Our faith has a lot to say about the natural world, and churches have a huge part to play in caring for God’s earth – loving God and all he has made should impact everything in our church lives. The biblical message is simple: God loves everything he has made and wants us all to work together to value and protect it. There are many urgent reasons why we need to protect and care for nature today, including climate change, loss of species and the devastation of habitats. Human activity, or inactivity, is directly responsible for much of this destruction and loss.
A Rocha UK is a charity which has an award scheme for churches in England and Wales who want to demonstrate that the gospel is good news for God’s earth.
“We hold a vision of churches across the country understanding the Biblical mandate to care for creation as a core part of our Christian mission and outworking this in practical ways across our communities, working with others to restore nature and our relationship with it. This is the ethos of Eco Church, a community which now consists of more than 3,000 churches, many of which have or are working towards an Eco Church award.”
A Rocha
The free online survey and supporting resources are designed to equip our church to express our care for God’s world in our worship and teaching; in how we look after our buildings and land; in how we engage with our local community and in global campaigns, and in the personal lifestyles of our congregation. The actions we take will count towards an Eco Church Award at Bronze, Silver or Gold level – we have already achieved our Bronze award.
Their vision is for churches of all denominations to care for creation as an integral part of loving their neighbours and following God faithfully.
The website has free Eco Church resources which give lots of support and advice about how to make the changes our church needs to become an Eco Church.
The Elders have agreed that this is a great scheme to be involved with and blends very well with our Community Links project. It costs us nothing but a little effort!
