Revd Karen West of St Mary-the-Virgin, Slichester reflects on their experience of caring for their churchyard with help from children from their local C of E school:
Having made our commitment to care for God’s creation in support of Greening Silchester; the national Caring for God’s Acre initiative and our sign-up to the A Rocha Green Church awards, the church family and the children of Silchester School have been busy over this past month taking all kinds of activities in support of all three.
On June 2nd our First Sunday service saw us head off from the church across the road to the fields opposite to pray for a good harvest and for all those who produce our food. We were blessed with beautiful weather as we processed and sang; learning about what is grown locally and the challenges of climate change in the Spring of 2024.
The following Thursday, June 6th, we welcomed to the churchyard 33 Year 5 pupils from Silchester School who enjoyed an afternoon of activities as part of their well-being week on what nature does for us and what in return we can do for nature.
In rotation, groups constructed a bug hotel; carried out a nature count to submit to the national count of wildlife in English churchyards; discovered all kinds of fascinating facts about both our ancient yew tree; and weeded and planted in the churchyard and the nature inspired pew ends in the church building. Between them, in just an hour, the children spotted no less than 17 species of birds and wildlife; 12 kinds of flowers and greenery and four different trees!
Photo credits: Karen West
The church family of St Mary-the-Virgin is looking forward to making a contribution to the Greening Silchester project and challenging ourselves to take action towards achieving the A Rocha Bronze award – and that’s just for starters, so watch this space!
