Welcome to our latest local Eco newsletter. Scroll on down for details of our next Eco Forum, encouraging eco stories, welcomes and congratulations and details of useful resources, events and webinars to keep you all inspired!


With 2023 confirmed as the hottest year on record, our mission to share the capacity to change this course grows ever more urgent.


Thank you for all you continue to do in your parish or benefice to ensure that we strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of the earth. 


Your Eco Church team is: the Revd Canon David Longe, Revd Gemma Fraser, Hannah Emmrich and Barbara Bryant (members of the DofN Environment Working Group).

Events

Eco Church Forum guided reflection and prayer time

Online, Zoom

Tuesday 6 February 2024

Join us at our next Eco Church Forum, where we’ll be taking a break from our usual content of information and signposting to resources.


Instead we’ll be spending time reflecting on our journeys so far with a guided meditation and prayer space, led by Canon Susanna Gunner.



Click here for further details and Zoom link
Are you coming to the event?
 

LOCATION
Online, Zoom
 

DATE AND TIME
02/06/24 7:00pm - 02/06/24 8:00pm US/Eastern
 
Come to reconnect with the underpinning of God's call to care for creation, wherever you are at in our Eco Church journey.
I'll be there!
I can't make it
 


Help up map Eco Church better locally please!

We'd very much like to have a clearer picture of the people involved in coordinating Eco Church in their parish. We have some rather out-of-date info at the moment, a list of churches from A Rocha UK, and this mailing list. We'd like to join these dots to help us better communicate, both through this newsletter and through occasional interim emails.


Your PCC secretary will be receiving an email requesting to update the parish persons dashboard with the relevant Eco Church Rep. If this is you, you will receive a data consent form to complete for our records.


If your PCC does not have a secretary, please contact data@dioceseofnorwich.org to add your role.


Congratulations and welcome

Many congratulations to the churches receiving awards since November last year and welcome to those recently registered for the Eco Church journey.


  • SILVER - Wymondham Abbey


  • BRONZE -  St Andrew's, Letheringsett and All Saints, North Runcton


  • NEWLY REGISTERED - St Nicholas, North Walsham


Still to start your Eco Church journey? Find out more here
 
Download the PDF

Eco Awareness Days Calendar 2024


There are many environmental awareness days throughout the year. These are a good opportunity to tie in your own community-events and special themed services to raise awareness of creation care. Barbara has pulled this list together and it will be updated each year.


Please send any suggestions for inclusion to barbara.bryant@dioceseofnorwich.org
 


Energy Footprint Tool

re-opens on 5 February

The national Church of England Energy Footprint Tool (EFT) is open from 5 February for churches to enter their energy use from 2023, by logging onto the online parish returns. The easy-to-use Tool will tell your church what your “carbon footprint” is, based on the energy you use to heat and light your buildings. Then you'll have a baseline to measure your progress as you plan actions to cut your carbon emissions. You'll need to complete this if you want to apply for any net zero funding.


Bishop Graham urges: “We need to take firm action to ameliorate our contributions to the climate crisis. In order to reduce the carbon emissions of our church buildings we need a proper baseline to track progress. I commend the Energy Footprint Tool to everyone across our Diocese and urge you to make use of it. By careful monitoring you can save money on your energy bills and reduce your carbon footprint. By logging your returns you can add your church’s contribution to an important picture about how the Church of England as a whole is doing in caring for creation.”
Find out how


One thousand bulbs planted in the big bulb plant 

It's wonderful to see our schools getting their hands dirty and contributing towards improving their local environment.


“The big bulb plant has inspired the community, and everyone is excited to see all the leaves and flowers pop up from the earth after a cold winter to celebrate the arrival of spring and new beginnings. The children are watching the space very carefully and hope our regular deer visitors don’t eat them all!” said Mrs Lorraine Ratcliffe, Headteacher of The Bishop’s Church of England Primary in Thetford.
Read full story here
 

A Greener Lent


Join in person in London or from home by using the prayer resources 




  • And a similar smorgasbord of activities for an environmental focus for Lent can be found on the A Rocha UK site here:

Go Green (er) for Lent - A Rocha UK



  • And Christian Aid has produced a great new resource, very aptly for us in our "year of Prophetic", to speak out to act on poverty - especially in the run-up to a general election.This is a text block. You can use it to add text to your template.
 


Lambeth Call on environment - a local response

Led by the Revd Canon David Longe, Chair of the Environment Working Group, and Barbara Bryant, Diocesan Environment Officer, the session focused on the Call being about connectivity with creation and a response to the fifth Mark of Mission.


You can see the text of the Lambeth Call on the environment and sustainable development on page seven of this document.


Bishop responds to COP28 outcomes

"When will the world wake up to the urgency?" asks Bishop Graham as he reflects on the progress made at the UN climate conference in December. Read his full reflection at the link above.
 

Diocese of Norwich awarded Eco Diocese Bronze 


Tim Sweeting, Diocesan Secretary said: “Our target to become an Eco Diocese was to have 60 churches registered and now we have 167 with 61 Bronze, and17 Silver awards – including this beautiful medieval example we’re standing in front of today: St George’s Tombland, who reached their Silver award earlier this year. Just last month we received notification that our offices in Easton had met the criteria for its own Bronze award, which enabled us to move towards the Eco Diocese bronze. And we have more churches still working towards getting their own award. It shows that as a Diocese we recognise that the care for God’s creation is at the heart of ministry and mission”.


This has only been possible with your help in your local parishes, so thank you!
 

Remember to share you Eco Church journey stories with us at ecochurch@dioceseofnorwich.org You can see latest environmental stories from across the diocese by clicking below
Diocese of Norwich eco stories
 

Further Resources

Sign-up for CofE Enviro programme newsletter


Lots of really useful resource information, resources and a rolling programme of webinars is mailed out monthly.

Sign up here


Eco Church promotional poster


There are a variety of versions of a poster to promote your Eco Church journey on your notice board or elsewhere. Follow the link above to see which one best suits your purpose. Let's tell others about the journey we're on and express the importance of creation care!

Climate anxiety video


The climate crisis is having a deep impact on the world around us, how we live our lives and how we feel. With a global increase in web searches of the term ‘climate anxiety’ (up by 4,590% from 2018-2023) this film is a timely exploration of the emotional effect of climate change through one individual’s remarkable true story. 

Joycelyn Longdon (Climate in Colour) takes us on her journey across the intersection between social action and climate activism, shedding light on the urgent need for change and deepening our understanding of the intricate relationship between the environment and our well-being. She answers the question, ‘what is ‘climate anxiety?’ And can we cure it?” It's a helpful video to share - less than 10 mins in length.
 

HOLD THE DATE: Saturday 15 June 2024

A Pit Stop for Rural Churches – Towards Net Zero by 2030’


A Day Conference is planned at St Mary’s Wiveton, located in North Norfolk’s Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.


Bishop Graham is booked as the keynote speaker and there will be sessions on practical step to net zero, managing churchyards for wildlife and greater biodiversity, working with young people on environmental initiatives, and becoming and Eco Church. Contributors will include the Norfolk Wildlife Trust and A Rocha UK. Definitive programme and booking details to follow - but put the date in your diary now!
 

Keep in touch with one another in between these eNewsletters and forums, by joining the conversation on the Norfolk & Waveney Eco Church Facebook group:
Norfolk & Waveney eco-churches Facebook group
 
 
Contact Us

109 Dereham Road, Easton

Norwich NR9 5ES

01603 880853

ecochurch@dioceseofnorwich.org
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