Churchwarden Roger Eldridge looks after the stunning St Mary’s Church in Edgeworth which achieved a Bronze Eco Church Award on first registration for the scheme.
Bishop Robert visited him to find out how his small church was able to achieve their Bronze Eco Church Award more easily than they had thought.
Roger said, “When I first started, I thought it would be challenging… but I found I was encouraged by the scores we were getting – there were things that we were already doing that enabled us just to scrape by!
“The important thing for an older church that encouraged me was when I found that that insulation and double glazing don’t apply to listed buildings.
“I’m not a computery person, but an hour or so sitting down by the computer, it was all very easy. Once I’d printed off the sheets, I was able to work through those and feed it back to the computer once I was ready.”
Roger’s advice to other people getting started is, “Keep on going, register now – it’s not as complicated as I thought it was going to be!”
We are calling on all worshipping communities, to be the change, and take part in our #EcoChurchInAnHour campaign. We’ll be sharing simple, achievable steps that other people have taken to help them get an award.
This campaign, developed in the Diocese of Gloucester in partnership with A Rocha, breaks down Eco Church into small, manageable steps.
- Go online to the Eco Church website
- Add your church to the Eco Church Community
- Take the Eco Church survey
The survey will help you think through steps you can take to become an Eco Church, from simple things like using hymns and songs that celebrate God’s creation to creating a wildlife area in the churchyard. You never know, you might qualify for an award already, becoming an Eco Church in an hour.
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