Crossroads Earlham shows the love

The morning and evening congregations of Crossroads St Anne’s in Earlham, Norwich wore their hearts on their sleeves to #ShowTheLove for climate justice on Sunday.

They planted 10 native tree whips in the grounds of their church, bought as part of the 1 Million Trees campaign from Norfolk County Council, to make a prophetic statement about climate justice as part of the Climate Coalition’s campaign: “Show the Love”.

The church has signed-up to an open community letter from the Climate Coalition, urging political leaders “to commit to doing everything you can to meet our national and international commitments to tackle climate change and protect and restore nature”.

It was pouring hard during the morning service, so the prayer of commitment for the environment and the blessing of the tree whips took place in the dry, warm church. A few hardy souls then stepped outside to plant them in different areas of the church grounds to grow and flourish as symbols of this ongoing commitment to care for creation.

The evening service began outside with prayer for the news trees and an act of commitment for the environment.

Crossroad Earlham vicar, the Revd Di Rowlandson said, “This is our opportunity to speak out and to speak up, in our little patch of the Eden God has placed us in.”

John Greenaway, Earlham’s Eco Church leader said, “Anything we can do to join our voices with others to amplify the urgent need to address the climate and biodiversity crises we face is a prophetic act of worship. As we work towards our Eco Church silver award, this community engagement has a ripple out effect from our small area into the global movement.”