Climate change and creation care have been high on national and international agendas recently. World leaders met in October at the UN Biodiversity Conference (COP16) and again in November for the UN Climate Change Conference (COP29). Extreme weather events across America, Spain and the UK have brought the issues closer to home.
It seems an appropriate time to reflect on what we have been doing at St Andrew’s to care for the area of God’s creation we call home.
At St Andrew’s North Swindon, we see ourselves as stewards of God’s wonderful world:
- We are working towards Eco Church standards from Christian environmental charity A Rocha UK
- We manage our churchyard for wildlife, people and heritage (using the helpful resources produced by Caring For God’s Acre, a charity which encourages and supports best practice in burial ground conservation and hosts national Love Your Burial Ground Week and Churches Count on Nature in June each year)
- We have undertaken a Carbon Footprint Survey and Audit through the Diocese of Bristol and are working towards being a Net Zero church
- We encourage our congregation and visitors to walk, cycle or use public transport to attend services and events; we can also arrange car-sharing
- We use low-energy LED lightbulbs, switch off lights when they are not needed, and only use heaters when necessary
- We use reusable or recyclable cups and plates in our catering and recycle packaging whenever possible
- We compost garden waste, coffee grounds and tea bags
- We use email and attachments to reduce paper use, but where paper is needed, we print double-sided if possible
- We use environment-friendly cleaning products whenever possible
- We have a composting toilet, twinned with a school toilet block in Sindh Province, Pakistan, through the charity Toilet Twinning
- We use recycled toilet paper from Who Gives A Crap
These actions help us save energy, reduce our running costs and reduce our environmental impact. Some of them are things we also do at home. Are there things you do at home that you feel we could consider doing at church?
Tell or send your ideas to Helen Allen, our Churchwarden and Eco Champion at helen@ifsandbuts.co.uk
Image Public Domain from Public Domain Files
Helen Allen