A new season of drop in chats, webinars and discussion groups is planned, aimed at helping you and your church with your mission and ministry to care for God's Creation. a range of speakers will be offering you wisdom and guidance on the the following topics:

• Hello and Welcome Parish Environment Officers Details
• Lessons from the Flood Details
• Eco Church: Your Questions Answered Details
• The Green Journey: taking responsibility for your church's energy use Details
• Embedding Creation in our Worship Details
• Zero Carbon Church. What does it look like and how do we get there? Details
• My Church's Carbon Footprint is... Details

Come along to every online session or pick out the areas where you feel you need to upskill most.

 For full list of dates and details click here or PDF

 

How is Christianity responding to the challenge of the Climate Crisis?  What are the connections between ecological concerns and faith?  Does the Bible help or hinder us when thinking about creation-care?  Is Salvation just for humans?

A 10 session course facilitated by Rev Ruth Newton  starting Thursday 11th June 7.30-9pm. 

Details here 

Leeds is proud to announce it has achieved its Bronze Eco Diocese Award. Contributing to the award process were the twenty three of our churches who have achieved the Bronze Eco Church Award or above. The diocese is the eighth in the country to achieve the award, thanks to our wide range of mission aimed at caring for God's creation. Rt Revd Nick Baines said: "Many thanks for the commitment and hard work which is recognised by this award." More. 

St Mary's Church, Ingleton have taken the plunge and re-roofed and in doing so installed as much roof insulation as they can. "This has always been my mantra for buildings and a church is no different from a normal house." Says Andy Ive, who worships at St Mary's and is the Area Environment Champion for Ripon West. Fortunately the work was completed just before the lock-down. More  .

There may be as much as a 4% carbon emissions reduction globally in 2020 due to the pandemic and subsequent economic depression, according to analysis by the Carbon Brief. 2020 emissions had been set to increase by 1%. However, to stay below 1.5 degrees we need a global reduction of 7.6% every year this decade. More.

Sir John Houghton, who has died aged 88, was an atmospheric physicist and Chairman of the John Ray Initiative, an organisation which connects environment, science and Christianity, who was fundamental in helping the UK church find its voice on climate action. Read here and here. 

At the start of Laudato Si' Week, twenty one faith institutions from the UK joined the largest-ever joint announcement of divestment from fossil fuels from faith institutions. The future of fossil fuel investments is becoming increasingly uncertain. Has your church divested? Read more.