St James’ Church has recently been awarded Silver Eco-Church Status.

Eco Church is a learning community of churches of all shapes and sizes and is open to all denominations. It is an online framework to support and inspire churches and their leadership to take practical action on caring for God’s earth.

Award levels are decided by achieving ‘points’ in a unique, online survey that enables churches to both record what they are already doing to care for God’s earth and to reflect on what further steps they can take to that end and then act accordingly.

The survey covers all areas of church life: Worship and Teaching; Management of Church Buildings and Land; Community and Global Engagement; and Lifestyle. As such, it challenges churches to act in respect of the songs they sing and the food they serve; of the energy they use and of the ethics of their investments; of the wildlife that finds a home on their land and of the water that flushes their loos; and so on…!

Along with the survey, Eco Church provide a whole suit of online resources to help churches undertake the actions recommended in each of the five areas of the survey. These include: sermon outlines; youth materials; guides on food co-operatives and looking after church land in wildlife-friendly ways; and a lifestyle audit, to name but a few.

St James’ Church is delighted that the work over the last year to improve our care for God’s earth and to reduce our carbon footprint, especially with regards to how we heat our buildings and reducing the amount of printing thanks to the installation of the new AV system.

We look forward to “Going for Gold” over the next 12 months…watch this space to see if we achieve it!