Eco-Group Report for the Annual Church Meeting 2021
During the year ending 31st March 2022, the Eco Group continued to meet via Zoom and in person to discuss how we can be better stewards of the earth that God created.
We took part in the ‘Make COP26 Count’ programme, which supported churches with spiritual, practical and political actions leading up to the COP26 climate conference being held in the UK in November 2021. As part of this, we met with MP Paul Blomfield, on Zoom, to discuss our climate change concerns and to ask him about his work on environmental issues. He was very interested and positive about the involvement of churches, not just SAPLC, in environmental issues and we look forward to engaging further with him in future. We also heard personal stories from people in areas that have been devastated by the effect of climate change.
Members of the Eco Group took part in a number of activities supporting environmental action throughout the year, including attending the Diocesan Eco-Celebration on June 12th, meeting and supporting walkers on the Young Christians Climate Network Relay to COP26 as they walked through Sheffield and met in the Cathedral on September 5th and giving a TED Talk introducing the Eco Church scheme at the Sheffield Methodist District Synod on 11th September.
We held our ‘Flushed Away’ event for Sheffield Environment Weeks on 3rd June, raising a total of £221 for Toilet Twinning.
We held a special Climate Sunday Harvest Festival service on Sunday 3rd October.
We held an Eco Church Open Evening which was very successful and well-attended, by people at many stages of the Eco Church journey from churches across Sheffield. We are going to repeat this event as our Sheffield Environment Weeks event on 14th May 2022.
We continue to keep the Eco Church Questionnaire updated and constantly try to improve our score, with the aim of gaining a Gold Award and becoming Net Zero by 2030. We have started working towards installing solar panels on the roof of church and/or Shirley House, working with Sheffield Renewables.
We continue to grow vegetables in the compound behind church and to publish an ‘Eco Tip’ in the Weekly Newsletter to encourage all members of the congregation to live a greener lifestyle.
The Eco Group is always happy to welcome new members.
Clare Loughridge, 20th March 2022