Tiny Forests were started in Japan about 50 years ago by the Japanese botanist, Dr Akira Miyawaki, and have been rolled out in various parts of the world since then, when people catch the vision. See https://earthwatch.org.uk/tiny-forests-partnership-with-ovo-foundation-wins-edie-award/ and, discussing the practicalities, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53Uo4IE-VBI. Perhaps you have space for a tennis court sized piece of woodland in your church. If you are interested, contact the Diocesan Environment Officer to discuss this.

A personal creation care journey by Gary Stocker , All Saints Leamington, can be found at https://www.coventry.anglican.org/news/how-individuals-can-do-their-bit-to-support-the-environment

Resources for the Climate Resilient Church:

Church buildings are often solidly built and, when maintained well, have withstood the weather over the centuries. However, as the climate changes, and weather events becomes more extreme, they can become vulnerable. We need to be protect these precious buildings from harm. Visit the new Church of England resource on the Climate resilient church to become aware of how to protect your buildings, and also provide sanctuary, for example as places of refuge during floods or cool places during heatwaves.

BCDM Creation Care Course:

This module, through consideration of scripture and science, looks at God’s creation, our place in it and the hope that we have for the future in a time of environmental crisis. By the end of the five x 2 hour sessions, you should see that care for the environment is integral to our call as Christians to discipleship. For further information about this, please contact the Diocesan Environment Officer.

Why care for the earth?

Watch this film, The Letter, at https://www.theletterfilm.org/watch/, which tells the story tells of a journey to Rome of frontline leaders to discuss the encyclical letter Laudato Si’ with Pope Francis.

If you have members of your congregation who do not believe that the climate is changing, show them this BBC Climate Check for 2020: https://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/features/55280683. For the February 2022 Climate Check, go to https://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/features/60377589 to see more records being broken.

Giving to Creation Care organisations

God has given us the privilege of caring for the world he lovingly created. See https://www.stewardship.org.uk/causes/creation-care for links to Christian environmental charities.

Climate Finance gets Personal:

Andy Clark reflects on Climate Finance and Christian Ethics on this John Ray Initiative blog

Radical Presence: Green Christian's initiative to help churches build a more sustainable, just and compassionate world after the pandemic. See Documents panel.

Posted on 4th October 2019, the Feast of St Francis of Assisi, the State of Nature Report 2019 made grim reading as we see continued loss of biodiversity in the UK. This very comprehensive review is packed with important statistics and will remain a valuable resource fro some years to come.

NEW: Webinar resouces on Natural History from Warwickshire Wildlife Trust to help you get to know more about God's amazing natural world at https://www.warwickshirewildlifetrust.org.uk/TakePart/webinars with Debbie Wright, a regular attendee at our Diocesan Environment Group.

How Ecosystems Work:

Unlocking Nature's Secrets: The Serengeti Rules was an excellent examination of how ecosystems can be degraded by removal of 'keystone species' and also on causes for hope and restoration. 'Five scientists, who began their research in the 1960s, revisit their field studies across the globe and how they discovered a single set of rules that govern all life on earth.' However, it can still be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AT3X5hKkgOE. Highly recommended.

Also, see the webinar on Biodiversity and Ecology given by your Diocesan Environment Officer as part of the 2021 Churches Count on Nature webinars at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0b3e5yu7Oc.

Nature based Solutions and Climate Change Andy Atkins of A Rocha UK summarises this in this May 2021 article (https://arocha.org.uk/nature-based-solutions-to-the-climate-crisis/) and a more detailed account can be found here. https://www.arocha.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Nature-based-Solutions-to-climate-change-A-Rocha-worldwide-family-position-October-2021.pdf).

For an informative webinar by the British Ecological Society, look at https://www.britishecologicalsociety.org/applied-ecology-resources/updates-and-events/aer-live/nature-based-solutions-fri-15-oct-2021/ in which one of the contributors was Dr Mike Morecroft, one of our 2015 Reconciling a Wounded Planet Conference speakers.

*Space for Nature: The UK in 100 seconds is an excellent short video resource showing how the UK landscape is made up at https://cdn.friendsoftheearth.uk/nature/space-nature-uk-100-seconds

To inspire and help people explore and celebrate Creationtide the Church of England created new liturgies and pulled together examples of services and prayers from across the C of E (also see Section 1): http://www.churchofengland.org/more/policy-and-thinking/our-views/environment-and-climate-change/creationtide/creationtide

*Christian Rural and Environmental Studies (CRES): Time to start thinking about applying for the CRES Certificate course; applications for the new academic year are already starting to come in and places are limited. For information, see below and see the CRES Admissions web page. CRES is a John Ray Initiative distance learning course run jointly with A Rocha UK.

A Parish Resource: Thanks to St Mary's Cubbington for sharing their Eco Tips, suitable for your weekly parish news sheet or in youir monthly magazine. See the pdf in the Documents section.

*Ideas for preventing rural flooding: https://vimeo.com/167391533

*How to plan ahead for flooding: This Government website gives information under the following headings. Find out if you are at Risk. Sign up for flood warinings. Know what to do. Know how to turn off your water, gas and electricity. Protect your property. Check your insurance. Note where you will find flood forecasting websites. Find out where you can get help. Could your church be a place of refuge and help in a local flood?

Save water: visit the Waterwise website at https://www.waterwise.org.uk/save-water/to see many good tips for saving water, cutting your carbon emissions as a result and cutting your costs too.

Essential viewing: Nature's Emergency: where we are in five graphics, available at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-48104037 and two short official trailer youtube clips, An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power and Scarred Lands and Wounded Lives.

How to start, at home or in your churchyard, your own butterfly garden. Sarah kindly provided us with details of this resource through her teacher, Ms Rachel Martin. Thank you Sarah and Ms Martin! Jen Miller, of Jen Reviews, has also given us another excellent butterfly garden site for you to check.

Click here to return to the top of the page

Worship and Teaching Resources

Worship Resources

Praying for the Earth: Remembering the Environment in our Prayers of Intercession by Rob Kelsey (February, 2021). For further details, click HERE

Prayer Resources: click here to find useful prayer resources related to Eco Church.

Youth Resources

https://spckpublishing.co.uk/pub/media/wysiwyg/SYTLYouth_Resource.pdf. This series is founded on Saying Yes To Life Ruth Valerio’s Lent book. The Youth Series has been brought to you by Dot Tyler who is part of the We Are Tearfund community. We believe that a young generation can, together, bring an end to extreme poverty. We Are Tearfund exists to champion young voices to speak up and inspire you to follow Jesus in your ordinary lives as you make a difference for our world. To find out more and join the community, find us on social media or YouTube @WeAreTearfund.

Environmental Resources for home schooling produced by Eco Schools. Perhaps you could persuade your school to join up as an Eco School once things return to normal.

Resources from the Diocese of Exeter, including ecumenical resources: https://mcusercontent.com/543e9623f7379d75d88235209/files/5d8b6330-cdb7-4254-af05-a8d0ef582177/Creationtide_edit.pdf

A preaching resource on environmental themes, based on the Lectionary: http://sustainable-preaching.org with thanks to Revd Elizabeth Bussman, Environment Officer for the Diocese of Europe.

Creationtide Resources

To inspire and help people explore and celebrate Creationtide the Church of England created new liturgies and pulled together examples of services and prayers from across the C of E: https://www.churchofengland.org/about/environment-and-climate-change/creationtide/creationtide-resources

A Time for Creation liturgy book: https://www.churchofengland.org/prayer-and-worship/worship-texts-and-resources/time-creation

For an introduction to the Season of Creation, visit http://seasonofcreation.org/ for ideas and resources and start planning for this year's Season of Creation.

Prayer and Season of Creation Resources from the Anglican Alliance at https://anglicanalliance.org/season-of-creation/

Resources for Creationtide from the Church of England Environmental Programme can be found at http://creationtide.com/.

A Time for Creation: Liturgical resources for Creation and the Environment by Robert Atwell, Christopher Irvine, Sue Moore at https://www.chpublishing.co.uk/books/9781781401859/a-time-for-creation. This includes a Google Preview.

Daily reflections for the season of Creationtide, published by the John Ray Initiative in time for use this year; you can download them from http://www.jri.org.uk/resources/creationtide-reflections/

Season of Creation 4: promoted by the Anglican Church of South Africa Environmental Network, five weeks of studies, fact sheets and services at http://www.greenanglicans.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Season-of-Creation-Four.pdf

CLIMATE SUNDAY: Churches Together In Britain encouraged local churches to hold a local Climate Sunday any time during a one-year period starting on 6th September (the first Sunday in the annual season of Creation Time/Season of Creation) in preparation for COP26. This culminated in a The Nations' Climate Sunday Service in Glasgow Cathedral, available to view at: https://ctbi.org.uk/climate-sunday/

Teaching Resources

*Environment Reading and Resources List: a list prepared by Dr Martin Hodson (CRES) for Transforming Communities: ‘Contributing as the National Church to the Common Good’

Why all Christians have a vocation to care for the earth by Rev Dr Mike Perry for A Rocha UK, 20 September 2020: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCEtR3qANcY

Excellent book on Creation Care: Douglas J. Moo & Jonathan A. Moo (2018) Creation Care: A Biblical Theology of the Natural World Biblical Theology for Life series: Zondervan (£15.99). Professor Richard Bauckham writes: "This book deserves to become the standard work of its kind. One of its many merits is that it grounds creation care in the whole biblical story from creation to new creation. Another is its well-informed and up-to-date account of the plight of creation today. A third is its thoughtful attention to practical and realistic ways of caring about and caring for creation in our contemporary Western contexts."

The Climate Crisis

Book reviews by Nicky Bull (Operation Noah) of recent books on the Climate Crisis: https://operationnoah.org/news-events/news-blog/book-reviews/

Living Lent - creating a climate of change. Click here to see how you can make significant lifestyle changes to bless the earth next Lent.

Understanding the science of climate change: an excellent 10-minute YouTube resource on the last time the earth had a major warming episode, the 'Palaeocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum' presented in a way that is easy to understand at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ldLBoErAhz4. For a more detailed study, read Dorrik Stow (2010) Vanished Ocean.

Mini-videos by the US climatologist Catherine Hayhoe. These are very clear and well stated videos, each lasting less than ten minutes, which would be useful as part of a discussion group. :

1. This is all just part of a natural cycle, right?

2. What's the big deal with a few degrees?

Ideas for energy generation: Look at St Anne's Highgate community project with solar pv; could you do something similar? Could you generate solar energy from the space above cars in your car park? Look at the solar car parks guide for technical information.

The arithmetic of renewables: TED talk by the late Sir David Mackay at Warwick University

Tenants of the King is a Bible-based, Jesus-centred resource from Operation Noah. This four-part study series is designed to help you and your church consider what the Bible has to say about today’s climate crisis. Through interactive group sessions, video interviews with leading Christian thinkers and insightful Bible commentary, this resource will help you and your church to reflect on the challenges of a changing climate, and how Christians can respond with hope to one of today’s greatest challenges. Study guide booklets and video interviews can be ordered on our website: http://operationnoah.org/resources/tenants-of-the-king-study-guide/

SÄlote: A New video resource from Operation Noah which aims to help Christians around the world recognise the human cost of climate change, and particularly its impact on women and children.

The video was designed for Christians of all ages and developed in partnership with the World Day of Prayer. It introduces the viewer to SÄlote, a seven-year-old Polynesian girl who is already experiencing the devastating effects of a changing climate in her South Pacific island home. As SÄlote witnesses the impacts of climate change on three generations of her family, she reflects aloud on what has caused this change. The story is inspired by real-life accounts of present-day climate change impacts such as rising sea levels, which hit poor and vulnerable populations, living in sensitive parts of the world like low-lying islands, the hardest. The full video can be watched on our website, where you can also download an activity pack and factsheet for your church/home group during the Season of Creation: http://operationnoah.org/resources/salote/

Calculating carbon footprints: For your church, visit Carbon Footprint (registration needed, but free) at http://www.carbonfootprint.com/businesscarboncalculator.html or the National Energy Foundation at http://www.carbon-calculator.org.uk/. Encourage your parishioners to check their own personal carbon footprints using the World Wildlife Fund's calculator at http://footprint.wwf.org.uk/. Offset the carbon costs of your travel at climatestewards.org.

Economics and Social Justice

Ethical Investment in a time of Climate Change: see https://www.churchofengland.org/more/policy-and-thinking/our-views/environment-and-climate-change/how-you-can-act/sustainable-investment

Just Food - The Price we pay for Food with Dr Michael Northcott, Dr Ruth Valerio and Brother Sam: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNYdB5-rF4U

What pressures will this new decade bring to God's creation, the environment in which we live and our children and grandchildren will have to live? Read Dieter Helm (2019) Green and Prosperous Land Collins: 'there is a choice: we can impoverish ourselves by continuing down the current path or we can halt destruction and work to rescue the nature we have left. We can - and should -have a greener and more prosperous future'.

Scarred Lands and Wounded Lives - the environmental footprint of war: film-makers Lincoln and Alice Day joined our 2015 conference Reconciling a Wounded Planet at Coventry Cathedral (http://www.reconcilingawoundedplanet.com/) for the showing of this film on the ecological legacy of war. See clips or the whole film at http://www.scarredlandsfilm.com/

Doughnut Economics: Humanity’s 21st century challenge is to meet the needs of all within the means of the planet. In other words, to ensure that no one falls short on life’s essentials (from food and housing to healthcare and political voice), while ensuring that collectively we do not overshoot our pressure on Earth’s life-supporting systems, on which we fundamentally depend – such as a stable climate, fertile soils, and a protective ozone layer. The Doughnut of social and planetary boundaries is a playfully serious approach to framing that challenge, and it acts as a compass for human progress this century. Visit this site to see Kate Raworth's TED talk on what she calls Doughnut Economics.

Practical Action: Rugby-based charity with resources on global engagement for churches at http://practicalaction.org/support/fundraise/group-church-or-club/churchservices/

Caring for the Land and Churchyards

State of Nature Report: a useful one-page summary for the state of nature in England in 2019 at https://nbn.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/State-of-Nature-2019-England-27-09-19.pdf

Managing your churchyard: Look at films from Caring for God's Acre.

*Mob Grazing: For an excellent summary of the benefits of Mob Grazing, see Christine Page's page at http://smilingtreefarm.com/blog/mob-grazing. Also, see https://www.fwi.co.uk/livestock/grassland-management/how-beef-herd-is-delivering-350-cow-net-profit-with-deferred-mob-grazing on a deferred mob grazing system by Rob Havard, one our speakers at the Reconciling a Wounded Planet Conference at Coventry Cathedral in 2015.

*Resources for Rural Churches: http://www.congregational.org.uk/buildings-and-property/rural-church-buildings

Where to see the UK's favourite animals: useful information published by the Premier Inn website!

Garden Recycling Tips from Thompson and Morgan: click here

Click here for excellent environmental resources from the Natural History Museum

From the World Wildlife Fund newsletter: How to grow vegetables indoors.

Plastic-free Resources

The Plastic wrapping problem: look at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-47161379. It is more complicated than it seems.

Free refill stations for your plastic bottles: visit http://refill.org.uk/ and stay rehydrated, save money and help prevent plastic pollution. See #GotTHe Bottle.

The Plastic Free Lent materials are useful all year round: http://www.churchofengland.org/sites/default/files/2019-03/Plastic_Free_Lent_2019.pdf

For schools there is the Plastic Free Schools framework from Surfers Against Sewage: http://www.sas.org.uk/plastic-free-schools/

There is a leaflet from Eco Churches about cups: http://3ak4be4522es3y5i4l2cwfkx-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Buildings-The-Different-Types-Of-Cups-Available-Recycled-Disposable-Compostable.pdf

If a church has a publicly available tap, which people can use to refill water bottles, they can register their church on the Refill App: http://refill.org.uk/add-refill-station/

Frustrated that you cannot recycle Pringles tubes? Visit https://www.terracycle.com/en-GB/brigades/pringles#how-it-works

Other useful resources

Reconciling a Wounded Planet: Do visit this website to read about our 2015 Conference at Coventry Cathedral. Also @RawpCoventry to see recent Tweets and our very active and informative Facebook page

The Reconciling a Wounded Planet For a brief report of what happened at the conference five years ago, look at http://www.reconcilingawoundedplanet.com/ (this is due to be taken down soon), at https://www.jri.org.uk/blog/reconciling-a-wounded-planet-report-by-dr-peter-lornie/ and at https://www.anglicannews.org/news/2015/09/anglicans-mobilise-for-climate-change,-seek-common-reconciliation-theology.aspx

Putting on an event? Look at http://www.greeneventbook.com/ for downloadable checklists to ensure that your event is sustainable.

Are you an ordinand or minister in training? Green Christian are offering a free two year GC membership (with digital magazine).

New: List of Bible Study Resources from the Diocese of Leeds: see Documents on RHS of page.

Click here to return to the top of the page

Courses and Conferences

Bishop's Certificate in Discipleship and Mission: Creation Care

This module, through consideration of scripture and science, looks at God’s creation, our place in it and the hope that we have for the future in a time of environmental crisis.

Its aims are to understand the importance of caring for creation from a biblical, theological and Godly perspective, to bring together scriptural, scientific and practical understanding to help us safeguard creation as part of our mission and life as Christians and to be inspired and hopeful to live differently in the world based on Christian principles and discipleship, inspiring others to do likewise.

The course is led by Revd Charlotte Jackson The next Creation Care course will be advertised in eBulletin.

Previous Creation Care courses ran at St John's,Westwood (May 2017), St Edmund's, Shipston (October - November 2017), St Barbara's, Kenilworth (March - April 2018), St Peter's Dunchurch (June 2019) and St Andrew's Eastern Green and online (March 2020)

*Christian Rural and Environmental Studies

This two year Certificate course provides an opportunity to study rural and environmental issues from a Christian viewpoint. It will be of interest to all with a personal or professional concern for the environment and countryside, rural communities and churches. There are no entry requirements. If you would like to consider joining up for the coming academic year go to https://www.cres.org.uk/cres-admissions-2020/

For more information, contact the Diocesan Environment Officer (Godfrey.Armitage@covcofe.org) who is currently a CRES Tutor, as is Revd Charlotte Jackson.

Click here to return to the top of the page

Further links

A Rocha UK - http://arocha.org.uk/

Bats in Churches - https://www.batsandchurches.org.uk/

Bauckham, Richard 'Ecological Hope in Crisis?' JRI Briefing Paper No. 23

Dave Bookless (2014) ‘Let everything that has breath praise the Lord’ - http://www.jubilee-centre.org/bible-and-biodiversity/

*Brown, Gabe: Regeneration of our Land: a producer's perspective (TEDX talk) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfTZ0rnowcc

Christian Aid - http://www.christianaid.org.uk/whatwedo/issues/climate_change.aspx

Christian Ecology Link - http://www.greenchristian.org.uk/ See below under Green Christian.

Christians in Science - https://www.cis.org.uk/

Churches Together in Britain and Ireland - http://www.ctbi.org.uk

Climate Stewards - http://www.climatestewards.org/

Eco Church: see https://ecochurch.arocha.org.uk/resources/

European Christian Environmental Network - http://www.ecen.org/

Government 25-year environment plan https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/673203/25-year-environment-plan.pdf

Green Christian: Support in greening your church and world. Excellent information and Resources (leaflets) available from www.greenchristian.org.uk Also see https://joyinenough.org/

Grove Books - www.grovebooks.co.uk

Law and your environment - http://www.environmentlaw.org.uk/

Mackay, David J.C. Mackay (2009) Sustainable Energy – without the Hot Air UIT Cambridge Ltd - http://www.withouthotair.com/
(2009) Sustainable Energy – without the Hot Air UIT Cambridge Ltd - http://www.withouthotair.com/

Natural History Museum on the 'Antropocene': https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/anthropocene.html?utm_source=fb-link-ad-20200120-lp&utm_medium=paid-social&utm_campaign=aka-anthropocene&utm_content=d&utm_contentid=6180806522328

*No till: benefits of zero tillage to farmers: https://www.fwi.co.uk/arable/many-uk-growers-missing-benefits-zero-tillage

Operation Noah - http://operationnoah.org/

Plantlife: Managing grassland road verges: https://www.plantlife.org.uk/application/files/3315/7063/5411/Managing_grassland_road_verges_Singles.pdf (this is a useful resource on meadow vegetation and so should be helpful background information for churchyard mangement)

Reconciling a Wounded Planet - http://www.reconcilingawoundedplanet.com/

Ruth Valerio at St Paul’s Cathedral - http://ruthvalerio.net/videos/just-living-christianity-in-an-age-of-consumerism/

Shrinking the Footprint - http://www.churchcare.co.uk/shrinking-the-footprint

Sir John Houghton (2007) Why care for the environment Faraday Paper No. 5 (4 pages downloadable) - http://www.faraday.st-edmunds.cam.ac.uk/resources/Faraday Papers/Faraday Paper 5 Houghton_EN.pdf

Sustainable Events Guide - http://www.seventeenevents.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/downloads/2010/08/Sustainable-Events-Guide-final-1.pdf

The John Ray Initiative - http://www.jri.org.uk/ Download papers from this site on a range of important environmental topics

- Summary by JRI chairman of talk on Climate Change by climatologist Katharine Hayhoe: http://www.jri.org.uk/blog/talking-climate-in-texas-and-living-to-tell-the-tale-report-by-rev-dr-john-weaver/

The Church and the Earth 2009 – 2016 - http://www.arcworld.org/downloads/christian-CofE-7YP.pdf

The Dispossession Project (Eco House) - http://www.dispossessionproject.org/eco_yellow_welc_1_1.htm

Trophic cascades: how reintroducing predators can change ecosystems for the better. The Yellowstone example: see excellent short Youtube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysa5OBhXz-Q

World Wildlife Fund (Living Planet Report 2014) - http://wwf.panda.org/?229830/Solutions-still-in-reach-as-world-biodiversity-suffers-major-decline#

Click here to return to the top of the page