At the beginning of 2019, Bishop Paul called for the Diocese of Liverpool to work together to achieve the Gold Eco Diocese Award. He appointed Faiths4Change to lead this challenge who coordinated a team of lay, clergy and Merseyside Christian Aid representatives to support this urgent climate change work.
In January, St Martin's Church in Kirkby was our lone Bronze Awarded Eco Church.
Now 11 churches have achieved Bronze, Silver and Gold awards. St James House and Liverpool Cathedral have achieved Bronze Awards, Bishops Lodge a Silver and Bishop’s Lodge Gardens Gold. We have 52 registered Eco Churches - almost a quarter of our churches have committed to active stewardship to reduce the threat of climate and ecological disaster.
We're now celebrating achieving our Bronze Eco Diocese Award - we are only the 7th diocese in the country to achieve this award.
Helen Stephens from Arocha UK, the coordinators of the Eco Diocese programme said,
"It's only as I've read through your submission that I've realised just how far you've progressed with Eco Church as a Diocese in barely the space of a year! It's an amazing achievement and well done to you all on reaching this milestone."
Annie Merry, Faiths4Change Chief Executive Officer said,
“We thank all who have begun this journey with us, for your inspiration, prayers and overcoming challenges to ensure success.
“The mission is Gold and the next step is Silver; we are so pleased to be leading and supporting this vital mission of active stewardship to care for God's earth beyond this year and into 2020."
Bishop Paul said,
“It’s been a massive achievement to get the Eco Bronze diocese award. To go from one church at the beginning of the year has been a tremendous effort and I thank all involved in bringing this about. For the churches who have embraced this, all staff at St James House and my colleagues here at the Lodge the impact has been huge.
“But it is not enough. This is not about getting a plaque or a badge. As we are daily reminded in the news the stewardship of this planet is vital and our responsibility as Christians to step up and lead in this challenge is immense.
“God gave us this world as a gift and we must secure His creation for all. So we will keep working at this in 2020, pushing to get the silver award also that we can show true leadership on the environment and make a bigger difference in the world.”