Eco Church Bronze Award Winners
Here at Potters Church it is our passion to care for God’s Earth. We love the Eco Church initiative put in place by A RochaUK, who have created a fantastic framework by which to encourage churches to do their part in becoming as green as possible.
A RochaUK is a Christian charity working to protect and restore the natural world and committed to equipping Christians and churches in the UK to care for the environment. There are five areas of church life and ministry where we are challenged by them to go green: lifestyle, worship, buildings & land, community & global engagement.
Lifestyle
At Potters Church we collect Crisp Packets, Blister Packs, and Spectacles for recycling. We have an Eco Church Team, made up of all ages, who take what is collected to recycling points. We all know how busy life can get and by offering a recycling station at our reception, those items that can’t be recycled with normal household waste stand a much greater chance of being recycled rather than going to landfill. Coming to church is a journey already in most people’s routine, whereas a special journey to waste recycling points is not!
We also share tips with one another in our newsletter, The Weekly Roundup, about how we can reduce, reuse and recycle in our day to day lives.
Worship
We pray for our environment on a regular basis at prayer meetings and as part of our church services. We ensure that biblical teaching about caring for God’s Earth is a feature within our Sunday sermons. We post to social media with prayer points for the environment too.
Buildings & Land
Potters Church don’t own the building we worship in, so it doesn’t form part of our Eco Church Award, the building & land is owned by the Bridge Centre, who we work in partnership with. However, we do have an open dialogue about working towards our Eco Church goals and the Bridge Centre support us in this and share a similar ethos in their own working practices. They enable community groups to make use of their green spaces, growing veg, flowers and trees as well as putting steps in place around the building to save energy.
Community & Global Engagement
We’ve hosted plant and veg swaps which encourages people to get into nurturing home grown flowers and veg and eating local home grown produce. We encourage healthy activities through our monthly Walking Group and our Sporty Seniors group. Many of our congregation have signed up to Tearfund’s Toilet Twinning initiative, which enables better sanitation for impoverished communities globally. A large number of people also sponsor a child via Compassion, which lifts children out of poverty by providing an education.