Welcome to
Belfairs Methodist Church
Eco Church page.
‘We recognise and teach that creation care and action to address the climate and nature crises are integral to Christian faith, life and worship. We are committed to responding to this by participating in the A Rocha UK Eco Church award scheme.’
Like many churches, of all denominations, Belfairs is commited to looking after Gods planet. We have achieved a Bronze award and are already half way to our Silver award!
A Rocha UK Eco Church has a lot of information and resources and so we are going to use these pages to put direct links on for further information.
This page will change regularly and will include different areas that are covered by Eco Church (older articles can be found on our "articles" page).
By using the resources, we hope that you will become more aware of your carbon footprint and pledge to reduce it year on year.
You can also register your own household, for awards, on Creation Care. When you register, select Belfairs Methodist Church from the church dropdown list and you will be linked to our account - we may even present your awards to you, in church! One of our families has already registered and gained a bronze award.
Land & Nature
Psalm 24:1-2 (NIV) The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it; for he founded it on the seas and established it on the waters
Psalm 84:3 (NIV) Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may have her young - a place near your altar, Lord Almighty, my King and my God.
When churches manage land for nature, be it land owned by the church or land in the local community, they reinforce the whole mission of the church by caring for creation and serving the community - increasing access to nature for human wellbeing, building climate resilience and pointing people towards our Creator God.
Through the Land and Nature category of the Eco Church survey, it is recognised that churches have a significant contribution to make to the UK government’s target of 30% of the land protected for nature by 2030.
Be it land owned by the church, even if only around the church building itself, or land in the local community, churches need to manage land for nature. Caring for land reinforces the whole mission of the church, not only by protecting nature but also serving the community: increasing access to nature for human wellbeing; action for land-based climate resilience; and pointing people toward our Creator God. We are very blessed to have Belfairs Woods on our doorstep and Jan Andrews does a wonderful job of looking after our 2 shrub / flower borders that encourage wildlife.
The Wildlife Trust explains that it’s very hard to protect wildlife if you don’t know much about it. Citizen science projects are a great way to learn more about our wonderful wildlife, at the same time as helping to protect it and, if you’re on Facebook, our church page tries to share events that are going on in Belfairs Woods by the Essex Wildlife Trust. We may not have much land ourselves but, if you are able, you can volunteer to help Essex Wildlife Trust, to help maintain our local area of nature.
It is often difficult to give our support physically, health and time play an important role in whether we can offer our help. But we can offer financial assistance, and Prayer goes a long way too. As a church we have given a small financial donation to both Essex Wildlife Trust and TrustLinks Charity which is a mental health charity that uses working with nature to help those who are struggling. I hope that this is a commitment that we, as a church, can continue, especially as we have so few members who can truly commit to helping physically.
The Eco Church site has lots of resources and reading material to help us at church, but also in our own gardens and local community area. https://ecochurch.arocha.org.uk/resources/land - Encourage native wildlife, birds, moths & butterflies, bats, bees and hedgehogs. Plants for pollinators or avoiding harmful chemicals. In fact, the Land & Nature section, on Eco church, has the largest number of resources of any of the categories. It’s worth looking.
A Rocha UK’s project, T25, is a project to help a range of declining species, taxonomic groups, and threatened habitats and I’m going to share more about this project, and see how Belfairs can get involved, in coming weeks / months.
Quick Links
www carbon footprint calculator
Keep returning for more updates and information.