Eco Church
Eco Church is a project run by A Rocha UK, a Christian charity working to protect and restore the natural world and committed to equipping Christians and churches in the UK to care for the environment.
Churches can join the project by taking actions in five key areas of church life to demonstrate care for God’s creation. Those key areas are:
- Worship and teaching
- Buildings
- Land
- Community and global engagement
- Lifestyle
There are three levels of award: bronze, silver and gold. The more actions your church takes, the higher the level of award. In our diocese we currently have 31 churches that have received at least a bronze award, with some attaining silver and one reaching gold (you can view them all on this map). We would love to see more churches taking part in the project, and it is so easy to be involved. Find out more on our Eco Church page here.
Climate Stewards
Climate Stewards is part of the A Rocha family of organisations, caring for God’s creation around the world. They have been offering high quality carbon offsets since 2007 and now work with many hundreds of individuals, charities and churches to provide advice and support in their carbon reduction journey.
Climate Stewards can help you to measure your carbon footprint, reduce what you can and offset the rest. They work with trusted community projects which bring multiple local benefits alongside carbon mitigation.
Energy footprint tool
You can measure the carbon footprint of your church by using the Church of England’s Energy Footprint Tool. It uses some information already held by the Church of England and some information you input from your energy bills to reach a calculation.
Full details are here, and the place to measure your energy footprint is on the online Parish Returns System here (someone from your church – the vicar or a churchwarden – will have a log-in and password for this page).
Resources, updates and links
The Great Big Green Week is the UK's biggest ever celebration of community action to tackle climate change and protect nature, organised by the Climate Coalition. This year it runs from Saturday 8th to Sunday 16th June.
The Havant Climate Alliance is organising a number of activities and are encouraging organisations, churches and schools to get involved. You can find out more here.
Caring for God’s Acre was established in 2000 as a national charity, promoting the conservation of burial sites and supporting the people who look after and maintain them.
Many burial sites are managed by a few volunteers who are keen to preserve both the monuments and the wildlife but want guidance on how best to achieve this. Care for God’s Acre’s input can help to preserve rare species of plants and wildflowers and they advise on management of grassland to encourage wildlife whilst still allowing access to visitors and relatives. Issues such as lichen on gravestones and monuments falling into disrepair are also part of their remit and they run a telephone and email advice service for burial ground managers, signposting to other experts if required.
Operation Noah is a Christian charity working with the Church to inspire action on the climate crisis. They work with local and national churches to address the climate crisis, particularly through their Bright Now campaign which encourages churches to divest from fossil fuels and invest in climate solutions, such as renewable energy. The Bright Now campaign is also starting to work with churches on nature-based solutions, from increasing tree cover to other environmentally-sensitive ways of managing church land. They are faith-motived, science-informed and hope-inspired, and aim to help Christians engage through theology, campaigning, equipping, prayer and partnerships.
Climate Emergency Toolkit
The Climate Emergency Toolkit provides a route map to help all members of your church or Christian organisation respond to the climate emergency with simple but powerful actions that will have an impact far beyond your own walls. As your church works through the three steps of Prepare, Declare and Impact, browse the tools on offer and choose a selection which will most help your community take action. If you’re looking for more ideas, there is also got a blog which is updated with new relevant tools as they are launched.
Find out more about the Toolkit in the video below:
Creation Care
The Creation Care scheme aims to encourage households to make changes to care for God’s earth. Wherever households are on their creation care journey, they want to provide ideas for their next steps, and recognise progress that’s made. The scheme covers 7 areas of household life: Worship and prayer; Home; Garden; Travel; Food; Possessions; and Community and global engagement.
You can enter the scheme by completing a questionnaire that covers each of these areas. This will tell you how well your household is doing at each of these aspects of caring for creation, and hopefully give you ideas of ways you can improve. Click here for details and to sign up.
Creation Matters!
Creation Matters! is a network of individuals, from churches across the Isle of Wight, that seeks to encourage and inspire creation care on and around the Island. We seek to bring hope and practical good news to the places where we live through innovative community engagement. The aim is to encourage and inspire creation care through developing an understanding of the Christian response to climate change and improving biodiversity. Anybody can join the network on the understanding that it is distinctly a Christian initiative. You can find out more via email.
Environment and net zero officers
Steve Collins, formerly the Deputy Diocesan Secretary of Guildford Diocese, has moved into the new role of Net Zero Carbon Programme Manager for the dioceses of Portsmouth, Guildford and Chichester from January 2024.
Steve’s role is enabled through national funding that is also paying for David Cain (pictured left), Diocesan Building Development Officer, to also take on the role of Diocesan Environment Officer. The funding has also enabled Matt Lockwood, part-time communications officer, to also take on the role of part-time net zero carbon Support Officer to work with David and Steve.
The roles taken on by David and Matt will be in addition to the diocesan environmental group that has been promoting and supporting parish initiatives on green issues. They will be helping us to measure the carbon consumption in our parishes, and to access grants, advice and support that can help our churches to reduce our reliance on carbon consumption.
Upcoming Events
-
18 January, IN: Environment
Net Zero Carbon conference 2025
An inspirational, interactive and practical day conference to help you on your NZC journey. Guest ... read more
-
13 February, IN: Environment
Eco Church Prayer Forum
Join the A Rocha UK churches team and Eco Church community to pray together online ... read more
-
17 February, IN: Environment
Webinar: From audit to action
This webinar, hosted by the Diocese of Guildford’s net zero team, will consider how to ... read more
One parish project
Discover how worshippers in one part of the Isle of Wight are putting environmental sustainability at the top of their priority list:
Previous Environment newsletters
2024
- December 12th, Environment and NZC update
- December 3rd, Environment and NZC update
- October 23rd, Environment and NZC update
- October 10th, Environment and NZC update
- September 24th, Save the date for our first NZC conference in 2025
- September 10th, Environment and NZC update
- August 21st, 100% completion for the Energy Footprint Tool
- July 24th, One week left to complete the Energy Footprint Tool
- July 17th, A message from Bishop Jonathan
- July 1st, Meet us at the Archdeacons Visitations
- June 19th, Join the #ChurchyardChallenge this summer
- June 5th, World Environment Day
- May 22nd, The Eco Church criteria is changing
- May 8th, Great Big Green Week
- April 30th, Getting an Eco Church bronze award
- April 17th, Just over two months left
- March 19th, EFT launched
Autumn 2023
- Steve Collins announced as Net Zero Carbon Programme Manager for the dioceses of Portsmouth, Guildford and Winchester. Steve begins his role in January 2024.
July 2022
- New C of E rules about obtaining faculties for alterations to church buildings are implemented from July 1. They give more weight to those changes that will help towards the drive for our churches to become carbon net zero. Click here for information.
November 2021
- The Church of England’s lead bishop on the environment, the Rt Rev Graham Usher, urges us to keep up the moral pressure after the COP26 United Nations summit in Glasgow. Read his thoughts here.
May 2021
- Eco Church Newsletter, May 2021
February 2021
- The national Church of England has reported back on progress with the drive towards its zero net carbon goal for 2030. You can read about that here.
- Lent resources from the Anglican Communion Environment Network:
- Planting Seeds of Hope, forty devotions on care for Creation in memory of Bishop Ellinah
- Carbon Fast for Lent: “Build Forward Better”:
- Bishop Ellinah’s Memorial Service: The Anglican Communion Environmental Network held a memorial service for Bishop Ellinah.
November 2020
- The Church Times has published an article suggesting that if the whole church were to commit to reducing its carbon footprint, the net-zero target set by General Synod can be achieved. Click here to download the article.
July 2020
- The online form to register interest in this year’s Energy Audit season will go live on Friday 24 July and will be open until 30 September. The audits themselves will take place from October - March. Click here for full details.
June 2020
- Several bishops have signed a powerful statement by the Anglican Communion Environmental Network on Environmental Racism. The statement is compelling; it sets out the intersection between systematic racism and environmental issues, and stressed that black lives matter in all countries.
National C of E environmental initiatives
Shrinking the Footprint is the Church of England’s national environmental campaign. It can provide resources to help you take action on the environment. Find out more here.
And Churches Together is calling for churches to hold a Climate Sunday service. It is urging all local churches, denominations, ‘streams’ and networks to hold a climate-focused service - ideally on 6 September, but definitely during the period between September 1 and October 4, which is recognised by a growing number of denominations as ‘Creationtide’.
Visit the Church of England’s website under environment-and-climate-change for advice, resources, guidance, case studies latest news and ways to save money through ‘Parish Buying’
Environmental Advisory Group
The members of the Diocese Environmental Advisory Group are:
- Rachel Houlberg, Secretary to the Bishop of Portsmouth
- Giles Chapman, DAC Chair
- Sue Bowen, Education team
- Jenny Owen, parishioner Hayling Island
Please email Rachel Houlberg to get in touch with the advisory group here.
Links:
Find out more from various organisations who can link faith and care for the environment together, such as:
Net Zero Carbon Programme Manager
Steve Collins
Funded by the National Church Office, and working across the dioceses of Portsmouth, Chichester and Guildford, Steve provides strategic support to the implementation of our NZC plan, including ensuring opportunities are maximised for shared working and learning.
T: 01483 790326
E: email
Diocesan Environment Officer
David Cain
Helping parishes to measure their carbon consumption, and gain access to grants, advice and support that can help churches to reduce their reliance on carbon consumption.
T: 023 9289 9687
E: email
Net Zero Carbon Support Officer
Matt Lockwood
Working with the DEO and NZC Programme Manager to support parishes with engaging in projects and initiatives to become carbon neutral.
T: 023 9289 9675
E: email
Matt works on NZC Wednesday and Friday
Carbon Confidence
Carbon Literacy®: “An awareness of the carbon costs and impacts of everyday activities, and the ability and motivation to reduce emissions, on an individual, community and organisational basis.”
Carbon Literacy ® is a term used to describe an awareness of climate change, and the climate impacts of mankind’s everyday actions. The term has had occasional use in scientific literature and casual usage but now is exclusively associated with The Carbon Literacy Project. Carbon Literacy is the knowledge and capacity required to create a positive shift in how mankind lives, works and behaves in response to climate change.
Using content produced by The Carbon Literacy Project and the national Church of England Environment team, we can provide a ‘Carbon Confidence in an Hour’ seminar to help people who are interested in environmental issues and learning more about the climate crisis that our planet is experiencing become more literate in the science and research that is informing the call and push for reducing carbon output and moving away from fossil fuel-based systems.
Click here to register your interest in hosting a seminar in your parish, benefice or deanery. Depending on interest we may connect you with neighbouring parishes to hold the seminar. There is no cost, and attendance to the seminar would be free.
