
Our Church caring for God's earth
In 2021, A Rocha was a Mission focus for WBC, and this meant that not only did we give to the work of this Christian charity but we also decided to act - putting creation care into practice as a Church community. We recognise that addressing the climate emergency is a matter of Biblical stewardship of creation but also an urgent international social justice issue and increasingly a mental health issue as we see a massive rise in eco-anxiety.
But we are GOOD NEWS people and with God's help we can make a huge difference if we act now and everyone gets involved!
In May 2021 the Eco Church group met together for the first time to begin to audit how well (or badly) we are doing already, and decide on first steps... We came away with lots to do already and will report back here on what we're doing, and how you as an individual can help from home!
What is Eco Church?
"From meditation to insulation, from location to invocation, loving God and his creation should impact everything in our church lives." This is why A Rocha UK has developed Eco Church – an award scheme for churches of all denominations in England and Wales who want to demonstrate care for God’s earth. Eco Church will help us ‘go green’ in all areas of church life, from worship to buildings management, outreach to personal lifestyle of church members. And the work we do will all count towards a prestigious Bronze, Silver or Gold Eco Church Award.
The online survey we have started completing takes us through 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
So you can expect to see and hear a lot more about the environment in services and communications as we make changes going forward and encourage you to get on board!
We have started an Eco Church blog:
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Being Imperfect
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An Outdoors Faith
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Cleaning up our act
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Should Christians be Activists?
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Swift nest boxes
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Up with weeds!
For more information contact any of the Eco Church team: Nick Gough, Rachel Tole, Roger Scammell, Heather Wright and Marie Hooper, or email
ecochurch@wallingfordbaptist.co.uk.