This year, as you probably know, is the 10th anniversary of A Rocha UK’s Eco Church programme. You may have seen the Eido report which provides an inspiring summary of what’s been achieved. If you haven’t, here are some of the highlights.
Over 9,000 churches have signed up for Eco Church, from 25 denominations. That’s an impressive 23% of all the churches in England and Wales. Our next target is 40% by 2030. Over 4,700 churches have received an Eco Church award, and over 1,600 of these are silver or gold awards. More than 2,500 churches have decided to invest their funds ethically, and over 2,500 have encouraged their members to use their cars less.
Eco Church does, of course, encourage churches to look after nature, be it on their own land or on community land. The good news is that over 3,000 churches are managing their land to encourage native wildlife.
We would however, like to see more connection between Partners in Action and Eco Churches. There are three Partners in Action that are Eco Churches as well, but clearly, that’s not an option for every Partner in Action. There may well be an Eco Church near you though – you can click here to find out. If there is an Eco Church nearby and you haven’t already, why not make contact? You may have expertise that they would welcome, and they could be a source of volunteers for you – there may even be church members with natural history or other expertise that you could put to good use. One of the barriers to Eco Churches achieving an award is a lack of volunteers – maybe you could help out? And if there’s a church near you that isn’t an Eco Church, could you offer your support to help them become one?
Our prayer for the future is for more connections between Eco Churches and Partners in Action, and that those connections become stronger and stronger. We are, after all, all in this together. Please do think and pray about how you could work more closely with Eco Church.
To read the full report Eido report, click on the link below:
To see the Eco Church map click on this link:
