The Diocese of London is encouraging churches to apply for the new England and Wales based eco church programme, which includes a gold, silver or bronze award status for eco-initiatives within a congregation (including building and energy related issues).<\/u>\u00a0<\/u><\/p>\n
The Diocese of London writes:
\n<\/u>The new Eco Church programme was launched in St Paul\u2019s Cathedral on 26 January.<\/p>\n
Eco Church is a new environmental award scheme, designed and hosted by the Christian Environmental charity A Rocha UK. It is also supported by the Church of England, the Methodist Church, Christian Aid and Tearfund.<\/p>\n
Bronze, silver and gold awards are given to churches for environmental attainment across a wide range of areas, including care of buildings and churchyards, energy-saving, recycling, food and lifestyle, worship, preaching and teaching, engagement in communities and the wider world.<\/p>\n
In a time of unprecedented environmental stresses, Eco Church enables churches to respond to God\u2019s mandate to human beings to care for His creation, by integrating environmental care throughout their church\u2019s life and mission.<\/p>\n
The Diocese of London warmly supports Eco Church. This complements and reinforces the Diocese\u2019s\u00a0environmental programmes\u00a0for churches.<\/p>\n
Eco Church awards are gained by completing an\u00a0online questionnaire. Any church can complete the questionnaire and print it out, without commitment or on a trial basis.<\/p>\n
To enter any church for an award, it is necessary to\u00a0register\u00a0and save the questionnaire answers. This registration and application are free.<\/p>\n
The first Eco Church award, at Bronze level, was presented to St Paul\u2019s Cathedral itself, by Archbishop Rowan Williams, after he addressed those present at the launch event.<\/p>\n
Eco Church is supported by a comprehensive range of resources, including online links. These resources can be accessed via the same\u00a0questionnaire page.<\/p>\n
As churches in the Diocese begin to register for Eco Church, the Diocese is seeking its \u2018First Eleven\u2019 Eco Churches. Each of these First Eleven is encouraged to recruit eleven more churches to Eco Church. Just eleven churches recruiting eleven more each, will have the potential to gather up to 132 Eco Churches in total.<\/p>\n
How fast can we do this? What are we waiting for? Let\u2019s sign up to\u00a0Eco Church\u00a0today!<\/p>\n
And please let the Diocese\u2019s\u00a0Head of Environment and Sustainability\u00a0know after signing up for Eco Church.<\/p>\n
View the Diocese of London environmental initiatives<\/a><\/p>\n View the news release<\/a><\/p>\n Apply for an eco-award<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Diocese of London is encouraging churches to apply for the new England and Wales based eco church programme, which includes a gold, silver or bronze award status for eco-initiatives within a congregation (including building and energy related issues).\u00a0 The … Continue reading