Last Updated on 13 July 2023 by Ann-Marie Nye
Congratulations to Eastern Synod and Clitheroe United Reformed Church which are celebrating after gaining prestigious awards for work towards helping to protect the environment.
The church has become the first in the North Western Synod to achieve an A Rocha UK Gold Eco Church Award and it’s now the 35th Gold Awarded Eco Church in England and Wales, and the fourth URC in England to be awarded.
The achievement has been a long journey coming, having started in 2007 when the congregation expressed a wish to make the church more of a resource to the community as well as being more environmentally aware.
In recent years the church has opened a wildlife garden developed from wasteland which helps to offset some of its carbon footprint as well as aiming to increase biodiversity.
A part of the garden is also used as a kitchen garden to organically grow salads and herbs for Tom’s Table, a restaurant.
The church has also made simple changes like using environmentally-friendly cleaning products, selling locally produced organic food and/or Fairtrade goods for events, and being careful about recycling waste including composting of items.
At the inspection visit, Rose Gosling from A Rocha UK said her visit to Clitheroe URC was “very inspiring” and that she “enjoyed meeting a large and enthusiastic team, who had embedded environmental principles in everything that they do”.
Eastern Synod which has gained a Bronze Eco Synod award and the Synod Office a Silver one.
Helen Stephens, A Rocha UK’s Church Relations Manager, noted the following: “As the Synod with the largest proportion of rural churches in the whole of the URC, this was no small achievement.”
The Synod gained the award for making environmental priorities an essential part of its mission and training amongst other activities.