Eco Church - Appeal for helpers

It is now a few years since we completed twinning all the toilets in our church centre, which was the final piece of many in the jigsaw to completing the Bronze level in the Eco Church awards scheme, run by A Rocha UK.

Now, we want to make a concerted push for Silver – but we need your help! The incredible amount of work from a small team of experts that went into us achieving solar panels on the roof of the church centre might, you think, push us a long way to that aim. We will be holding a meeting on Thursday 14th May to make a concerted push to silver this year.

However, how we address our energy usage and provision is just one question among 99 in the Eco Church survey, across five categories.

Broadly, as well as buildings and energy, they ask questions about our worship and teachings, how we look after our land and nature, our community and global engagement, plus lifestyle – within the church and as advocates outside.

Lots of wonderful things have happened in the past year as well as those solar panels, such as our youth groups choosing Water Aid as their nominated charity for a year and the installation of a bug hotel by pupils at Dunottar.

While we don’t have to answer all 99 questions positively to achieve Silver (that would take us to Gold!), we still need to do some work to make the jump from Bronze. In particular, surveys of the nature at the church plus encouraging the congregation to chart their own carbon footprint would be fantastic things to pursue. Hosting public meetings that engage other church eco groups – or the wider community – would also be helpful. Or just finding new ways to be eco friendly, like the parishioners who make jam and remake old candles into new ones.

Take a first step by watching this video about what Eco Church is all about then let me know what you are doing, or think you could do, to make a difference.

Ian Lamont