Our First Gold Eco Church Award!

Huge congratulations to St John the Evangelist Church in Pendlebury on being recognised with a Gold Eco Church Award, the highest level of accreditation from A Rocha UK, a reflection of its commitment to caring for God's creation.

Having achieved a Silver Award in 2020, the church set itself the challenge of reaching Gold earlier this year. After months of work gathering evidence, reviewing policies and action plans, and hosting an assessor visit, the award was confirmed last week.

The achievement reflects years of environmental action becoming part of the life of the church. Assessors met members of St John’s Eco Team, which includes many PCC members, and heard how care for creation is being woven into worship, decision-making, community engagement and the management of church buildings and grounds.

The application process was led by Eco Authorised Lay Minister Clive Morris, who coordinated work with A Rocha UK. Clive was quick to emphasise that the award belonged to the whole church community.

“Achieving Gold has been a real team effort,” he said. “Many people across the church have contributed their time, ideas and enthusiasm to help us reach this point.”

The PCC at St John’s sees the award not as the end of the journey but as the beginning of a new chapter. The church is now looking at ways to encourage and support other churches across the diocese and beyond as they develop their own environmental projects and Eco Church applications.

Clive is happy to share advice and lessons learned along the way. While each church’s journey will be different, he says the work can be both challenging and deeply rewarding. He can be contacted by email at m100cjm@yahoo.co.uk