One of the Church of England Five Marks of Mission is “To strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of the earth”. Creation care is not simply an add-on to the usual business of being a church – it is integral. As Christians we believe that God is our Creator. He not only created the world that we might live in it, but he also gave us stewardship of it.  

St Giles has signed up to the Eco church scheme which provides practical guidance and advice, across five categories:

· Worship and teaching,
· Management of church buildings,
· Management of church land,
· Community and global engagement, 
· Lifestyle.

We are currently a Silver Eco Church

If you'd like to do more to protect the environment, but aren't sure where to start, a good way to identify opportunities for you and your family to make improvements is to complete an environmental footprint questionnaire – WWF do a good one which can be found at https://footprint.wwf.org.uk

Here are our latest Eco tips for 2024:

Making your own compost for the garden.

Have you thought about making your own compost but don’t have the space?

If you’ve only got a small space, put leaves in a black plastic bag and leave them to break down into compost. It’s a slow process but can be speeded up by adding two shovels of garden soil to the bag to provide microbes to break down the leaves and a shovel of manure that’s high in nitrogen. Water the contents to increase activity. It’ll take between 6 and 12 months for the leaves to decompose. An alternative to this is to use an open compost heap or a compost bin if you do have space.

Leaf compost is rich in minerals, will benefit microbes in the soil and can be used in place of wood chips as a mulch. It reduces rain runoff, helps to control weeds and works to regulate soil temperature and although it might take longer it’s a cheaper alternative to buying either mulch or compost.

Whenever you remove compost from your bin or bag, always check for any wildlife that might be hiding in there!

Helping our local Hedgehogs over the winter months.

Seen a hedgehog lately? Numbers are in serious decline in rural areas – numbers have fallen by 50% since the millennium. They usually hibernate between November and March, and there are lots of things you can do to help them in your garden, including:

· Leave a corner of your garden "wild",

· Make sure your garden is connected - with gaps in any fences - so hedgehogs can move between green space,

· Check hedges and undergrowth before strimming or clipping,

· Make a home for hedgehogs to hibernate.

Using your LOAF when buying food 

The decisions we make when buying food can have far reaching effects on our environment and sustainability. Using LOAF principles as a guide can help make a big difference. LOAF stands for Locally Sourced, Organic, Animal Friendly and Fairly Traded More information can be found here

Finally, for more inspiration visit the Eco church Eco Tips for 2024 page 

Joint Benefice Eco church working group

If you are interested in getting involved in our Eco church work across the joint benefices, or would like to find out more, we would be delighted to hear from you – please contact Phillip Neal on 07714 895175 or [email protected]