Liz Carr, Eco Church lead for the Trunch Group of Parishes in Bradfield, Gimingham, Knapton, Mundesley, Paston, Swafield, and Trunch tells us about recent successes on embedding the fifth mark of mission across their benefice.
Having been working on our eco-church credentials for the past couple of years, we are beginning to embed and make adjustments to improve our scores in the A Rocha Eco Church award scheme.
Even making small changes makes an impact. We had ground to a halt temporarily, last autumn, but, after the arrival of our new incumbent, who is very keen on environmental matters and who has embraced our Eco-church journey, we are thrilled to announce that all our seven churches now have either a bronze or silver award.
But the journey does not stop there. One of the questions posed at a recent Eco Church zoom meeting was “How do we stop backsliding?”
The new Eco Church survey is helpful in addressing that, especially in the Community and Global Engagement and Lifestyle sections, which is where we really had to make our actions count. Everyone doing their own little bit and working together can, and does, make a huge difference to the overall picture. There are very helpful resources available on the website too.
If your church has not yet embraced the Eco Church survey, there is still time. Most churches will only have one more quinquennial report before 2030 and, currently, there are not yet any Anglican churches in Norfolk with a gold award – we aim to be the first, although we know there is competition out there!
Have you started your Eco Church journey yet? Register as an Eco Church or find out more at: https://ecochurch.arocha.org.uk/
Sign-up for our Eco Newsletter here
Join the conversation on our Facebook group here
Watch the message from Bishop Graham here
For any further help, contact barbara.bryant@dioceseofnorwich.org