ECO Church Update – Summer 2022

With our soaring temperatures over the past few weeks, we are all becoming more aware of the need to reduce our CO2 emissions to help combat our changing climate.

At our last PCC meeting at Bildeston, we considered the following and made some commitments –

· Tree planting – we will be planting some silver birch samplings in the churchyard, at the back of the church, by our boundary hedge, in the autumn. Also, in the future, we are looking at planting some tree on land owned by Bildeston Church in Nedging, as a benefice project.

· We are still planning to have a bike rack outside Bildeston church.

· We continue to use and promote ‘fair trade’ products in our churches and for our personal use.

· We have begun to monitor our energy use at Bildeston church, enabling us to monitor our progress by reducing our usage or offsetting, and with our energy price rising this is becoming increasingly important. We all need to encourage each other to reduce our energy consumption and consider looking at our own carbon footprints.

All of these will help us to care for creation and for each other. They will also put us on the road to receive our Silver Award!

I will begin cutting down the long grass in our wildlife area, in the coming weeks. Please let me know if you would like to help.

Don’t forget to visit www.arocha.co.uk website for more information and news. They are promoting ‘The Great Big Green Week’ from 24th September to 2nd October, and I encourage us all to think about what we could do as a church. Also, you can visit www.cofesuffolk.org and www.greenchristian.co.uk for more information on environmental issues.

Blessings,

Teresa Lester

Reader and Eco Church contact for the Benefice

P.S. Eco Tip – Ditch disposables! Single-use plastics and single-use Styrofoam are sourced from fossil fuels and contribute to climate change. These materials are also known to contain carcinogens that are harmful to human health. Instead use and bring your own containers or lunchboxes etc.