We held our Ministry Area Eco workshop at St Michael’s Church, Llanvihangel Crucorney on Thursday 21st November. Many churches were represented from Penrhos to Cwmyoy and everywhere in between! We were lucky to welcome Archdeacon Stella Bailey to host our talk. Stella leads on the Environmental branch of the Diocesan Vision and was keen to share with us how we can be better stewards of God’s Creation.
A large focus was on the Eco Church Award, a programme run by A Rocha UK which encourages churches to make as many environmental differences as we can. It follows a simple online survey which asks a range of questions to help assess if a church is eligible for the Bronze, Silver or Gold Award. We hope all 17 of our churches will be able to achieve their Bronze Award.
Stella stressed we should not “let the perfect be the enemy of the good”, but that all small changes could make a difference to our impact on the Earth. She was also positive many of our churches will already be making these changes, possibly without realising. Examples could include:
- Areas of ‘wild churchyard’ which are deliberately left un-mowed to allow for lots of pollinating creatures.
- Churches only powered by electricity can ask their provider to switch to Green Tariff, helping them reach the NetZero goal.
- Special services celebrating creation care such as Rogation Sunday.
We discussed lots of other ideas like more energy efficient lightbulbs/heating, measuring our churches’ carbon footprints, ethically focussed shopping, etc. We concluded that as Christians it is important we implement what is being preached in church and prioritise environmental change. You can register your church for the Eco Church Survey at:
