Psalm 24 reminds us:
The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it,
the world, and all who live in it;
for he founded it on the seas
and established it on the waters.
Our worship is focused on a Creator God and in order to worship Him we must cherish what belongs to Him
- all of Creation!
Along with many churches we are actively working on the fifth mark of Mission which is:
'To strive to safeguard the integrity of creation, and sustain and renew the life of the earth'.
We are delighted to have obtained our Eco Church Silver Award from A Rocha which means that we will continue to work across the different areas of worship and teaching, lifestyle, buildings, land, community and global engagement to maintain the good work so far and perhaps even strive for gold!
On 15 March 2022, St Matthew's PCC formally acknowledged the Climate Emergency and the importance of maintaining our coordinated efforts to respond to this emergency as an eco-Church and through our individual actions. You can see the full declaration HERE. On 21 March 2023 the PCC received the report of the Eco Church Team and thanked them for all the work they were doing to keep these issues in the forefront of people's mind at church.
We see our Eco Church initiative as being very much part of our Seven Whole Days Vision - hence the two logos share the same themes and colours.
Thanks to our Eco Church Team who have led on this and the many many people in the congregation who have helped in so many different ways.
Your Eco Church team looked like this when they received the Silver Award:
but today the members are: Sheena Evans, Brenda Tyrrell, Chika Ripley, Rev Helen Hancock, Joan Scriven (chair) and Jason Pennington.
During our Eco Church initiative launch in Lent 2021, everyone was encouraged to take part in our '40 Ways to Spring Clean your Life' available HERE. Since then we have had eco tips in our Notice Sheet each week to keep the momentum going on seeking to alter lifestyles to become more environmentally aware. Recently we were encouraged to join Earth Hour - to spend an hour minimising use of all electricity.
For more information, visit our Latest News and Resources pages
If you would like to offer to help with this initiative in any way, please get in touch with Joan Scriven via the Parish Office.