THE diocese of Guildford has reported a milestone in its carbon-neutral journey with greater than half of its parishes having received an Eco Church award for his or her progress.
The bronze, silver, and gold awards have been given to 105 churches across 92 of the diocese’s 156 parishes by the environmental charity A Rocha UK. The advancement implies that Guildford diocese is aligned with the national Church of England strategy to succeed in net zero by 2030 and affirms it as amongst “the highest dioceses for the best variety of Gold Eco Church awards”.
A recent celebration for silver- and gold-accredited churches within the diocese was hosted by the Bishop of Dorking, the Rt Revd Paul Davies. “We used the occasion to assemble a few of our silver Eco-Church award holders to listen to about what ‘going for gold’ looks like. It was a day of encouragement, inspiration, and sharing stories, which was an important blessing to all present.” He said that the diocese now has six parishes with the Gold Eco Church award.
St John’s, Egham, which has achieved gold status, was represented by the parish’s Eco team leader, Chris Gray. “We are encouraged to receive the award, because it is a tangible recognition of the work of a wide range of people focused on the differing elements of creation care,” he said.
“We have followed a really varied route and imagine the give attention to community engagement through our annual Eco Fayre and weekly Community Fridge have been particularly essential to our church life. We have also made some great improvements in our churchyard and are currently within the strategy of installing a heat pump; so St John’s seems a really different place to once we started off.”
Parishes can apply for an Eco Church survey pathway within the Buildings and Energy and Land and Nature categories. A Rocha is currently working on its Eco Diocese Gold Award criteria. To attain silver, a diocese will need to have “10 per cent of local churches awarded silver or higher”.
Speaking within the House of Lords in April, the Bishop of Southwark, the Rt Revd Christopher Chessun, spoke of “an exceptionally difficult goal set by General Synod of achieving net zero by 2030” (News, 10 April).
