Welcome to our Eco Church Project
Oxon Parish Church Wins Silver Eco-Church Award!
The Eco Team is delighted to announce that A Rocha has awarded Oxon Parish Church the Silver award for all its hard work in improving its green credentials since winning bronze two years ago.
Congratulations and a huge thank you to everyone involved!
The award was granted for our work in:
1. Worship and Teaching
2. Management of Church Buildings
3. Management of Church Land
4. Community Engagement
5. Personal Lifestyle of Church Members
To find out more about what we did to win and are continuing to do to sustain and maintain our church buildings and churchyard in an environmentally friendly way please read on:
Worship and Teaching
Preaching: Creation care is a key theme throughout the year
Prayers and Intercessions: Every service includes climate-focused prayers and petitions for environmental charities supported by the congregation.
Small Group Studies: Groups have explored eco theology and justice
Music: Hymns reflect readings and themes of creation care.
Church Buildings
Energy Management: Our Carbon Footprint is kept to a minimum through rigorous heating system management. Our energy supplier has good green credentials.
Double-glazing: In the Church Hall and Vicarage
Lighting: LED lights are installed where possible. Outdoor security lights are on timers.
Water and Waste: Metered water usage, a water butt for the churchyard
Toilet Cisterns: Fitted with dual flush buttons
Church Land
Long Grass Areas: Created to enhance habitats and food sources for insects and wildlife.
Pollinator-Friendly Borders: Planted with perennial plants to attract bees and other pollinators.
Composting System: Three composting clamps for leaves, providing sequential composting to improve borders and support church funds.
Dead-Hedge: Brushwood hedge serves as a boundary, reuses pruning waste, and creates a natural bug hotel and habitat corridor.
Bird Boxes: Two bird boxes with different aperture sizes complement existing nesting spaces in hedges, trees, and eaves. Bird feeders in winter months
Biodiversity: Currently home to 42 plant species, 14 tree species, and 11 bird species, with plans for more detailed surveys.
Community and Global Engagement
School Engagement: Regular visits to schools, eco-themed craft mornings for children, and a nature trail with Bible verses to connect education, creativity, and environmental awareness.
Community Use of Church Hall: Eco displays, awards, and Fairtrade certificates are visible to all hall users, including community groups, coffee mornings, and eco-themed monthly craft activities.
Churchyard as Outreach: Managed as a reflective haven with seasonal maintenance mornings, a litter pick, gardening team engagement, and a Garden of Remembrance featuring a prayer board and benches.
Eco Displays and Education: Displays in the hall educate on topics like food waste, eco-friendly Christmas ideas, and sustainable living, while sharing progress under A Rocha survey headings.
Global and Charitable Action: Support for Self Help Africa, Tearfund, Christian Aid, Mary’s Meals, and Children’s Society, alongside prayer and newsletter focus on climate crises and global poverty.
Partnerships and Networking: Ecumenical meetings with other churches, COP26 insights displayed for inspiration, and regular conservation-focused Zoom talks featuring global environmental issues.
Practical Eco Commitments: Fairtrade registration, toilet twinning with African villages, charity involvement, and encouraging sustainable practices like reducing waste, recycling, and buying locally.
Lifestyle
Paper Reduction: Notices, newsletters, and meeting materials are sent electronically; scrap paper is used in crafts and recycled.
Carbon Footprint Awareness: Congregants are encouraged to use the 'Climate Hero' calculator to assess and reduce their carbon footprints.
Eco Tips: The newsletter shares eco-tips and encourages readers to model eco-friendly practices
Fairtrade: Fairtrade tea and coffee are provided
Sustainable Giving: Surplus home-grown goods are shared, and plant donations are welcomed
Charitable Giving: individuals support many environmental charities
Churchyard Nature Trail. June 2023
Over the past two years the Oxon Eco-Church and Gardening teams have amended the way in which our churchyard is managed to enable its flora and fauna to flourish and thrive. This has included the elimination of herbicides, increasing the number of plants favoured by butterflies and bees, and the implementation of a long-grass mowing regimen to create a habitat for many wild flowers, insects and other animals.
The success of this project is evident in the ongoing survey which has identified 14 different species of tree and at least 42 species of wild flower in addition to the various birds and insects. To find out a bit more about the wildlife which we have seen in the churchyard we invite you to open your eyes, ears and heart to notice, identify and reflect on some of the wonders of God’s earth at each of the five stations on the new Nature and Prayer Trail in the graveyard and in the Garden of Remembrance: Flowers of the Field, Dead Hedge, Birds of the Air, Life in an Oak Tree, and A Diversity of Species.
Whilst following the trail take time to be still and to observe the natural world, it may imbue a sense of peace and facilitate a conversation with God.
‘Be still, for the glory of the Lord is shining all around.
Be still, for the power of the Lord is moving in this place’. (D.J. Evans)
Jane Elliott