Ridlington Church is awarded Eco Church Bronze Award

During his recent visit to the Rutland Water Benefice, Bishop John was delighted to award Ridlington Church with its Eco Church Bronze Award. 

Eco Church is an amazing award created by A Rocha UK and is completely free of charge for parishes to use.  It is a vital first step on our journey to achieve the carbon net zero target of the Diocese and the wider Church of England by 2030. It does this by focusing on five key areas of church life; worship and teaching, building management, land management, global and community engagement and lifestyle.

This may seem daunting for smaller rural villages, but it shouldn’t, says Debra Thatcher Churchwarden at Ridlington Church. ‘Please let folk know we are a village of less than 200 inhabitants with an average attendance of twelve (on a good day)’ says Debra, who put together their application for the award.  Despite having such a small congregation to draw on, Debra knew that they were already doing a lot which counted towards their eco credentials.

With the support of the clergy team and inventive congregation led services, the Worship and Teaching category can be one of the easier to achieve and Ridlington is proud to have gained gold in this area.  Creation is a regular subject of sermons, prayers and hymns, and by using foraged foliage and flowers in church decorations and allowing local organisations to use the church for harvest festivals this has fulfilled a number of the criteria.  Additionally they have found that using the environment theme as a basis to plan more active services such as Rogation Sunday and pet services this has not only counted towards their Eco Church Award, but has attracted new members to church.

The building category may seem more challenging, but Debra insists it was relatively easy to make progress in this area by focusing on those areas that can be changed. By having a ‘people heating’ under pew heating system, replacing all the light bulbs with LED, and renegotiating the electricity supply contract Debra has been able to achieve silver in this area.  Environmentally friendly cleaning products and traditional cleaning methods are also encouraged.

Most of our churches are blessed with green churchyards which can provide a great area for both environmental projects and community engagement.  By changing churchyard management, leaving areas to re-wild, and careful communication, you can create a haven for wildlife in your churchyard whilst actually doing less work in terms of mowing and strimming!  The work that remains is often a focal point for local community engagement and this was true in Ridlington where cake and coffee, (and sometimes even lunch!) is provided to thank those who work hard in the annual autumn tidy up.

The lifestyle category is another area which can seem a little daunting for a small church to take on, but thinking about our overall impact on the environment and then applying it to a church context can help. Encouraging re-use and recycling by using the church to host sales of pre-loved items helped Ridlington encourage their community to think about re-use, while thinking local can help achieve the community and global engagement elements by supporting local farmers and producers, something that many rural churches are already very aware of.

Overall Ridlington is a great example of what can be achieved when Eco Church elements are considered in the planning and organisation of church activities. We will continue to watch them for inspiration as they move towards their Silver award.

For more information about how you can get involved with Eco Church contact the environment team at environment@peterborough-diocese.org.uk