Here's a message from Grace on the eco mission for Manchester Cathedral:

"I have been very grateful for the warm welcome that I have received at the Cathedral and am excited to get stuck into some interesting missional projects. With my role as Diocesan Environment Officer, one area that I am keen to develop further is our Eco Cathedral status. A great deal of good work has already been undertaken in this area – with our ground source heat pumps, bees on the roof and our interfaith and civic collaboration, particularly the Our Faith Our Planet group convened by the Cathedral.

Throughout the bible we are reminded of the gift of creation that God has entrusted into our hands. We are also reminded that the greatest commandments are to love God with all that we have, and love our neighbour as ourselves. Loving God and our neighbour involves taking care of what God has gifted to us and striving to ensure that our actions do not cause harm. We know already that the changing climate, caused by human action, is hugely affecting our siblings across the world as extreme weather events become more frequent. And we are starting to see this here – this Autumn has been unseasonably warm, which affects the balance of ecosystems.

Therefore, we are committed that the life of the Cathedral reflects this call to tread carefully on the earth and support people who may be facing hardship due to climate change. Over the next few months, I will be undertaking an audit and implementing small changes that will help us further meet this call. I would be delighted to hear from you about what you are doing and any ideas that you might have to support our Eco Cathedral journey. It is often the small changes that make a big difference – and it would be good for us all to think about what changes we can make personally as part of this journey. It could be as simple as taking public transport once a week instead of the car, maybe going meat free one day a week, or switching to fairtrade.

I often quote the theologian Miroslav Volf, who defines hope as ‘acts of love that stretch into the future’. The climate crisis can feel very overwhelming at times, but together, in the small acts that we can do, we can stretch love into the future and be people of hope. I look forward to the journey we will take together in this Cathedral community."