As a church we are thankful for the beauty and diversity of God’s creation. Yet we are also concerned about the climate crisis, and are sorry for the ways we have been slow to act to protect the planet. The Methodist Church of Great Britain has committed to becoming carbon neutral by 2030, and we as a local congregation recognise our responsibility to care for creation and help to slow global warming.
Early in 2022 we signed up to the Eco-Church scheme to help us with ideas and inspiration for reducing our environmental impact. We’re delighted that we achieved the Eco-Church Bronze award in June 2022, in recognition of our efforts to date, and our commitment to ongoing prayer and action. We celebrated at our service on 3 July by inviting all of the congregation to take home and plant a sunflower seedling as a reminder of the beauty of creation and our responsibility to look after it.
We know there is much, much more to do. We are actively working with other congregations in the Hope Valley to share encouragement and ideas about environmental action.
Some of things we have already done as a church: - changed all the lightbulbs on the church premises to LED bulbs - ran awareness raising activities to coincide with the COP26 summit in Glasgow in 2021 - hosting the Repair Café in the church hall every quarter (along with Hathersage Parish Church) as a way to enable items to be re-used rather than thrown away - managing the Millennium Garden for encouragement of native wildlife and as a resource for the community to enjoy nature, including a bug hotel and bird boxes - holding special services related to caring for God’s earth - adapting our mowing regime to enable more wildflowers to support pollination. Some of the new ideas we are exploring for the future: - a wildlife survey on the church land - find new ways to encourage walking, cycling and public transport - provide more recycling resources on our premises and information for hall users about reducing energy use - provide information to help church members reduce their own environmental impact - explore how we can generate our own energy.
