St Swithun’s, Kennington celebrated their Bronze Eco Church award with a bring and share lunch with a difference.
Parishioners were invited to bring along food with a note saying where it had been sourced, encouraging everyone to reflect on the environmental impact of the food we eat. The church members rose magnificently to the challenge, contributing home grown potato salad dug up that morning, local meat and home grown fruit puddings, along with elderflower juice, local beer and wine and many other local contributions.
Diocese Environmental Lead Hannah Mann spoke at the morning Eucharist and presented the Bronze award to the eco-church committee. She said: "Congratulations to the whole church community for achieving this important milestone, and for embedding creation care within their life and worship. It's wonderful to see people of every age bringing their invaluable skills, gifts and ideas, and I wish the church every blessing as it continues its creation care journey."
The church formed an eco church group, which identified two lifestyle areas to prioritise from an environmental perspective – travel and food sourcing. These ideas were presented to the congregation, encouraging them to make lifestyle changes.
Young people helped parishioners calculate their carbon footprint online and a church display gave them the opportunity to share their interests and skills.
The Revd Anne Curtis said: “The lunch was great fun and it is so lovely to feel positive and that we can make a difference by working together on a huge subject which it’s perhaps easy to feel defeated by as individuals.”
The Eco Church scheme was founded by environmental charity A Rocha UK to encourage Christians to care for God's world. Find out more about how your church could take steps to become an Eco Church and care for creation.