St Luke’s Church, Great Crosby
We would like to introduce you to an award scheme called Eco-Congregation. This is a national environmental programme for churches managed by A Rocha UK. It builds on our existing environmental concerns & Christian perspectives and aims to encourage us as members of the church to CELEBRATE the gift of creation and CARE for it in appropriate practical and spiritual ways. We realise that St Luke’s is already actively involved in many ways - care for our church grounds (Breathing Places), sale of Fairtrade goods, use of low energy lamps and loo hippos, recycling of printer cartridges to name but a few - and on those things we need to build.
What could St Luke’s do? Let us know your ideas of what you would like to see happen and get involved! Contact Gillian or Paul (tel: 0151 932 1272). There is more information on the Eco-Congregation website.
St Luke's home page
This page was last modified on
4 June 2010.
So how will we respond?
What do we have to do?
Form a Green Team to complete the Church Check-up.
What is the Church Check-up?
It covers areas of Worship, Work & Witness and is designed to help us to establish our priorities for action, covering such topics as worship, children’s & youth activities, care of church land and personal lifestyles.
Some examples of what other churches have done
Community litter picks, green themes in worship, study groups and children’s work, recycling, installing more efficient heating & lighting, to name a few.
How long will it take?
There’s no set time limit to implement any ideas – so it could be 6 months, or it might be a year. It doesn’t really matter.
What happens then?
We apply for the award, the work that the church has achieved is assessed, and if we meet the standards we’ll get a plaque.
A prayer from the Eco-Congregation website
In the eco-footprints of Jesus Creator God, |
 |
What have we done so far?
Diary of events
| Date | Event | |
| Sunday 10 February 2008 | Eco-Congregation presented to the church family at 3 services | |
| Weekly newssheets | Eco-tips & points for prayer | |
| 3 March 2008 | Church module questions presented to SMT | |
| 4 June 2008 | Meeting to discuss issues and way forward | |
| 6 August 2008 | First Eco-Congregation Meeting held résumé of meeting |
|
| 27 August 2008 | Eco-Congregation Meeting: résumé | |
| 17 September 2008 | Eco-Congregation Meeting: résumé | |
| 12 October 2008 | Harvest Sunday | |
| 24 October 2008 | Eco-Congregation Meeting | |
| 14 December 2008 | Christmas Eco Stall | |
| 10 March 2009 | Assessment by Eco-congregation assessors (visit from Don Thompson and Phil Lee) | |
| 14 March 2009 | A Rocha regional conference at which Gillian & Paul spoke about Eco-congregation at St Luke’s Church, Great Crosby (photos) | |
| 21 March 2009 | Eco-congregation stall at Wildlife activity morning | |
| 28 March 2009 | Received Eco-congregation award | |
| 14 June 2009 | To celebrate Environment Sunday we held open air services with reflections, readings & prayers being held at the Perennial Garden, Wildflower Meadow and Community Garden. Don Thompson on behalf of Eco Congregation presented St Luke's with the Eco Award. | |
| 16 September 2009 | Steve Matthews spoke at the “Churches & the Environment” conference at the Liverpool Lighthouse, about environmental issues at St Luke's and A Rocha (photos) | |
| 4 October 2009 | Steve Hughes (Chief Executive of A Rocha) spoke to the 9.00 am & 11.00 am harvest celebrations congregations (photos) | |
| 2 November 2009 | The Law Family (plus a few others!) helped to bring the hall loft insulation levels up to the required standards and fitted an automatic timer switch to the immersion heater to save on running costs (photos) | |
| 25 November 2009 | PCC agreed to buy our electricity from a green provider ‘Good Energy’ and pass our Church Environmental Policy - to encourage users of our buildings & our congregation to think green before we act. | |
| 5 December 2009 | Steve & Jan Matthews and Steve & Jackie Cornforth joined 50,000 people in London for The Wave for the biggest climate change march in the world. This was followed by a service held at Central Hall where Dr Rowan Williams spoke. | |
| 18 January 2010 | It was agreed to support A Rocha (as a Partner Church) and EcoCongregation (for the production of a DVD) with funds collected at the monthly Eco Stall. St Luke's 'Taking Care of Creation' DVD has been added to A Rocha's website as an example of what is happening around the country. | |
| 20 February 2010 | Steve Mattews was invited by Bishop James to speak about the work St Luke's has done at the ‘Down to Earth’ Conference held at the cathedral. (photos) |
Forthcoming Events
| Date | Event | |
| 26 June 2010 | To celebrate the International Year of Biodiversity we will open up the churchgrounds with various activities | |
| 18 July 2010 | Bishop James Jones will formally open the Community Garden & Garden of Reflection |
Reflections – Sunday 8 June
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and all your mind
and love your neighbour as yourself.
[Matthew Chapter 22 verses 37,39]
At the beginning of Lent we launched the idea of Eco-congregation and encouraged the congregation to participate in ‘Carbon-Fast’ as part of our focus on the sacrifice made for us by Jesus and showing our care for each other and the environment, by taking up something that may mean a sacrifice to our daily routine or living. In actively living a life that cares for others we can see how the gospel can have an impact on our lives and those around us – not just those in our locality, our ‘next door neighbours’ but those living hundreds or thousands of miles away in different circumstances.
Recently I have taken the opportunity to spend some time in further reading and learning about Matthew’s Gospel, as Matthew seeks to show us that Jesus is Immanuel. Whilst Jesus did not preach on ‘saving the planet’ he did preach in his sermon on the mount that there are those who will find the narrow road and those who will not. There are divisions amongst society and we are challenged to renew our commitment to sharing the good news with others in many ways, not least through our actions and attitudes to each other.
God’s creation places on us all a great responsibility; we are stewards of this earth; called to care for his creation and therefore each other in a loving way.
Through the project of Eco-congregation we are asked to examine our own personal lifestyles and look at different areas of church life; do we praise God and thank him for his creation regularly? How green is our management of financial, catering and purchasing matters? Do we look at the Bible studies in our cell groups?
Our lifestyles continue to consume more and more energy so we need to reflect on ways in which we can love our poorer neighbours – what will you do? Are our decisions based on what will benefit us or do they demonstrate that our lives are committed to Christ?
Gillian Beardwood
What do we do next?
That’s up to you!
St Luke's home page
This page was last modified on
4 June 2010.