St. Peter’s Church Norbury, is working towards becoming an Eco Church. To become an Eco Church, Churches complete the unique online Eco Survey about how they are caring for God’s earth in different areas of their life and work. The answers a Church provides will collect points towards an Eco Church Award (Bronze, Silver, Gold) – the more our church does, the more points we get!The survey takes you through five key areas of church life:1. Worship and teaching2. Management of Church Buildings3. Management of Church Land4. Community and global engagement5. LifestyleOver the next 12 months, with your help, we would like to gain the Bronze award and in two years’ time have applied for the Gold Award.Why do it?We are all Stewards of God's Creation and have been given responsibility to care for our Planet and try and hand it over to the next Generation, better than we found it. There is no Planet B.Since the start of the Industrial revolution in Ironbridge, Climate Change and the warming of the planet through our actions, has created a number of significant issues.Including the huge loss of habitats on a global scale and mass extinctions of creatures that have coexisted with Humans for millennia. For us in the UK, the heating of our atmosphere is also causing more droughts, as well as more extreme weather, leading to increased flooding. Warmer winters are also allowing pests and diseases that would be usually killed off, to survive and flourish.It is not only beneficial to the environment that we should try live more sustainable lives, but financially beneficial too. For example, insulating your home properly and having an efficient heating system, can save you more money than you could currently earn in interest, from an ISA or savings account. How can you helpYou can help us care for our planet - God’s Creation in many ways. Even if it is only in a small way it will all add up.For example, can you help with the management off our Churchyard? On the first Saturday of the month (March-October) we have Churchyard day.In the future this may involve:• Establishing a mowing plan (and collecting the cuttings) to encourage more wild flowers• Installing bird boxes, bug hotels, hedgehog boxes, bird feeding stations• Planting more plants that will benefit birds, bees and butterflies• Please don’t use weed killer, except on the paths (gravel or slabs only)• Help us by spending an hour undertaking a wildlife survey in the ChurchyardYou could also help us by joining us at future ‘green’ events.Finally, you could help our planet by carrying out a personal carbon footprint audit and reducing your personal energy consumption (switching to LED bulbs the next time a bulb blows), insulating your loft/installing water butts.
It is three years since we launched our appeal to raise funds for this project and thanks to the generosity of people in the parish and grant funding they were installed in January.Grants were received from: - Staffordshire Historic Churches Trust- The Lumley Trust- Allchurches Trust- Councillor Mark Winnington - Community Fund- Waitrose Community FundWe would like to give thanks for the new heaters and the support we have received in a special service on Sunday 7th April at 11:00am.We hope that you will be able to come along and enjoy the warmth of our beautiful Church.
