Eco Church

at St James Church

“The Lord God place man in the Garden of Eden to tend and watch over it.”

(Genesis 2:15 New Living Translation)

Eco Church is A Rocha UK’s  award scheme for churches in England and Wales. We have taken our first steps in identifying how we care for God’s earth. 

We have undertaken an online survey to find out how we score against five areas of church life:

·         Worship and teaching

·         Management of Church buildings

·         Management of Church Land

·         Community and global engagement

·         Lifestyle

Our current score:

A small working party are now assessing our Garden of Eden and how we can improve our care for God’s world here in Woodley.  We will be campaigning for global and local changes to protect the environment and encouraging all church users to alter their lifestyles to better care for the world around them both locally and globally.  Initially we will be looking into the areas of worship and teaching, land and lifestyle towards achieving a Bronze Eco Church Award.

New members are welcome to join us, as we continue to work towards our Bronze Eco Award. Please email us here. 

For more information see our Eco Church Facebook page .

Eco News:

Ideas you could think about this New Year:

The New Year 2019 gives us all an opportunity to think of the New Year as a fresh start, open book, fresh page, like found in our church prayer corner:

It’s a new page we can write together on our eco journey. But where to begin?

You might like to contemplate your personal eco audit. The Church completed the eco church audit, on a personal level your audit could be under taken by completing your “carbon footprint.” Your “carbon footprint” is the amount of carbon dioxide resulting from various activities, to see where your eco journey might be. If you search on the internet there are lots of sites that can help you calculate your carbon footprint try:

WWF (link: https://footprint.wwf.org.uk/)

Carbon Footprint ™  (link:  https://www.carbonfootprint.com/calculator.aspx  )   

Climate Stewards Foot Print Me: (link: https://footprintr.me/start?s=7p2jnu25mri8hrihtikltshe30)

The results of your “carbon footprint” will identify where you might be on your eco journey. You can see whether you are above or below the “average” on your carbon emissions and give you areas you might want to consider off setting or reducing you emissions.

Throughout 2019 we will think about ideas you might consider to reduce your carbon footprint.

Tips for reducing your carbon footprint in the Kitchen:

* Never put warm or hot food into the fridge or freezer as this will make the fridge / freezer work extra hard to try and keep it cold; always allow food to cool down first.

* Do not wash up under a running tap. Using a bowl for washing up can save up to £25.00 a year in energy bills. For more information click here! (link: http://www.energysavingtrust.org.uk/home-energy-efficiency/energy-saving-quick-wins)

* When making a hot drink, only boil the amount of water that you need. Don’t waste electricity (and money) heating water you won’t use.

* Reduce your use of aluminium foil for cooking wherever possible; use a container with a lid that can be reused. Aluminium is a rare metal and its extraction and purification uses a lot of energy. Remember clean used aluminium can be recycled.

* Consider eating less meat, production of red meat uses more carbon dioxide than white meat or vegetables. There are lots of ideas in this area including:

Choosing vegetarian or vegan meals.

# Meat free Monday (link: https://www.meatfreemondays.com/   )

Reduction the amount of meat consumed each meal.

Veganuary (lots of information on the web)

Providing your protein source from alternatives to meat: beans, pulses, nuts, seeds such as “quorn” bolognaise, or a bean chilli instead of beef chilli.

Future Plans:

Local Environmental Events:

Links:

Here are some links you might like to look up:

Shrinking the footprint 

The Church of England Environment Programme 

Plastic-less Living 

Earley Environmental Group 

Fairtrade 

Oakwood Forest Church 

Green Christian  

Climate Stewards 

Previous Eco ideas:

You can find an archive of previously published Eco ideas here.