Arocha UK Awards Bronze Eco to St Peter’s Church Langton

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Smiles were all around when a certain email popped into our in box recently. What is it all about? You might well ask! St Peter’s now qualifies as a Bronze Eco Church. After filling in questionnaires on the Arocha UK website, we discussed our care for the churchyard, the flowers and the creatures that inhabit it, as well as the care for our building and our hopes for its future use by our community. We applied to Arocha Uk and were delighted to receive our Bronze Eco Award. We made promises to help protect God’s Earth and its creatures from extinction by reducing pollution, landfill and food waste. This promise applies to St Peter’s Church building and churchyard but also to us as individual members of the church community.

Join us on our Eco Journey

There are a number of initiatives we aim to support at the start of our Eco journey. The churchyard is already a haven to wildlife, (see the example below) but we want to install bug houses and bird boxes and hedgehog houses go encourage more. Can you help us make them or install them? If so, we’d love to hear from you. Contact us here by email or reply to this post on our Facebook Page.

See below, just one example of the extraordinary natural habitat found in the churchyard. These tiny fungi form an almost magical landscape and appear in the autumn.

Photo of tiny fungi mushrooms looking like a magical village for woodland sprites and fairies.
The fairy village – tiny fungi growing in St Peter’s Church yard

Just One Thing

We pray to encourage our community to join us in pledging to do “JUST ONE THING” however small to help restore the Earth’s balance. Lifestyle Change does not have to be massive it can be as small as not using paper handkerchiefs, reducing the use of cling film and single use plastic such as bottled water or it could be to set the washing machine to a lower temperature.

Could you think about making a pledge and letting us know? We’d love to hear what you and your family have decided to change in your household. Every step we all take, however small, makes a huge difference.

Fair Trade Produce

The use of Fair Trade produce is so important to ensure that farmers in third world countries have a fair salary and have good working conditions. Would you consider buying Fair Trade produce for your pledge? We want to promote the use of Fair Trade produce in St Peter’s especially during our much-loved Cream Tea Sundays.

PHoto shows a white tea pot and milk jug with a plate of jam, scones and butter on a white tray
Time for tea!

What is YOUR Carbon Footprint?

Finally, one last thought to ponder is to check your own carbon footprint on the website CreationCare.org.uk where you can get your own personalised carbon footprint number. Use this number to update every six months or whenever you have time. What a great thing to do with your children and grandchildren by introducing them to carry on the legacy of caring for God’s Earth.

Visit St Peter’s church and churchyard

St Peter’s is open every day for contemplation and quiet prayer. It welcomes you for those moments when you need a quiet space to get away from the pressures of everyday life or just for somewhere to sit for a while. St Peter’s is always there for all.

Creation is given as a gift to us all and we share responsibility to protect and nurture it.

Alison Thurlby PCC member
Echo family at St Peter’s Church Langton
Feel free to send us pictures on St Peter’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/stpeterschurchlangton