Category Archives: Eco Church

Creationtide

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A Five-Week reflection of God’s Creation

The Season of Creation, also known as Creationtide, is recognised by all denominations globally to reflect specifically upon God’s creation and for us to consider what role we play within it. It is a five-week period from 1st September to 4th October where Christians and Churches are asked to pray and use their voices to advocate creation. During this period St Peter’s will join in prayer to give thanks for God’s Creation and to recognise not only its beauty but also the fragility of our world.

This season culminates in our Harvest Festival service on Sunday 12th October at 10.30am. This year any produce collected will go towards helping The Well at Kibworth. During the period of Creationtide, we pledge to commit ourselves to preserve our world and do what we can to encourage others to do so.

Maxine Johnson, Lay Reader St Peter’s Church, Church Langton

We are all aware of how important being in nature is and how it can help us become less stressed and much calmer. Taking a few minutes to sit outside with a cup of tea and being aware of our surroundings can be so beneficial. Indeed praying outside can be a powerful part of our day. When was the last time you had a minute or two in peaceful reflection?

Earlier in the year, St Peter’s was delighted to support the pupils of Church Langton Primary school’s Gardening club. The PCC decided to give every child a giant sunflower seed to grow during the Summer months. Many thanks to all the pupils who took part, especially everyone who took photos to share at school and church.

Creation Tide - Photo of sunflowers - Image shows a lovely pot of sunflowers with watering can at the side. Copyright protected.
Sunflowers grown by school pupils

As we move into Autumn we hope the seedheads will provide much needed Winter food for the birds. Indeed our churchyard would be an ideal place to lay any surplus too.

We give thanks for the creation of our planet, for the creation of all creature large and small, for the circle of life and its continued beauty.
As one of our favourite hymns says;

For the beauty of the Earth
For the glory of the skies,
For the love which from our birth,
Over and around us lies.

For the wonder of each hour,
Of the day and of the night;
Hill and vale and tree and flow’r
Sun and moon and stars of light.

Lord of all, to Thee we raise this our hymn of grateful praise. “

Members of the PCC Church Langton

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

St Peter’s Joins the Eco Church Project

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Following recent guidance from the Deanery Synod encouraging all churches in the United Kingdom to become Eco Churches, we at St Peter’s registered on the 8th of May 2024 with A Rocha UK a Christian charity working to protect and restore the natural world and committed to equipping Christians and churches in the UK to care for the environment. Leicester Diocese is one of many working with its parish churches and A Rocha UK, although A Rocha UK works with churches of all denominations. The importance for them is to encourage all Christians to be aware of their carbon footprint and take measures to improve it, to care for the earth created by God.

The idea is that we study our actions in worship, managing our land, the care of the church building and be more in tune with protecting God’s Earth as well as encouraging others in our neighbouring communities to join us to help reduce our carbon footprint by 2030.

What can we do?

You might be thinking “how can I make the slightest difference to this big climate change problem we have, bearing in mind that 2030 is only 6 years away”. Please rest assured that as a collective group we certainly can make a difference. Rolling stone and all that…

Our aim at St Peter’s is to take you on our journey and update you with changes that we make.

Making a start for our churchyard wildlife with bug hotels and hedgehog houses

One area that we would like to change before the winter is to put up bird boxes and install hedgehog houses and bug hotels in the churchyard. Is this something that you could help us with? Bat boxes were installed as part of the Saving and Celebrating Our Heritage Project in 2018 and the area at the back of the churchyard is delightful in spring with its early flowering bulbs of scillas, anemones, daffodils, primroses and violets. All these early flowers offer vital nutrition for insects and pollinators emerging from hibernation. Our extensive collection of trees provide important habitat for birds and bats too.

Are there any craftsmen in the villages who could help? Children, would you like to build us some bug hotels? Is this something you could do in your own gardens perhaps?

We would like to look at planting more insect butterfly friendly plants in certain areas of the churchyard. Our approach to the church gates could do with some tender loving care for sure. Would you like to volunteer to help us one weekend to make it more welcoming?

Please get in touch via our email service here: info@churchlangton.org.uk

What is your carbon footprint?

Creation Care is a website specifically for households to discover their own carbon footprint. It’s worth taking a few minutes to take a look and discover your own household’s carbon footprint. Yes I did register our household and got quite a shock as we were in major deficit due to two short-haul flights we had taken! It has made me think about ways that I can claw back these air miles. I now think twice about doing single car journeys and try to combine them or walk. I look to see where our family food is coming from and try to buy local and UK grown. Single use plastic worries me.

The pictures of the turtles in the sea wrapped in plastic netting is very upsetting. Cling film is a thing of the past in my house as are plastic shopping bags.

What can I do next you might ask?

Have a look at https://creationcare.org.uk/ and see which certificates your household would qualify for. Please mention St Peter’s in the link …. this will improve our certification.

Earth Hour

Thank you to anyone who took part in Earth Hour in March by switching electricity off at 8-30 and Earth Day In April.

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