CREATION HOPE
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High Street Baptist Church , Tring , Hertfordshire
Tring Baptist Church serves and works with their community on many fronts , aiming ‘ to grow in the message and challenge of God ’; they see creation care as central to both . They were the first Baptist church to divest from fossil fuels in 2017 and also use energy generated from renewable sources , including their own solar PV panels .
Although they have only a small area of land , they have put up bird and bat boxes and leave an area of the grass long for wildlife . They also support the ‘ Make Tring a
bee town ’ campaign , launched by Tring ’ s Justice and Peace group .
They became the first Baptist church to achieve a Gold award after many years of work and discovery but , like Summerbridge Methodist , this is by no means the end of their journey . This quote from a member of the congregation summarises so aptly all that Eco Church is about :
‘ High Street [ Tring BC ] has really challenged me over the last decade or more to see that creation care is at the heart of the gospel message . It ’ s not an add-on or a nice to have but intrinsic in how we live out our faith in today ’ s world .’
St James ’ s Piccadilly , London
A Gold-awarded Eco Church with a Grade 1 listed building , St James ’ s source all their electricity renewably including from their own solar PV panels on the church roof . They have recently embarked on growing spring wheat on site , as a community project connecting city dwellers to food production .
Westfield and Cannington United Reformed Churches , Somerset
These two Silver-awarded Eco Churches were creative during lockdown , producing weekly Nature Explorers children ’ s activity packs for delivery to 94 family homes in the neighbourhood .
There are so many creative ideas and approaches that it is definitely not a case of one size fits all . Rather , Eco Church is about grassroots initiatives defined by local context but with collective national impact .
Helen Stephens
Helen Stephens is Church Relations Manager at A Rocha UK . She wants to see more and more churches challenged by – and connecting with – each other , in caring for God ’ s earth .