2019 Archive

Welcome to the archive for news, events and other updates from 2019 in the life of the DEG.

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It was in 2019 that The Diocese of Coventry achieved a Bronze Eco Diocese Award.

Sad news...

Andy Atkins, CEO of A Rocha UK wrote: "It is with great sadness that we have learned of the tragic deaths, in a car accident in South Africa on Monday 28 October 2019, of A Rocha co-founder Miranda Harris, A Rocha International Chief Executive Chris Naylor and his wife Susanna. Peter Harris, co-founder of A Rocha survived the accident, and is being treated for serious injuries.". Our work as an Eco Diocese and the efforts of many in our Eco Churches all owe their origins to the inspirational work of Peter Harris. We remember him in our prayers together with his family and the Naylor family, as they face this sad time.

Cherishing Churchyards Events 2019

• All Saints Leek Wootton: another excellent Cherishing Churchyards event on Sunday 7th July. This churchyard is well worth a visit to get ideas about managing your own. All Saints have also signed up as a water bottle refilling point. See http://refill.org.uk/ for details of this excellent scheme designed to cut the use of disposable drinking water bottles. 
• St James Alveston: Saturday July 6th - with Cream Teas and Wildflowers in the churchyard, a model of good churchyard management. The Annual Mow and Barbeque took place on Saturday 27th July from 9am till lunch, despite continuous rain and drizzle; great enthusiasm was shown, as this model of management for biodiversity received its annual haircut!
• St Oswald's Tile Hill: Saturday 15th. News of a great afternoon celebrating Cherishing Churchyards 2019 and 30 Days Wild with the Wildlife Trust. St Oswald's are now the proud hosts to a hedgehog hotel, 2 bug houses and we've got bird feeders made from recycled materials. Not a lot of people came, but great fun!
• St Mary's Cubbington Cherishing Churchyards event 2nd June 2019. Well done Silver Award St Mary's for pressing on despite the rain! Brave folks sitting by tables demonstrating building bug hotels and making newspaper pots. Brilliant ideas, in a beautiful churchyard.
• St Nicholas Kenilworth Eco Church Open Day: Saturday 25th May, 10am - 1pm. See flyer in the Documents panel. This was an excellent occasion, demonstrating a beautiful churchyard being managed for good Biodiversity.

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Eco Church AND Cherishing Churchyards Meetings 2019

Monday 1st April at St Peter's Wellesbourne: forty people, representing twenty two churches, met for our second such meeting of the year. The vicar of St Peter's, Revd Greg Bartlem, welcomed us to St Peter's and Bishop John Stroyan reflected on creation care, then started the meeting with prayer. Following a presentation by Godfrey Armitage on creation care, Dr Claire Strachan of the DAC considered energy efficiency in Church Buildings, Sarah Shuttleworth of the Warwickshire Wildlife Trust gave a presentation on Churchyards as Local Wildlife Sites and Nicola Perryman spoke about the 2019 plans for Cherishing Churchyards events. Greg closed the meeting with prayer.

Tuesday 5th March at St Andrew's Rugby: thirty seven people, representing twenty churches, gathered to hear how to engage with the Eco Church Programme, to plan for Cherishing Churchyards events in the summer and to hear about Christian Aid's campaign for Climate Justice action from John Cooper from West Midlands Christian Aid. The highlight of the evening was news from the vicar, Imogen Nay, who introduced the evening telling us that St Andrew's is about to submit it's survey data to apply for Eco Church Gold! Other speakers included John Daymond on the St Andrew's  Rugby Eco Church programme, Chris Sarson on last year's event at St Peter's Dunchurch, Tricia West on Eco Tips for Eco Church, Dick Withington on Operation Noah, Nicola Perryman on Cherishing Churchyards 2019 and Godfrey Armitage who considered the question 'Why care for Creation?' 

Thanks to Nicola Perryman for organising these two meetings for the DEG and to our host churches for their hospitality.

Archbishop Justin on Climate Change

A short YouTube film for Creationtide 2019 at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bovWrpqWcqY

Further from Archbishop Justin in India: 

"It is service I would like to talk about today – our responsibility of service to the environment, particularly in a rapidly changing world where remarkable technological advances are imminent. This responsibility is hardwired into the mission of the global Anglican Communion, into our understanding of God’s holistic mission – our Fifth Mark of Mission calls each of us to “strive to safeguard the integrity of creation, and sustain and renew the life of the earth.” 

"...climate change is an issue of social justice. It disproportionately affects the poorest and most vulnerable around the world, often those who have done the least to contribute to change in the climate and yet have already started to bear the brunt of its devastating effects."

"Climate change is happening. As we approach the 15th anniversary of the Indian Ocean Tsunami, that caused such devastation across the ocean, including on the shores of India, it is becoming ever clearer that climate change is already having repercussions that seem almost biblical in scope. This is why the Anglican Consultative Council has declared that we are facing a climate emergency. Floods, storms, the mass movement of people – some forced by sudden disasters, others recognising, perhaps with prophetic insight, that their way of life is being eroded at a slower but no less devastating rate and making the heart-breaking decision to find a new home elsewhere. It seems that there is too much water and at the same time there is too little water for those who need fresh water for drinking and …Psalm 11 Verse 3 reads  ‘If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?’

• Making Coventry's Clean - Green Future Saturday 26th October from 9.30am - 12.30pm at Methodist Central Hall Coventry. An excellent morning's lectures.
• RSA Warwickshire: Creating a Low-Carbon Community Saturday 26th October 2019 at 09:30 Memorial Hall, Henley-in-Arden. At this local FREE event, there were speakers on the “circular” (or wastefree) economy, school gardening and “the climate and money”, followed by discussion groups and plans to create a local low-carbon group to support our community on further action. J
• And congratulations also to Stratford Methodist Church for their Gold Award (25th May 2019); only six Gold Award Churches in the country and two of these are in Warwickshire!
• The Time is Now: an event in London which took place on Wednesday 26th June 2019. Operation Noah ran an event at St Martin in the Fields from 1030 - 1130 with a Workshop on Divesting from fossil fuels and took part later in the event to lobby parliament to create a healthier environment for nature and people.
• Rewilding - A Christian Perspective. A day conference at Ripon College, Cuddesdon on Saturday 27th April 2019. This was an excellent  opportunity for learning about Christian attitudes to conservation, for Continuing Ministerial Development and for meeting others involved in care for creation. 
• Operation Noah: This Lent 2019, could you ask your church to make a divestment commitment and join the Easter Declaration for Fossil Free Churches? See the document 'Divest your churches' in the document section on the right.
• RSA Warwickshire: How Low Carbon is your Community? Harbury Energy Initiative and the RSA brought together local communities in the region to share ideas and solutions for local actions to limit climate change on Saturday 27th April 2019 from 09:15 - 13:15 at Harbury Village Hall, Harbury. 
• Launch of Broadwell Turn Community Supported Agriculture Scheme: Monday 14th October, 7.30pm – 9.30pm at Hill Street Youth and Community Center, Rugby. Want to grow your own veg? Not enough time for an allotment? Not got access to space for growing? But you still want fresh, local, organic veg? Transition Town Rugby is helping to set up this scheme between Stockton and Hill on the A426. It’s a scheme run by the community for the community, celebrating local seasonal  food! Transition Town Rugby has grown out of Gold Award-winning St Andrew's Eco Church work. Visit the website at https://transitiontownrugby.org/ and the Facebook page.
• Stratford Climate Action Day 22nd June 2019 was run by Stratford Climate Action Forum at Stratford Methodist Church Centre, with a lecture (Dr Lisa Schipper: 'Climate Change - why we can still do something'), workshops and exhibitions. 
• Recent Green Christian events in Manchester (14 September) and Stroud (28 September). For details visit http://greenchristian.org.uk/whats-on/#all
• Our Common Home - responding to the climate emergency and the world's poor. Public lecture by Christine Allen, Director of Cafod on 12th November 2019 at the Collingwood Centre, Rugby School, Oak Street, Rugby lecture@interfaithinrugby.org.uk
• The Big Climate Fightback: David Curry, Diocesan Environment Officer for the Exeter Diocese wrote: "The Woodland Trust is coordinating a UK - wide day of mass tree planting on 30th November 2019 called the Big Climate Fightback. The new campaign is a call to action for everyone and anyone to plant trees in the fight against climate change. We want to demonstrate HOPE but with a message of urgency that we must act now to mitigate the worst effects of climate change. Please help to highlight the importance of trees in the fight against climate change by planting a tree in your churchyard*, church school, glebeland  or vicarage. If you can't plant a tree, plant a seed in a plant pot. When it's grown sufficiently you can plant it out. A good project for Messy Church? You can record your event on social media using #EveryTreeCounts'.
• Its not too late! You could still plant a tree! * However, if you intend to plant a tree in your churchyard, please go to our Tree planting page as you will need to seek permission from the DAC
• Have you planted a Diocesan Centenary Tree? Go to our Centenary Tree page for advice from the Woodland Trust on maintaining it.
• New Bats in Churches project takes off.
• *Rewilding - A Christian Perspective: following this excellent day on Saturday 27th April at Ripon College, Cuddesdon, the next Day Conference took place on Saturday 16th November 2019 with keynote speaker Dave Bookless (https://www.cres.org.uk/gods-family-and-other-animals/).
• Eco Fayre at St John's, Kenilworth took place on Saturday 12th October from 10am to 2pm. For details, see www.facebook.com/KWEcoFayre. This was an excellent event.
• Easter 2019 Declaration for Fossil-free Churches: see the document and flyer in the Documents section at the right.
• "The Church of England’s Environmental Advisory Group has called for all parts of the Church to recognise the Climate Crisis and step up its action to safeguard God’s creation." (1st November 2019) See https://www.churchofengland.org/media/press-releases/church-englands-environment-group-calls-greater-action-climate-change-across

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