Dear friends,
Welcome to the autumn edition of Eco Church Connect. We’re aware of sending this at a time of enormous change in the UK with a new King and a new Prime Minister in place. Our environment is also changing around us faster than some scientists predicted, as we’ve seen with devastating consequences in Pakistan and elsewhere.
Thankfully, we believe in a God who is unchanging, the same yesterday, today and forever, and it is with this framing that we celebrate God’s creation and are prompted to act to protect it.
Many churches in fact are taking action; as of September 2022, over 1,900 churches have achieved a bronze and/or silver award. We are also pleased to celebrate 30 churches reaching their gold awards, a significant milestone. A huge congratulations to St Peter's Church Maney, St Mary Magdalene Church Hart, and Christ Church Higher Bebington, who have all achieved their gold awards since our last Eco Church Connect edition.
On the theme of celebrating creation, we’re excited that A Rocha UK will be featured in Songs of Praise at the start of Great Big Green Week. Tune in on Sunday 25 September at 1.15pm. This special edition, ‘Caring for Creation,’ focuses on marking the harvest season. Featured in this episode is a visit to our Foxearth Meadows nature reserve to hear about the transformative power of God’s creation. If you can’t watch the episode on Sunday, you can catch up on BBC iPlayer here afterwards.
This autumn, you can also join us at our upcoming Act for Nature days, and our Wild Christian webinar on the Warm this Winter campaign. You can find more information included below about these events. We also met together yesterday for our final prayer forum of the year. Look out for dates for next year's gatherings in future editions of Eco Church Connect.
We want to support the continuing growth of Eco Church to equip many more to embed caring for creation as a part of their everyday mission. Together we can grow Eco Church and bring care for God's creation into the heart of more communities. Find out more about supporting our Eco Church appeal here and below.
Wishing you every blessing,
The Eco Church Team
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Updates from the Eco Church Community
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Latest updates on our Eco Church programme from Helen Stephens, Church Relations Manager.
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Updates from our Regional Eco Church Officers
Lucy and Delyth, our Regional Officers for northern England and Wales, reflect on their first six months in their posts here.
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Eco Church prayers on UCB Radio as part of Great Big Green Week
The Great Big Green Week is a nationwide celebration of action on climate change, taking place across the UK from 24 September to 2 October.
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Join A Rocha UK staff to pray for our world throughout Great Big Green Week on UCB Radio during their Hour of Prayer. You can listen in from 12-1pm Monday to Friday between 26 – 30 September, on DAB + Radio, smart speaker, the UCB Player app and on the UCB website.
The recorded prayers will also be available on our websites afterwards.
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Eco Church at the Lambeth Conference
We were delighted to be a part of the Lambeth Conference at the Lambeth Palace creation and sustainable development day, where we talked to many bishops from across the world about Eco Church. Read more here.
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Support local churches to care for God’s creation
There is an urgent need for all sectors of society to respond to the climate crisis. Thankfully, the collective power of churches acting together to care for the planet is making a huge difference, and our Eco Church community is at the forefront of this.
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Eco Church enables local churches to act collaboratively across a range of environmental issues. Demand for Eco Church is growing rapidly across denominations. We urgently need funds to meet this opportunity and support local churches to respond to the environmental challenge. We want to raise £50,000 to increase the number of churches and denominations leading the way and caring for God’s earth in partnership with others. Can you help us achieve this?
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Resources and upcoming events
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Act for Nature days - upcoming events in October and November
Our practical conservation and campaigning events offer meaningful opportunities to enjoy, nurture and defend nature at our Partners in Action, including our own two reserves.
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At our most recent Act for Nature Day at Hugh’s Meadow in Northern Ireland, 30 people came to learn how to look after wildflower meadows and wetland areas. A Rocha UK staff and volunteers also gave a guided tour of the site and spoke passionately about the Climate and Ecology bill. Those present were encouraged to write to their MPs to ask them to support the bill. Among the participants was MP for South Antrim, Paul Girvan, who agreed to do just that!
Let us know you’re coming to our forthcoming Act for Nature days at the St Madoc Centre in South Wales (13 October) and Hilfield Friary in Dorset (12 November).
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Campaigning on the climate and cost of living on Thursday 29 September,
7:30 - 8:30pm
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Join A Rocha UK online as part of Great Big Green Week. In the midst of a cost of living crisis, with energy prices set to increase even further and some UK politicians urging more fossil fuel expansion, it’s vital that we tackle poverty in the UK in a way that addresses accelerating climate change without exacerbating the cost of living crisis. Come along to hear from Green Alliance about the new campaign, Warm this Winter.
Find out more and register to attend here.
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A Rocha UK’s Green Quiz
What better way to test your knowledge of all God’s creatures, great and small, than by trying out our new Green Quiz! Bring your church or community together, learn more about creation and, hopefully, have some fun - all while helping to raise funds to equip Christians and churches in the UK to enjoy, nurture and protect nature as part of loving and serving our Creator God. Head over to our website to download the quiz pack.
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Update on A Rocha UK Comms and Resources
We have recently refreshed our A Rocha UK website. Do explore it here, particularly our page on Eco Church. We have also updated our FAQ page on the Eco Church website, so do take a look to see if this may answer any questions you might have.
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We are currently producing new resources to support Eco Churches to take action in their closed churchyards and consider sustainable sourcing of church flowers. Watch this space for these on our resources page later this autumn.
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Creationtide and harvest resources
For resources around Creationtide and harvest, including how to take practical action - such as campaigning that countries in the Global South, be compensated for loss and damage caused by climate change - do look at our new resource co-written by A Rocha UK and Christian Aid. There is also a list of resources for 2022 from Churches Together in Britain and Ireland.
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A Rocha UK Vacancies
Could you be our next Wolf Fields Reserve Manager or Office Manager?
We have an exciting opportunity for the right person to oversee the management of our urban nature reserve in West London, Wolf Fields (pictured to the right).
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We are also looking for an experienced Office Manager, to join our office team in Brentford, to supervise the daily operations of our organisation and implement the most efficient administrative procedures.
See here for the full job descriptions and details of how to apply. Please share these opportunities with anyone you think would be a great candidate.
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Green Christian Conference ‘Building Back Greener: Christian perspectives on the future of our economy, money and work’
Join Green Christian’s ‘Building back greener?’ event asking what it might mean to build a genuinely sustainable, low-carbon economy and what distinctive contributions Christians can make. All are welcome to attend online on Friday 7 October and in Birmingham on Saturday 8 October. Find out more and register here.
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Season of Creation and Harvest-themed stories, now available on our Eco Church stories page
Hear from:
Do also take a look at our new reflection on 'Rest' by Lucy Foster, our Regional Officer for Northern England, a helpful reminder for whatever season we find ourselves in.
Be inspired to get out into nature this autumn. Julia from our Wild Christian community shares her nature connection challenge: “After spending a lot of time outside this summer, I didn’t want to automatically go back to my mainly indoors, desk-based life as Autumn approached. So I set myself a nature connection challenge: to have a regular “nature snack” where I sit (or stand or walk slowly) outside once a day for at least 5 minutes and give myself time to re-connect, wonder and just be.” Read on to find out how Julia’s challenge went here.
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