We are proud to announce we have received the Silver Eco Church Award.

To make the move from a bronze award to the silver award, we primarily focused on our carbon footprint.  We looked at the footprint of the church and the building over the last few years.

We calculated our carbon footprint before covid hit. This enabled us to see what our emissions were pre pandemic, before lockdowns and restrictions, when we were at our busiest.

The next step was to look at the things we could do to reduce our carbon footprint.

An action plan to reduce our footprint is now in place and we also made the decision to offset the emissions we can’t reduce. This means making a donation to ARocha to fund projects which specifically look at emission reduction. If you want the story so far or to read more about the things we’ve been doing, please click on the link to our eco journey document. The journey continues and we will keep looking at what we can do better and how we can continue to spread the eco message to all.

We’re delighted to say that we’ve recently gained a Bronze Award in the eco-Church scheme, recognising our desire as a church community to play our part in caring for and protecting the whole of God’s creation to which we belong.

The eco-Church scheme is run by the charity A Rocha UK, in partnership with Christian Aid, The Church of England, The Methodist Church, Tearfund, The United Reformed Church and Allchurches Trust Limited. Worldwide, A Rocha (Portugese for ‘a rock’) works for the protection and restoration of the natural world and is committed to equipping Christians and churches to care for the environment. More information is available at arocha.org.uk

To reach gain our Bronze Award, a small group of church members and friends has been assessing aspects of our church life including our worship and teaching, our buildings and land, how we engage with the local community on eco-matters, and our own lifestyles as Christians. We’ve answered postively on 25% of the questions to reach the Bronze level: to gain a Silver Award, this needs to reach 50% but we are already starting to look at what this will mean for us. if you would like to help with this please contact us.

We are working hard to improve our own carbon footprint. As a church we look at how we are impacting on the environment and what we can do better. Our garden club is working to ensure that the small outside space we have, supports the local wildlife. We think carefully about what is planted and how we maintain the land. Our Eco Group is meeting regularly and our focus is on improving and reducing our impact on the community around us.

On Sunday 15th July our minister. Patrick. ran the British 10k on a very sunny day in London, raising over £1000 for All We Can. Congratulations to Patrick for a great run and effort!

If you would still like to sponsor Patrick, you can do so here.

This year for church camp we stayed at Beeches Farm Campsite in the Wye Valley. There were 25 of us, and we had some great weather to share our fellowship together. Friday evening, we had a great dinner of Fish and Chips after setting up our tents. The next morning, we had a yummy breakfast of sausages and egg butties, then went for a walk from the campsite to Tintern Abbey along the River Wye.

On the walk to Tintern Abbey

After lunch at the Abbey, we went went back to the campsite for a barbeque and camp fire, with songs led by Dan, before toasting some marshmallows.

Singing campfire songs

Toasting marshmallows

On Sunday morning we all shared in a time of worship, where we talked about Mary and Martha and how we can show hospitality.

We all had a fun time, helped by the sunshine and the company!

On the 10th July, our minister Patrick and Liam, one of our church members, ran the British 10K for All We Can with a team from the Bristol district. They raised over £1000 through their efforts, which will be put to amazing work in the Syrian Refugee camps.

Liam running past the Ritz Hotel on the British 10K

Patrick was unable to make it London, so ran the 10 km in Bristol, from Horfield to the Downs and back!

Patrick ran 10K from Horfield to the Downs in Bristol and back again!