Half of the churches in the Diocese of Guildford have received an Eco Church award (in the bronze, silver or gold categories) which cements the Diocese’s position as one of the leading lights in creation care.
With 105 of its churches receiving the accolade, the Diocese of Guildford is the first diocese in England to hit the 50% mark. It is also among the top dioceses for the highest number of Gold Eco Church awards. This comes as the Bishop of Norwich, the Rt Revd Graham Usher who leads on the environment, reaffirmed the Church of England’s target to achieve net carbon zero by 2030.
The prestigious Eco Church awards are given by Christian environmental charity, A Rocha UK, and it acknowledges the important steps churches have taken to improve sustainability and protect God’s Earth.
In support of this clear commitment and passion for environmentalism in the diocese, the Rt Revd Paul Davies, Bishop of Dorking recently welcomed 50 representatives of silver and gold churches from across the diocese in a day of sharing inspirational stories of their collective commitment to creation care. It was also designed to give practical tips for how the silver churches could achieve gold.
Bishop Paul opened the event with a short talk sharing his perspective on the global climate challenge and the urgency for action, as well as commending everyone’s efforts. He also welcomed the latest and sixth Gold Eco Church in the diocese, St John’s Church, Egham.
The event was organised to demonstrate the value of parishes and churches learning from one another and acknowledging, that while everyone’s eco journey will be slightly different, they can all share ideas and resources to achieve eco goals.
Bishop Paul said:
“It was a great occasion to celebrate reaching the milestone of 50% of our churches being Eco Churches and of course welcoming the sixth parish in our diocese to be awarded a Gold Eco Church Award. We used the occasion to gather some of our silver Eco Church award holders to hear about what ‘going for gold’ looks like. It was a day of encouragement, inspiration and sharing stories which was a great blessing to all present.”
Speaking of its recent gold Eco Church award, Eco Team leader Chris Gray from St John’s Egham said:
“We are encouraged to receive the award, as it is a tangible recognition of the work of a large range of individuals focused on the differing elements of creation care. We have followed a very varied route and believe the focus on community engagement through our annual Eco Fayre and weekly Community Fridge have been particularly important to our church life.
“We have also made some great improvements in our church yard and are currently in the process of installing a heat pump, so St John's seems a very different place to when we started out.”
For support and resources on Eco Church and net zero contact Alison and Martin.