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.

Some dedicated members of our congregation have also been working on creating a small nature reserve on an area of land that was previously unused and out of sight. We are hopeful that small creatures will soon be making their way into it. Below you can see progress on the garden from its initial state in 2022 to today.