Revd Canon Emma Williams shares the journey St Anne's has been on to be awarded Eco Silver:
"As a church, we have always been conscious of the environment – initially with the basics of recycling and reusing what we could. Over the past eight years or so this has developed in several ways both inside and outside the church building and when we heard about the Eco Church initiative it made sense that we signed up for it and looked for ways to be even more eco-friendly.
The main changes over the past eight years are:
- Stop producing one-off Sunday service booklets by removing the readings, hymns and anthems making the booklets standard as a seasonal weekly option.
- On the rare occasion, notices are only one-sided the paper is collected and used by Creche and Toddler Groups as their colouring sheets.
- Single-use plastics are discouraged with all groups using the hall facilities and instead use of church equipment is encouraged.
- We have changed all our light fittings to LED bulbs which are considerably more efficient.
- All PCC minutes and agendas are sent via email to avoid unnecessary printing and paper waste.
- In our grounds, we have created a wild-flower area, separate ‘managed’ flower beds with bee house and until 3 weeks ago we also had a ‘bug hotel’ which was sadly destroyed by vandals. We will be rebuilding this asap. The managed flower beds also provide many of the flowers for our internal displays.
- We have recently begun to create a water butt system and are looking at ways of how we can maximise this for watering our flower beds during dry spells.
- We have made our own bird boxes which are placed high up on some of the trees in our grounds and have also been sold around the parish to encourage birdlife further afield.
- We have had an Environment Focused Messy Church and are looking at ways for this to continue.
- We were awarded a small grant from Liverpool City Council to buy litter picking equipment etc and so now regularly go out and collect rubbish, not just the church grounds but also from the surrounding streets. This is done predominantly by the young people of our church. (Supervised of course!)
When we were awarded the silver award from the A Roche UK an article explaining the process and environmental issues was published in our magazine and the certificate is displayed in our church hall for all groups to see. As a listed building some aspects of ‘going for gold’ are harder than others – I suspect the possibility of solar panels on the roof would not be high, for example, but we will always continue to do what we can to make the little part of Old Swan that St Anne’s sits in and cares for, a safe haven for all of God’s creatures and a place which gives back to the environment positively rather than negatively takes."
Eco Diocese Update – September 2019
Annie Merry, Faiths4Change writes:
Each year, from 1 September, the Global Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, to 4 October, St Francis of Assisi Day, many Anglicans use the Season of Creation – also known as Creation Time – to pray and celebrate with creation, focus on the story of Earth, and commit to a ministry of healing Earth. Resources on the Anglican Communion website here.
As we celebrate Creation Time we pray for, congratulate, encourage and offer support to each of the 41 registered Eco Churches in our Diocese and those churches who are about to begin this process.
Once registered and signed up to complete the Eco Church programme, Churches complete the Eco Survey questionnaire which covers 5 areas:
Worship & teaching
Buildings
Land
Community & Global
Lifestyle
We can offer support to help churches complete their Survey or to complete any other stage of the process. Please email or call us at Faiths4Change marjorie@faiths4change.org.uk or 0151 705 2111.
As we complete the Eco Survey our answers generate a bronze, silver or gold response..once completed it's clear which award we can apply for and areas that we can plan and prioritise to work on.
It’s also a chance to share our prayers, actions and celebrate with others …Creation Time gives us another opportunity to do this too
Oaks Church, Skelmersdale are celebrating their Eco Church Bronze Award & Creation Time with an Eco Month which has weekly activities from 8th September to 5th October including Family events on Climate Emergency & Exploring Creation; learning from Celtic Christianity; joining the Global Climate Strike in Liverpool and a Forest Church Foraging session.
Check out their Facebook page for more details.
Oaks folk will also be joining us for our joint Faith & Climate Network / Eco Diocese: Food event being held at St Cuthbert's, Croxteth Park (our first Silver Eco Church) on Saturday 21st September 12 -4, the event is multi-faith, family-friendly and free to attend.
It promises to be a real feast from start to finish…welcoming you all with a Local Organic Animal Friendly lunch, followed by informal 5 minute presentations including Hindu Vegetarian Diet & Climate Change; Animal Farming & Eating Less Meat; Christian Aid’s work on Drought Resistant Crops plus hands-on workshops ….make wooden planters & bird feeders, try Indian spices to make tasty treats with leftovers and many more tasty treats. Please book here.
Coming very soon…our very own Eco Diocese Resources page on the Diocesan website.. have your ideas, prayers, actions, stories or anything else that you’d like to see featured? Do please get in touch to share.
Faith, Climate and Food: Practical action, ideas, inspiration & sharing event
21st September 2019 - St Cuthbert's Church, Liverpool
Join the Faith & Climate Network for a family friendly, multi faith gathering full of ideas and action. Book via eventbrite here