Eco Church at St Andrew's
St Andrew's wants to play its part in ensuring the future of our planet. In the face of apocalyptic warnings it’s easy to feel helpless and ineffective. Many of us conscientiously recycle our plastic, paper, and aluminium and take our own bags to the supermarket but would like to do more.
To this end, St Andrew’s Church has decided to participate in
A Rocha’s Eco Church project, an award-based system that supports churches in “caring for God’s world”. The online survey focuses on five key areas of church life:
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Worship and teaching
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Management of church buildings
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Management of church land
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Community and global engagement
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Lifestyle (click here for useful local links)
The points scored contribute towards a bronze, silver or gold award. Several churches in our local area have enrolled in this programme; some have already received their bronze award. You can read all the survey questions
here.
The project was launched at our Harvest Festival in 2019 and an open meeting for those interested on 10 October that year. By the Harvest festival in 2020 we had almost achieved the Bronze award despite the prolonged lockdown. We have now achieved our Bronze award and are working towards Silver.
Using the online survey as a guide, St Andrew’s has made a number of key changes in the ways that it operates to become more sustainable and ‘environmentally friendly’ as part of our Christian discipleship. Acts such as reviewing where food for our meals come from, what energy supplier we use, how we pray and how we teach our children about environmental issues and our stewardship of God’s earth encourage us to perceive ourselves as part of nature and not separate from it. Supporting each other in making such small positive changes is vital and helps to remind us that we should
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.” Margaret Mead