Eco Church
 


ec-award-buttons-2021---silverWe are delighted to announce that we were successful in our application for a Silver Award on 14th January 2021. We gained the Bronze Award in November 2017 and have been working since then in all categories of the scheme - Worship & Teaching, Management of Buildings and our Land, Community & Global Outreach and Lifestyles.

In the intervening years, the church has refurbished the toilets, corridor and meeting room including many eco features such as increased natural light, double flush loos and automatic lighting systems. We have raised money to Toilet Twin all the toilets, and plan now to raise more to Tap Twin all the taps in the building.

We entered a new contract for our electricity supply in 2019 which is now 100% renewable. We hope to switch to 100% renewable gas this summer, when our existing contract expires.

We have re-designed our small garden to enable more to enjoy a pleasant place for quiet conversation and reflection and be more attractive for wildlife. Bird boxes have been put up, we have tried to feed birds from places the squirrels cannot get at and introduced a bird bath. Our planting for more pollinators is going apace and we have recently installed a water butt to take rainwater from the Centre’s roof. This will be useful in the summer when we hope our children will enjoy watering crops and flowers planned for large tubs by Easter.

We renewed our Fairtrade Church status two years ago. We celebrate annual events such as Show the Love (the Climate Coalition), Fairtrade Fortnight and Earth Hour. These campaigns all highlight our need to curb our carbon emissions in response for our love of God’s creation and the need to raise issues of unjust practices in the production of so many luxuries we enjoy. Our monthly Traidcraft Stall offers the congregation real opportunities to buy ethical fair products which offer growers fair prices and a premium for their communities to develop housing, education, health or training.

Some of us have attended Mass Lobbies of Parliament to campaign for a Green New Future. Nearly 20 of us held a successful meeting with our two Ealing MPs by Zoom in September 2020 to discuss the Environment and Energy Crisis.

In our worship we now schedule regular services focussing on the environment, God’s wonderful gift of this world and encouragement to do all we can to restore and protect it. Prayers and songs in worship frequently reflect these themes. In recent years, the Children’s activities have included regular attention to consider issues about the Natural world too – helping us to understand what they would like in the new garden design, working out how old our oak trees might be and taking part in surveys such as The Big Garden Birdwatch.

So now we begin to consider how we can progress further, while at the same time maintain all the standards we have established.

We welcome anyone with a passion for Creation Care, whether as an enthusiast or with professional interest to contact us through this website.
For more information about Eco Church see https://ecochurch.arocha.org.uk