Eco Church
At St Mary’s we are passionate about God’s creation and want to be good caretakers so that future generations are able to appreciate the beauty of this earth.
Along with the Diocese of Oxford we have teemed up with ARocha to help us become a more environmentally aware church and congregation.
https://ecochurch.arocha.org.uk/resources/
In March 2023 we achieved our Bronze award by making some small changes. This included being more conscious about praying for creation and the environment on a regular basis and thinking about it as part of our Sunday worship. We updated our baptism service liturgy which now includes the promise,
‘Will you strive to safeguard the integrity of creation, and sustain and renew the life of the earth?’
‘With the help of God I will.’
https://www.oxford.anglican.org/environment-and-social-justice/environmental-action/
We also made a change to our banking and now use the CoOp who as an organisation are more ethical about where they invest their money than many other banks.
Maybe you could consider making some small changes to how you live by looking at this lifestyle audit created by ARocha
https://ecochurch.arocha.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/L4-Auditing-your-lifestyle.pdf
As well as small changes we are also considering some big changes. St Mary’s church building recently had an energy audit and through this some ideas around more environmentally sound energy sources were recommended, which means we could be looking at some big developments in the future. We are currently working on creating a small nature reserve on an area of land that is currently unused and out of site, so we are hopeful by summer 2024 that local creatures will find their way to it.
Please do check back for updates on what we have been up to as we work our way towards our silver award.
If you would like to get involved with the work that we are doing to help creation, please do get in touch with the Reverend Serena Tajima who would love to hear from you.
