
Eco Church is a learning community of churches across denominations, and provides a mechanism to encourage and support the leaders of individual churches to take practical action to prepare and adapt our buildings, our worship and our mission for climate change.
As Christians we believe the earth is God’s creation and, as such, our responsibility to our God includes a responsibility to caring for the earth. This resonates with the Church of England’s Fifth Mark of Mission – “to strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of the earth”.
At the heart of EcoChurch’s mechanism is a survey covering five key aspects of church life:
– Worship and teaching
– Buildings and energy
– Land and nature
– Community and global engagement
– Lifestyle
By assessing St George’s according to EcoChurch’s survey, we can gain an understanding of the areas in which we need to change our building, our worship and our mission, and so progress towards the three levels of EcoChurch award, Bronze, Silver or Gold, reflecting our performance.
But getting the award is secondary. Our registration with EcoChurch is first and foremost an indication of our intent to become more environmentally aware as a church and take positive action to improve our eco-performance.
EcoChurch is run by A Rocha UK, a Christian charity working to protect and restore the natural world and committed to equipping Christians and churches to care for the environment. Originally set up to supprot churches in the UK, it has extended its supprot mechanisms to our Diocese in Europe.
For more information on the EcoChurch, see their website here.