Our churchyard is a great place for wildlife. To give the flowers a helping hand, a designated area bewteen the path and Church Lane will not be mown during the summer months. Plants will have a chance to flower and seed, providing food for bees and butterflies, and in turn, birds and mammals. At the end of the summer the area will be mown again.During the Spring of 2022 we have already identified the following wild plants growing in the churchyard: bluebells, celandine, cow parsley, cuckoo pint, daisy, dandelion, herb Robert, hogweed, ivy leaved toadflax, ragwort, red nettle, self-heal, speedwell, snowdrops, stinking iris and violets.
ECO CHURCH at ROYSTON: OUR LATEST NEWS In Spring 2022, Royston Parish Church was awarded “Eco Church Bronze award” from the A Rocha UK Eco Church award scheme. This promotes ways of caring for God's earth in various ways (Worship & Teaching, Management of Buildings & Land, Community & Global Engagement and Lifestyle). Their resources gave us lots of ideas of more things that we could be doing, such as setting aside a wildlife area in our churchyard, praying regularly for the planet and adopting fair traded beverages. We have recently held a “Design a Bug Church” competition for young people and have built a wildlife stack in the churchyard based on the winning design from Laura. Watch this space for pictures of the opening ceremony! ABOUT ECO CHURCH at ROYSTON: OUR GOALS Royston Parish Church formed an Eco Church Group in 2020 with the following aims: 1. We have passed a resolution for our parish church to achieve net zero by 2030. This is a daunting commitment to make as, right now, we cannot be sure how we will do this, but if we are to achieve it, we need to resolve to make this a priority. 2. We have signed up to the A Rocha Eco Church and Carbon 360 schemes – these will give us practical tips and help us log the data we need to baseline our carbon footprint and measure our progress towards net zero. 3. We have formed a “Net Zero/Eco-church team” for Royston Church with the following remit: a. To play our part in supporting the Church of England’s objective to be carbon neutral by 2030. b. To support the Diocese of St Albans in its Eco Church project. c. To reduce the carbon footprint of St John the Baptist Royston, working to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030. d. To encourage bio-diversity. e. To encourage ecological and environmental awareness amongst the congregation and wider community of Royston. f. To ensure that St John the Baptist follows a policy of fair trade and to encourage fair trade amongst the congregation and the wider community of Royston.
