Two churches in our diocese were recently awarded Silver Eco-Church Awards, an accreditation from A Rocha UK. These awards look at the five categories of worship and teaching, buildings and energy, land and nature, community and global engagement, as well as lifestyle, to help assess your church’s eco progress and guide you to take further action.
Parish of Four Saints, Bournemouth
Congratulations to the Parish of Four Saints in Bournemouth which has achieved a Silver Eco-Church Award for the third of its four churches. And it’s working on the fourth!
St John the Baptist in Moordown is the latest to receive the A-Rocha award, alongside the churches of St Luke’s, Winton and St Alban’s, Charminster.
The Eco Church Award Scheme provides a framework for the church community to take practical action on caring for God’s earth in five areas of church life: worship and teaching, buildings and energy, land and nature, community and global engagement and lifestyle.
Karen Gillis, the parish’s Eco Champion said, “We’re thrilled to receive this award to accompany the others we’ve received. Across the parish, everyone supports everything we do to care more for creation around us. This can be quite challenging being a parish in a town. However, we often look for simple things that lots of people can do as well as sharing advice.”
The church has a management plan for the church yard to encourage wildlife and wildflowers. It also involves the local community and local Wildlife Trust. Uniformed organisations have planted trees and made bird boxes and bug hotels. People on the community payback scheme have helped cut the grass.
The church holds special themed services including Environment Sunday in June which was led by young people. Liturgy and music are often centred around the environment including their own personal hymn called ‘Stewards of the Earth’.
The PCC has an environmental statement and receives regular updates, and monthly articles are included in the parish magazine, encouraging people to recycle and reuse and raising awareness of local issues and events. The church’s environmental group have also petitioned their MP on national issues such as the nature bill.
Karen continued, “I think it’s important to get as many people involved as you possibly can. We’re very lucky because our rector, Michael Smith, and our other members of the ministry team are incredibly supportive and that helps a lot. It’s a process, and you have to engage people in lots of different ways at different times.
“I think we all feel that it’s becoming a tipping point, that we’re at a critical time now where people need to understand that we all need to make an effort. I think there’s a lot of climate anxiety out there so it’s very important, when I do the newsletter every month, that we’re talking about the good things that are happening in the world to help mitigate against climate change. I think the emphasis for us is that you might be little, but you can do a lot if we all work together and it’s everybody’s job to raise awareness.”
A successful Green Fair and Art Exhibition was held in the summer involving the four churches and the local community to raise awareness of green issues. This included displays of crafts, articles and drawings by children, recycled clothes and crafts and the sale of homemade cakes and produce.
Karen added, “We feel that it’s something that anyone can achieve. We haven’t got a huge budget, but you don’t have to spend a lot of money to make a big difference. For instance, we don’t have a heating on before November, so people know they have to come with their warm coat and an extra woolly.”
The parishes of Winton, Moordown and Charminster and St Francis of Assisi, Charminster merged in 2023. The Parish of Four Saints is now working on securing a Bronze Award for St Francis before embarking on a Silver Award application.
Rector Revd Canon Michael Smith commented, “As a parish we’ve always tried to do what we can to care for the environment and have care for creation within the culture of the parish. It can often be very challenging as we care for four old church buildings that were built without a great deal of consideration for the environment. We have a dedicated and committed Environment Working Group that looks at all aspects of parish life to see where we can make improvements and a large number of people who volunteer, and in working with A Rocha we’re able to receive advice on what additional steps we can make to be more environmentally friendly.”
St Mary’s, Kings Worthy
St Mary’s Church in Kings Worthy is also celebrating achieving the Silver Eco Church Award. The church set up an Eco Church and Environment Hub four years ago to explore ways to improve the church’s environmental work.
Andy Blaxland, Hub Leader said, “We are delighted to have received the Silver Eco Church Award from A Rocha UK. Our work is guided by our strong belief that ‘The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it’ (Psalm 24:1), and we have enjoyed working through the Eco Church assessment process to bring a stronger focus on the environment both within our church and its congregation. We are so grateful for the support we have received to date, and looking forward to continuing our environmental journey, working with other churches and environmental groups”.
The church works across the generations to encourage a love of the environment. Since November 2020 it has run Forest Church focusing on children and their families. It’s held within the grounds of the church or nearby St Swithun’s with activities which make use of the natural resources of each churchyard to better understand the environment and encourage a care of God’s creation.
St Mary’s has developed a Creation Care Strategy to guide its environmental focus. It has reduced its carbon emissions with the use of LED lights and new heating controllers which means the heating only comes on when needed, controlled through an app.
The team has promoted re-use and recycling through a series of monthly Eco Tips which have been published within its congregation and the wider community through the parish magazine. This hopes to encourage sustainable choices.
The church has a churchyard management plan to promote biodiversity and regular working parties are held in the churchyard along with seasonal surveys of flora and fauna.
St Mary’s was among a number of churches to display some of the beautiful Tri-Wonder artwork shared by the diocese following its display in Winchester Cathedral. The installation, including prayers and animal shapes made by school children, hung from the church rafters creating a striking symbol during Creationtide.
The work doesn’t stop. St Mary’s has successfully secured a CofE Give to Go Green grant towards plans to install solar panels, which it hopes will be in place in early 2026. The Eco Hub hope this will further reduce carbon emissions as well as generating additional income for the church.
Commenting on the award, Revd Paul Bradish, Rector said, “I am immensely proud that we have achieved the A Rocha Silver Eco Church award. It demonstrates the shared vision from the churchwardens and PCC, the creative energy of our Eco Hub, and the prayerful practical and financial commitment from across the church family. We’re striving to honour God’s creation by turning our faith into tangible action, ensuring that our church remains a green and hope filled place for generations to come.”
