The Holy Redeemer Church in Lamorbey has become the first church within the Diocese to achieve Eco Church Gold status.
Far from the end of their environmental journey, they are keen that their next steps include sharing their learning with others.
With a bold aim across the Church of England to achieve Net Zero Carbon by 2030, many churches within the Diocese are signed up to the Eco Church award scheme.
This free initiative run by the Christian climate care charity, Arocha UK, is a way to help churches work out the steps they need to take to reduce their impact on the environment and become a positive expression of concern for God’s world.
Churches can achieve a gold, silver or bronze award, based on their Eco Church journey.
‘I was asked by the inspection team on the day of our assessment, whether I was an 'Eco Vicar' before I came to Holy Redeemer, and I realised I wasn’t.” says the Rev Mell Jemmett, vicar of The Holy Redeemer.
“God’s calling around the environment began with a building project at the church, but the work of the Spirit in the hearts of the people I serve shaped my ministry on this special Eco journey.”
Indeed, Mell is clear that the church’s environmental work has very much been led by the passion and belief of a team of people within the congregation, which has gone on to inspire the whole community.
“The assessment team couldn’t believe we had 12 plus people, including me as Vicar, on the ‘Green Team’. It’s one of biggest teams they have ever seen.”
‘It was so inspiring to meet such a creative and passionate group and it was so clear to us how embedded creation care is in the church’s life.’ (Eco Church assessor report)
That team includes Ingrid Riches, who along with others, has been instrumental in ensuring that the church’s commitment to climate care feeds into every aspect of the church’s life, from its teaching and worship, the care of its building and land, to how it engages and serves the community.
“We have to set an example in a way and show that we are taking our stewardship of creation seriously”, she says, “When someone sits in our garden, which they do, they can see we care for the environment, and hopefully they are inspired too, because we all need to be committed to this.”
Areas that particularly impressed the judges were how:
- Care for creation was encouraged at a young age thanks to the church children’s work and engagement with the onsite nursery. This includes the transformation of a disused strip of church land into a nursery allotment, which sees children involved with planting, enjoying being outside gardening.
- The whole church family is also encouraged to take part in an annual national nature count in the church garden which, thanks to the commitment of many church members, has been thoughtfully designed and managed so as to become a haven for wildlife.
- Communicating the church’s commitment to creation care is important too, with creative visual displays around the building explaining the eco work that is being undertaken, as well as church services that focus on global events or themes, such as water, or palm oil and the need to protect orangutans.
- A recent building project has seen destratification fans operating successfully in order to reduce energy consumption, and water butts and the reuse of ‘grey water’ have helped conserve water.
We loved the story of the little boy who spent his pocket money on hedgehog food after hearing about protecting hedgehogs at church!’ (Eco Church assessor report)
“As we’ve worked our way through each Eco Church levels, which now includes Gold, it doesn’t make you want to stop, but to do more,“ says Ingrid, “as it makes you hopeful that, if we work together, it will be possible to bring about the changes we need to in order to repair our covenant with God, as we made this mess and now we're going to fix it!”
Mell agrees and hopes the church’s achievements so far can assist others, whether that is through teaching, workshops, mission days and supportive fellowship, ‘we can all come together to love and care for Creation.”
“I believe every church can find its own ‘green print’. I pray that Holy Redeemer can be a beacon for the Rochester Diocese and empower other green teams through our Called Together vision.”