Smeeth church was the first in out parish to gain an Eco church award and now has become the first to gain the Silver Award.Working together as a team we have worked on all areas of the award to achieve this and now we go onwards towards Gold.The aim of the Eco Church awards is to support churches in taking practical action to care for God’s earth in our part of the world. To achieve an award, it requires you to meet standards in five areas. Worship and Teaching, Building Management, Land Management, Community and Global Engagement, and Lifestyle.What does this involve?Worship and Teaching - embedding creation care in worship, prayer and learning within the church.Building Management - involves finding energy efficient and innovative ways to manage our places of worship which is not easy with medieval buildings. Things like LED lighting which has recently been installed in the church. We also twin our toilets which means funding a project in a community that helps families to build their own basic toilet, access clean water and learn about hygiene. Land Management - is about nurturing spaces for people and nature and we work hard to look after our churchyards to make them pleasant places to take a break and have a bit of peace and quiet with benches to sit on, but also ensuring we make space for wildlife and wild flowers. Community and Global Engagement - means that we try to help people engage with environmental issues and at a basic level wherever possible, Fairtrade and/or ethically sourced goods are used at church services and events.We all know that we need to look after the planet, and we are responsible for ensuring it is in a good state for the generations to come. It is part of our Christian faith and so it means thinking about the way we live and trying to be as sustainable as possible both as a church and as individuals. The whole point of the Eco Church awards is that it gives us a framework for action to ensure we continue working to improve in this area. Could you help with this? Look out for activities to come and do, such as insect and butterfly counts in our churchyards.
