Ecochurch: Taking Action for Future Generations

The Church of England wants churches to take a stand on the ecological challenges we face. The diocese is encouraging all of us to better support our church as stewards of God’s creation.

We can do this by participating in Ecochurch, which is an award scheme that recognises the work done by churches to care for the Earth. Churches complete a survey covering a wide range of questions such as how well they are caring for the wildlife in their churchyards or how environmentally friendly their church buildings are. Depending on the answers given by each church, they can work towards an award, and All Saints Church and St. Mary’s Churches already have Bronze Awards. We are not doing this just as a box-ticking exercise to get an award. The award scheme is a means of motivating us as a church to bring about ecological change in our daily lives.

St Nicholas DCC has voted for us, as a church, to start on this journey. The advisory group has just started work, and we will be giving progress reports. We will be reaching out to other members of the church, and the wider community, to see how we can work together. It will start with small conversations about everything from compost heaps and bug hotels to a new church boiler. It could move on to ask all of us important questions about what we can do to avoid waste, to save energy, to reduce our carbon footprint and to care for the natural world.

The plan is for us to embed caring for the Earth into our church life. You can expect to hear a lot more about this project in our worship and as a church community.

Contact the team on eco@stnicholas.parishofharpenden.org