Almost at Eco Diocese Silver
We urge every church in the Diocese to register with Eco Church and to work towards its Awards. Currently, in November 2024, 44% of our churches have signed up; to become a Silver Eco Diocese, we need another 5 of these churches to achieve a Bronze Eco Church awar d. But we have just reached 10% of our churches with an Eco Church Silver or Gold award!
Church of England Environmental Awareness Days
The Church of England Environment Programme is pleased to share an updated 2025 Environment Awareness Days calendar with you to help you plan your environment and net zero communications for next year. New resource launched to help raise awareness about climate change | The Church of England
Climate Stewards
Climate Stewards work in association with A Rocha UK and their website (https://www.climatestewards.org/) shows how you can measure, reduce and offset your carbon footprint.
The Climate Stewards Carbon Footprint Card Game is a fun and engaging way to help people understand more about the carbon footprint of different activities, and think about ways to cut their footprint. To purchase a professionally printed set of cards in colour for £15, email comms@climatestewards.org. Alternatively, you can download the cards to print at home below. How about using these with your young people's group OR during coffee time after a service?
Zero Interest podcast series Watch this series of four podcasts at this Spotify address.
Need money towards a small-scale Net Zero Project? Try the Warwickshire County Council’s Councillor Grant Fund
This fund is now open for community and voluntary groups across the county, including churches: https://www.warwickshire.gov.
Sustainable Flowers
Someone in the Diocese of Norwich trecently enquired about artificial flowers in churches and responses have come back from several Environmental Officers pointing out useful websites which you may wish to visit: https://www.sustainablefloristry.org/ and About | Sustainable Church Flowers (suschurchflowers.com) website and resources
A Rocha International Podcasts
Do listen to these podcasts, starting with Episode 43, Caroline Pomeroy (Climate Stewards) on Stewarding the Climate in Turbulent Times
Tiny Forests:
For information on these, go to our Environmental Resources page. Could we see one or two Tiny Forests in Coventry or in some of our larger towns? Yes! It seems that the City Council is considering setting up some Tiny Forests! Watch this space!
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RECENT EVENTS:
Eco Church Evenings
St Peter's Kineton: an excellent evening on Wednesday 4th September with over 40 people attending, mainly from the south and west of the Diocese. A welcome by the vicar, the Revd Barry Gardner, was followed by an introduction to the evening's programme and to Eco Church by the Diocesan Environment Officer, Godfrey Armitage. The Revd Dr Beren Hartless, Associate Minister of the Edgehill Churches then spoke about the biblical basis of creation care, followed by Bob Sherman of All Saints Harbury who spoke about the history of environmental projects in Harbury and the role of the Low Carbon Warwickshire Network. Katie Hartless Rose and the Revd Helen Smith then outlined the progress of Eco Church in St Peter's Kineton and St Peter's Wellesbourne respectively, with very useful hints about how to get started and how to achieve awards. This was folowed by Susan Needham of Act on Energy who gave a succinct and inspiring talk on the work of Act on Energy in helping households cope with the challenges of heating homes sustainably and affordably. Following a breakout time, the various groups submitted comments and the meeting was brought to a close by the DEO, giving suggestions on conserving water and links to useful creation care sites. The meeting ended with a prayer from Beren Hartless at 9.20.
St Nicolas, Nuneaton: this evening event took place on Thursday 19th September with about 25 people and different speakers from the north and east of the Diocese. The vicar, Revd Chris Routledge, welcomed visitors and started the meeting with a prayer. This was followed by an introduction to the evening's programme and to Eco Church by the Diocesan Environment Officer, Godfrey Armitage. Revd Charlotte Jackson spoke on Creation Care: Worship and Teaching with an excellent PowerPoint presentation. This was followed by Colin Angus, the Net Zero Carbon Project Officer, interviewing Chris Rigden of All Saints Bedworth on their recent Net Zero progress, including their application for a CofE Demonstrator Project Grant. Debbie Cook spoke about the journey of St Mary's Walsgrave to Eco Church Bronze, giving many examples of good projects. A breakout session for discussion led to some feedback from each group and then a summary by Godfrey Armitage, and a closedown with prayer by the vicar. Charlotte's presentation and Godfrey's summary presentation are available as pdfs; contact godfrey.armitage@coventry.anglican.org.
The Season of Creation 2024
The Season of Creation started at the beginning of September and continued till the Feast of St Francis of Assisi on 4th October. Following on from this, you might like to do some Bible Studies on Care of Creation and this new resource 'A Christian Look at the Environment' by Revd Rich Clarkson, former DEO of Lichfield Diocese, might be just right for you and your church: https://jri.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/JRI-Bible-Studies-updated-2023.pdf
Churches Count on Nature - webinars
These webinars took place as part of Churches Count on Nature from Monday 10th to Friday 14th of June between 12 noon and 1pm.
Monday 10th June - Planting your Tree in the Communion Forest with the Rt Revd Graham Usher, Bishop of Norwich
Tuesday 11th June - Your Church - your Swifts with Edward Mayer
Wednesday 12th June - Ancient Yew Trees with Chris Knapman and Russell Ball
Thursday 13th June - Solitary Bees with Brigit Strawbridge
Friday 14th June - Blueing the Church: Exploring the oceans through science and faith with David Curry.
Resources for your church for the Great Big Green Week
You may be interested to know what took place during the Great Big Green Week (8th - 16th June): visit https://greatbiggreenweek.com/.
Eco Fair at St Mark's Leamington
Thuis took place at St Mark's on Saturday 15th June from 2 to 4pm. St Mark's has now achieved a Siver Eco Church Award. Congratulations!
Restore Nature Now - march on Sat 22 June
The march was supported by A Rocha, Green Christian, Operation Noah and Christian Climate Action. There is more information on the website. The aim of the march, which was deemed to be a good success, was to urge UK politicians to show strong domestic and global nature and climate leadership by:
1. Giving a pay-rise for nature 2. Making polluters pay 3. Delivering more space for nature 4. Putting a right to a healthy environment in law 5. Ensuring fair and effective climate action
Eco-focused Mission |
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For Clergy and Lay Leaders: This took place on Tuesday 25th June, 10am – 12.30pm at St Thomas’, Keresley. A group of Diocesan clergy explored central Gospel themes that resonate with the green agenda and discussed practical ways that environmental awareness might lead to missional communities. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - |
General Synod backs action to tackle Biodiversity crisis
The General Synod has backed a series of measures to promote biodiversity on Church of England land from churchyards as havens of wildlife and plants to the stewardship of agricultural and forestry land.
Eco Church Update
To date (6th December 2024) we have 66 churches in the Diocese with Bronze, of which 24 also have Silver and one has Gold. The number of Diocese of Coventry churches that have registered with Eco Church is 106 (44.2%) to date! For further information on Eco Church, go to our Eco Church page.
Eco Church 2023 News
A Rocha UK held a webinar on Tuesday 21st November to celebrate its Big Green Week. Visit the Big Green Week site to find out more about this, to view the webinar and to celebrate the progress of Eco Church.
The Diocesan Environment Group held two Eco Church Evenings, on Thursday 19th October at St Margaret's Wolston and on Tuesday 7th November at Claverdon Church Centre. Each evening had different talks on the Eco Church categories and opportunities to network with other local Eco Church enthusiasts. Both meetings were well attended and popular. The DEG thank our hosts at Wolston and Claverdon for their kind hospitality. We are planning similar events in September 2024; watch this space!
Eco Church reports: "Last autumn marked a significant milestone for Eco Church as we celebrated the achievement of 2,000 awarded churches since the program’s launch in 2016. Just one year on, we have now surpassed 3,000 awarded churches!" For more information see this link. The Diocese of Coventry currently has 101 churches registered. However, 45 have not yet achieved a Bronze Award; this is relatively easy to achieve. If you need advice and encouragement so contact the Diocesan Environment Officer (Godfrey.Armitage@Coventry.Anglican.org ).
The Climate Emergency Toolkit:
This resource helps congregations to respond to the climate crisis by supporting and empowering everyone in your church family to champion climate action wherever they already are, and to pray for change.
New Network of Independent Florists for the Funeral Industry
A new network of independent florists has created a directory to help the public find funeral flowers that are kinder to the environment. The directory can be used to find local florists who will avoid all plastics and floral foam. Additionally a large majority of the flowers are locally grown.A new network of independent florists has created a directory to help the public find funeral flowers that are kinder to the environment. The directory can be used to find local florists who will avoid all plastics and floral foam. Additionally a large majority of the flowers are locally grown.
Caring for God's Acre receive many enquiries from churchwardens about the amount of uncompostable waste and litter issues associated with funeral flowers, so we are keen to spread the word of this great initiative!
Are you a Bird watcher?
You might enjoy reading John Stott on Creation Care (2021), by R.J. (Sam) Berry & Laura S. Meitzner Yoder (IVP). a comprehensive collection of Stott's writings on the subject of Christian environmnetal responsibility and creation care.
Church of England excludes all fossil fuel companies from £10.3bn endowment fund
The body managing the Church of England’s £10.3bn endowment fund is excluding all oil and gas companies, stating that none are in “genuine alignment” with global climate goals.The Church Commissioners for England excluded 20 large oil and gas firms from its investment portfolio in 2021, having already excluded coal extraction and generation at that point.
It gave other firms until 2023 to evidence that their plans for decarbonisation were credible and genuinely aligned to the Paris Agreement’s 1.5C pathway. It stated that it would assess their emissions trajectories with the assistance of the Transition Pathway Initiative (TPI).
On 22 June 2023, the Commissioners excluded all remaining oil and gas firms from its portfolio after concluding that none had plans aligned with 1.5C. To see the full article click here.
THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND ROUTEMAP TO NET ZERO CARBON
The Routemap was launched on Thursday 23 June 2022 with a Press Release and details can be found here: https://www.churchofengland.org/about/environment-and-climate-change/net-zero-carbon-routemap.
It is possible to reduce carbon emissions from nearly every building by relatively easy and cheap methods that reduce energy consumption, improve energy efficiency and make the building more comfortable. Eliminating all carbon emissions from a building is more challenging and costly, although it can be done with existing technologies. The Routemap therefore prioritises identifying high energy-consuming, high carbon-emitting buildings, and developing plans to tackle carbon emissions from them.
For further information, visit the page on this DEG website on Climate Change and our Carbon Footprint.
Carbon Dioxide Reduction Project Advice: Phil Hemsley, a member of the Church Energy Advisory Network, who coordinated the installation of solar pv panels at St George's Rugby has produced an advice sheet on Carbon Dioxide Reduction.
IS CARBON OFFSETTING GREENWASHING?
Following a recent article in the Guardian which looks at the way many companies provide carbon offsets that are worthless, read Caroline Pomeroy's articla at https://jri.org.uk/carbon-offsetting-the-new-goldrush/ to see how the Christian charity Climate Stewards aims to offset well and ethically. Caroline is the Director of Climate Stewards.
Recycle your almost used candles: https://therecycledcandlecompany.co.uk/pages/recycle-your-candles
Hydrogen, a viable solution?
Will Hydrogen be a viable solution as we work towards Net Zero Carbon? Or inappropriate technology? Do listen to the recent BBC programme on BBC Sounds: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/w3ct4wcy
WORRIED ABOUT HEATWAVES? OR REALLY COLD SNAPS?
"I'm only a kid; I can't do anything about climate change, right?" Is the planet really warming? Is this due to humans? Canadian climatologist Katherine Hayhoe suggests what you could do in this 17-minute TED talk HERE. Also see Church of England webinars on the Climate-resilient Church HERE. What does it mean to be a 'climate resilient church'?
RECEIVE THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND ENVIRONMENTAL PROGRAMME NEWS FROM https://www.churchofengland.org/about/environment-and-climate-change/environment-programme-news
Operation Noah hosted a webinar launching the report ‘Church Investment in Climate Solutions: Financing a Liveable Future’ on Tuesday 22 November from 7pm-8.30pm.
'Creation care' website: A new way to encourage parishioners to get involved with the Eco Church survey; go to our Eco Church page or directly to https://creationcare.org.uk/ for details.
UPDATED: Church of England website page on Eco Church at https://www.churchofengland.org/more/policy-and-thinking/our-views/environment-and-climate-change/eco-church.
Creationtide Resources from the Diocese of Exeter, including ecumenical resources: https://mcusercontent.com/543e9623f7379d75d88235209/files/5d8b6330-cdb7-4254-af05-a8d0ef582177/Creationtide_edit.pdf
'A practical path to 'net zero carbon for our churches' has been published by the Cathedrals & Church Buildings Division of the CofE and can be found at https://www.churchofengland.org/resources/churchcare/net-zero-carbon-church/practical-path-net-zero-carbon-churches. Download the excellent Checklist to see what you can do to improve your church's performance: https://www.churchofengland.org/sites/default/files/2021-01/PP2NZC_SelfGuidedChecklist_onscreen_version.pdf
Climate Stewards are delighted to announce that their new church carbon footprint calculator https://360carbon.org is now live. 360carbon is free to use and is designed to work for all church denominations. It will soon be linked from the Eco Church website so that churches are asked to use it to measure their carbon footprint as part of their qualification for an award.
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Do consider signing up for next year's Christian Rural and Environmental Studies Certificate course
BBC: Climate Check, the latest data behind our climate and weather at https://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/features/51879358
Our DEG Resources page: do look at this as there is much useful information there for clergy, readers and laity alike. Perhaps even some ideas for birthday presents!
For News items from 2021 and earlier, go to the News Archive page
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SIGN ON FOR NET ZERO CARBON WEBINARS at https://www.churchofengland.org/more/policy-and-thinking/our-views/environment-and-climate-change/webinars-getting-net-zero-carbon
WHAT IS THE SEASON OF CREATION?
The Season of Creation is the period in the annual church calendar, from 1st September to 4th October, dedicated to God as Creator and Sustainer of all life. With Harvest Festivals falling in this season, this is a time of the year to give thanks for God's good gifts of creation.
A time to lament the destruction we see happening round the world, and to reflect on what role we might play in creation care. This year we were invited to listen to the voice of creation, the voice of those who are suffering the impacts of climate change, the voice of people who hold generational wisdom about how to live gratefully within the limits of the land. Many churches chose to use this time of the year to hold special services and events to give thanks for God’s gift of creation, and to renew their commitment to caring for our one planet home. For details , see https://www.churchofengland.org/about/environment-and-climate-change/season-creation#na. To see what was involved, download the Celebration Guide for 2022 and plan to join in next year.
Warwickshire Wildlife Trust's Sherbourne Valley Project is supported by the National Lottery Heritage Fund and was launched on 10th August 2020. Match funding for the Development Phase of this scheme was provided by Coventry City Council, the Environment Agency, Severn Trent, Citizen Housing and Diocese of Coventry (Diocesan Environment Group). Collaborating with those partners and others including Historic Coventry and City of Culture, Warwickshire Wildlife Trust have been working with local people to enhance the area for the benefit of wildlife and people and helping people to improve, interpret, share and celebrate all aspects of the river’s heritage.
The SVP is in its four-year Delivery Phase and we are now participating as Sherbourne Valley Churches. The Diocesan Environment Officer has now handed over his place on the SVP Board to Jan Clemons, Eco Deacon of Hearsall Baptist Church. Participation with Sherbourne Valley Churches is an opportunity for members of churches in the watershed to demonstrate their Community and Global Engagement (see pp. 7-8 of the Eco Church Survey). For further information, see http://www.dioceseofcoventry.org/DEG/DEG_campaign If you would like further information or to be involved, please email the Diocesan Environment Officer at Godfrey.Armitage@covcofe.org.
View some of the excellent talks given at the online St Alban's Diocese regional Eco Church Conference, on Saturday 10th October at https://www.facebook.com/ecochurchcon/
Operation Noah reports that 'one of the Church of England’s three National Investing Bodies, which is managed by investment management company CCLA, has recently sold its last remaining shares in fossil fuel companies.' For further details and to see the Diocese of Coventry's role, visit https://brightnow.org.uk/news/church-of-england-fund-ccla-exits-fossil-fuel-investments/ The Diocese of Coventry is now in Operation Noah's Green category.
Church of England sets 2030 Net Zero carbon target (12th February 2020): For details go to our page on Climate Change and our Carbon Footprint. The Church of England’s General Synod has set new targets for all parts of the church to work to become carbon ‘net zero’ by 2030. At its February 2020 meeting, members voted in favour of a revised date encouraging all parts of the Church of England to take action and ramp-up efforts to reduce emissions.
Click here for the Church of England's new Net Zero Carbon target. For further details, go to Our Carbon Footprint
