St Mary's is on a journey to better protect, nurture and celebrate God's creation. As part of this, the PCC formed an Eco Working Group tasked with leading on this and also meeting the Church of England's Net Zero Carbon by 2030 goal. 

As part of this, in February 2024 we registered with the Eco Church scheme and completed the Eco survey to better understand what we are doing well already and where we can improve further. With a few quick wins, we were able to achieve the Bronze Award in April. Hopefully you have seen the further improvements across the  5 areas of  

1. Worship + Teaching – Creation services, prayers

2. Buildings - Energy conservation / usage, recycling

3. Land – Land management , wild flowers and mowing policy, bird boxes / bird feeders

4. Community & Global Engagement – Repair Café / litter pick on prayer walks

5. Lifestyle – Fairtrade Church

 By taking these actions we have now been awarded a Silver Award In September 2024. 

This is an amazing achievement but we are keen to take even better care of nature and engage with the whole community to raise awareness. We welcome help from any members of the congregation or wider community to join us on the journey.  https://ecochurch.arocha.org.uk/