Creation Care – what have you been up to?
We would really like to hear how you have been caring for creation in your church services, youth and children’s work, cell or house groups and in the community. Or if you have made changes to your church building to lower your carbon footprint do get in touch and share your photos and a brief write up about your activities.
Your photos and stories will help to inspire others.
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St Thomas’ Church, Mellor
The eco group, led by ordinand Clare Jackson, up in Mellor have reformed and have almost completed theirEco Church Bronze Award. Members of the local church, the school and the community have been helping to plant trees on the farm just above the church where a rewilding project is underway. Widening the Eco Church activities outside the church grounds builds links with the community and helps to care for creation all over the parish.
The rewilding project at Meadow’s Farm is reclaiming some under used agricultural land. The farmer, Rob Allen, has spent about six years removing rubbish, replacing fences with hedges and returning the land to wetland ponds. The next project will be to uncover the drains to become waterways to connect the ponds. They have breeding pairs of curlews back on the land, all the owls, deer moving through now because they have taken the livestock fencing out which has led to these great nature and biodiversity wins.
The wire livestock fencing has been removed and has been replaced with a mixed hedge of beech, birch, holly, hazel and dog rose. The aim is to increase to eight hectares of mixed woodland. The project was possible through funding and help of the Cheshire Wildlife Trust.
The success of the project so far has not just been because of funding for tree planting. It has worked because the local wider community has connected so enthusiastically; it has brought hope for people wanting to change their mindset from doom to positive action; through looking after God’s creation, they are building trust and hope back into their own lives, and for the future of their children too.
Eco Church Survey Link – Land & Nature 6, 11
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St John and the Holy Cross, Cotebrook
Church Warden W
alter Gibson has been promoting Eco Church and telling others about how their church has been increasing biodiversity in the church yard. Walter has written a great blog article detailing what the church has done and how this links to their Eco Church work.
Walter was recently asked to talk at the Cheshire Wildlife Trust AGM which was held at Jodrell Bank. The talk was very well received, and Walter made some great contacts.
Please read Walter’s blog on the Cheshire Wildlife Trust’s website at the link below.
Inviting Biodiversity into a Churchyard | Cheshire Wildlife Trust
Eco Church Survey Link – Land & Nature 2, 3, 4
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St Philip and St James, Alderley Edge
Alderley Edge has been making some environmental strides and has amongst other things a Grand Bug Hotel. There’s room for all sorts of creepy crawlies and minibeasts in there! Well done all at Alderley Edge.
Eco Church Survey Link – Land & Nature 3
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St Catherine’s Tranmere achieves Eco Church Silver
Cathy from the Environment Forum let us know how her church worked together to gain a Silver Eco Church Award.
This was an all-round team effort of our inner-city parish Eco and Ministry teams.
In section 1 Worship and Teaching our Families Worker, Charlotte, has done great work with 2 local schools and our own children’s groups in teaching them about creation, including visits to our garden.
The wardens, Ron and Sue, have been busy attending to LED lighting, insulation where we can, use of earth friendly chemicals for cleaning etc.
Our garden team, Judy, Jean and others, have planted fruit trees and bushes and strawberries, as well as having 2 compost bins, a stick pile and a bird box as well as over 100 species of plant (Count on Nature 2023) in our very small garden.
Photos: (1) The line of fruit trees - Plum, apple, pear, cherry underplanted with rosemary and strawberries. (2) The herb bed. Arocha Eco Church questionnaire encourages us to grow fruit and vegetables on our land. Photos – with thanks to Hannah Terry.
In the community we have contributed to mental health benefits by running a drop-in afternoon on Wednesdays and planting several thousand spring bulbs in odd patches of grass in the parish. This year will be our third Great Big Green week in cooperation with the local mosque and schools, trying to get the community on board with climate and biodiversity issues. During the week we have litter picks, clearing grot spots, restoring run down areas of green, running a climate/biodiversity Quiz, a plant share afternoon, a repair café, and an exhibition in the main Birkenhead library in our parish.
As far as lifestyle is concerned there are regular articles in our parish magazine giving tips on reducing our carbon footprint and we have attempted to get everyone to do a carbon footprint assessment which is difficult as many do not have internet access. They also don’t have cars which suggests their carbon footprint is quite low. Overall a great team effort.
Photo: (3) St Catherine’s Church Tranmere beautiful pocket garden. Photo Hannah Terry.
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Mike Jones has shared news about a recent event. St Marks, Lache cum Saltney had a ministry day when people could sign up to new activities. They have a 'Friends Of St Marks Eco Church' (FOSMEC) group who are promoting green activities and support eco initiatives. They have had 10 new people sign up which is a great encouragement as they start preparing to work towards their gold award.
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Jane Hill from St Mary’s Upton has shared some snaps from their recent Living Lightly and Sustainability Fair.
Jane says - We served Fairtrade refreshments throughout the morning and had a two-course LOAF lunch.
Stalls were run by church members, A Rocha UK, Tearfund, Flourish Bees, a local community group who brought along their local honey for sale, and a local Co-op provided all the goods for the Fairtrade Stall and were very enthusiastic and helpful. They helped with the stall and gave us a donation of money and a cake for the lunch.
My Eco Church Stall displayed photos and items relating to all five areas of the Eco Church Award Questionnaire and people asked me questions and discussed the issues with me.
The Chair of our St Mary’s Eco Group ran a display and gave out leaflets and magazines about A Rocha International, which started from St Mary’s 40 years ago.
The Energy Saving at Home and Recycling stalls included quizzes, as well as displays.
People could learn how to make a waxed food wrap to take home and bring in items for repair on the Repair Stall.
There was also a very popular clothes swap and an opportunity to sample and order Eco-Friendly cleaning products.
This was the first time we have run a Fair like this (although we have hosted many other different ones) and Jane suggests that personal invitations to friends, neighbours could increase footfall. All the stalls and the refreshments and LOAF lunch were very popular, and the stall holders had lots of interesting conversations. We can definitely recommend the venture, although it involved a lot of hard work.