastoral Committee) and Deanery Synod agenda every meeting, even if there wasn’t much to say. It also meant when any church got their award it would always get mentioned.”
“Because this very much had a deanery feel about it, that we are in this committed to it together, helped push it along. Momentum really got going as churches started achieving Bronze or Silver awards.”
Q - How have churches found the process of applying for Eco Church Awards?
Area Dean Rev canon Anne Taylor: “A-Rocha’s Eco Church forms take you through what you need to do.
“It’s a very concise tool and a wonderful gauge to let you know where you are. By answering the questions, you can see what you need to do to move to bronze or your next award.
“Many churches find that because we are already quite environmentally aware, they were already doing quite a bit, and some just needed to do a bit more to get themselves to the point of applying for an award.
“It makes it manageable. It helps people think of different areas they can be working on.”
Faiths4Change have been very good too, whenever I needed speakers or information they’ve been the ones that I’ve approached, and we’ve put churches in touch with them as the place to go for guidance.”
Q – What’s been the role of your eco champions?
Rev Canon Amanda Bruce, Vicar at St Luke’s Crosby: “Having an eco-champion and sharing out the responsibility, has been really crucial. In our church this became a small group who were championing it, now they are the Eco Group, as a sub-committee of PCC.
“So, where they have developed an ethical purchasing policy that's come back through PCC, and been approved – covering things like purchasing cleaning products and how we're managing the churchyard, the Eco Group develop all of that.
“So, it's not reliant on me as vicar, it’s the people championing this, who will then do presentations in church for the congregation about lifestyle and how we do that.”
Rev Ian Hopkins – Team Rector, Maghull and Melling team: “It was helpful to have an eco champion, so in each church we had one person who particularly got the vision and championed it, and until that happened, it didn't really take off.” Paying tribute to a former eco champion David Kearney, who began the work a St Thomas’s church in Melling, Rev Ian added: “For St Thomas’s in the person who had been championing the Eco Church award sadly passed away, and in his memory and honour, they've achieved a Silver award.
Q – Does the Eco Church journey provide any insights as we work towards net zero carbon?
Rev Ian Hopkins – Team Rector, Maghull and Melling team: “It’s important that two things work together, because with the net zero carbon, when you look towards 2030, that looks quite daunting to go from where we are, but actually there’s a stepping stone on the way.
“For a lot of churches, we're in survival mode, and so something like that can just seem like another thing to worry about - and how do we get there? But this (Eco Church) opens up the pathway. It breaks things down into achievable steps.”
“I would say the deanery is key because, as an individual church, this (Eco Church) might not have been on my radar, but for the fact that the deanery were saying, we're doing this, and other people have done it, there’s a sense of being in something together.”
Q – How is this work helping with your mission in local communities?
Rev Ian Hopkins – Team Rector, Maghull and Melling team: “The contact with schools, like the family fun day St Peter’s held, that was a good thing, to do and what’s come out of it in terms of community garden is a direct missional contact. In a wider sense people are seeing the sorts of things churches are doing in their community and that’s good, it’s what they would expect churches to be doing.
Rev Canon Amanda Bruce, Vicar at St Luke’s Crosby: “Our church yard is a direct missional contact, we have so many visitors, and they know how we're keeping it. It often provokes conversations, so people will ask why aren’t you mowing it all, and we can tell them actually it’s because it damages the biodiversity of our church land and it damages, the reproductive cycles and egg laying, of the bugs that live here.
“So, we are talking about how this is God's land, and we want to care for it for Him. So, it does become a missional conversational piece, with local visitors.”
“We've been able to pick up some of the Eco Church liturgy too, and do whole services linked into care for creation, and considering: What are we each doing to care for our bit of creation? Are we recycling? Are we thinking about which bank we bank with? Are we thinking about what light bulbs we use or whether we save water? It is becoming integral to how our churches are.
“If individuals in church are doing this, and they're hearing about it from the eco champions, and it's being taught about in the sermon series or the liturgy you are using, then actually, it starts to change people's understanding how they live in themselves.
“It is about changing lifestyles individually, so where are we making changes in church we can start adopting change in our own lifestyles too, and that means we continue to partner with God in this world.”
“So, it's that ongoing discipleship, what's happening in church starts to encourage individuals to think more.”
Q - What advice can you give to churches starting out on their Eco Church journey?
Area Dean Rev Canon Anne Taylor: “Talk to somebody who’s done it, we can easily find a church with a situation that’s similar.
“People may think they can’t do it because for example they are a small church and they have only got a church yard.
“Get in touch with us and Eco Churches in similar situations. If they are worried about using the tool of Eco Church, get somebody to help them like Faiths4Change.
“We’ve said all along to the churches here if anyone wants to have a conversation, to meet those who have done it, then just ask, link up with others so you hear about some of the things they have done to achieve it.”
Q - What encouragement can you give to churches starting out on the journey?
Area Dean Rev Canon Anne Taylor: “For some churches in our group, they would say if we can do it anyone can.
“There’s quite a lot you can do even for a small church in an old building to achieve a Bronze award, often it’s small changes that can make quite a big difference – looking at things like your consumables, and recycling.
“It can take some time, and that was why it was good for our eco representatives working as a group, supporting them to talk with their PCCs about it.
“At times it was also saying this will save you money – if you do this well, being environmentally friendly can save some money - like when we turned off our outside water tap and put in a water butt.
“A lot of this is down to belief, that there’s enough we can do to make a difference, especially when you have limited resources. It is just belief, and that’s what doing this together has helped people realise - that if everybody’s in this together, then this is important.”