The Eco Church asks a series of comprehensive questions and score you with three levels,a bronze, silver and gold.
The topics are;
- worship and teaching
- building
- land
- community
- global engagement and lifestyle.
By completing this scheme we have learnt so much more on how to become more eco-friendly and have set ourselves challenges to develop even better practice. The hope is to be carbon neutral by 2030!
The award is helping St. Mary’s Church improve the conditions for it’s native wildlife in the graveyard. One of the many things that we have done to develop our graveyard is to introduceseveral wildlife houses with the great help and advice from our local Wildlife Trust Officer, Nathan.
This has included erecting bird, bat and hedgehog houses. We have also built our very own bug hotel and reptile habitat alongside our mini pond. None of this would have been possible without the brilliant help from our Messy Church children. They have been so passionate about becoming more eco-friendly and are looking forward to seeing more native wildlife around our church. We have created an awesome “living graveyard” and are so grateful for the interest both the children and adults have shown to these mini projects. We are also developing an area where lots of wonderful wildflowers can grow. It is very exciting to see new life coming into our graveyard, from birds, bees and tiny insects
We are enjoying growing our community connections with the village. The following have happened: a charity collection of food for P.A.T.C.H, litter picking around the village and a Book Bring and Borrow is set up in the church.
We are also organising a collection in the community of lightly worn clothing. This scheme is known as Bag2school where the countries of Eastern and Western Europe, Africa and Asia. All to benefit the Circular Economy. Please get in touch if you would like to know more about how you can donate to this.
We plan to increase events by holding guest speakers and gatherings at our church and inviting the other churches in our parish to join us. The overall aim is to share ideas and to help everyone improve their eco status.
Looking to the future our ambition is to research and hopefully create an eco-toilet somewhere in the graveyard. We have no mains water into the church, therefore we feel this would be the best way forward.
You can look at our gallery to see what we have been up to and our what’s on list to see the upcoming events we have in our diary. Please feel free to visit or contact us.