We Care for the Environment at St. Nicholas Church
ECO-CONGREGATION AWARD
At St. Nicholas Church, we are proud to announce that we have been
awarded the Eco-congregation Award, until 2013, which was granted
by Arocha. Find more information here
The Eco-congregation Award is a tool to help churches begin to address
environmental issues in all that they do. It is suitable
for all kinds
of churches to
use.
Churches are encouraged to look at three main areas of church life:
* 'spiritual': worship and teaching (this might include services, preaching,
work with children and young people, small groups)
* practical: things to do with buildings, land and church management
* mission: reaching out to the local and/or global community
The award is an opportunity to show our local community that these issues
have their proper home in the life of St. Nicholas Church.
The Arocha assessors who visited our church commented on 'the holistic
feel of every aspect knitting into one whole vision' and one of them
also stated 'I noted that you are one of the few churches I know which
gives the environment a high profile on your website.'
If you would like to help with the conservation work which takes place in the church grounds, please join us on any (or all!) of the following dates:
Saturday 27th March
Saturday 1st May
Saturday 5th June
Saturday 3rd July
Saturday 7th Aug.
Saturday 4th Sept
Everyone is welcome. You do not need to be a churchgoer or indeed have any faith at all, just a love of our environment and a desire to enhance it in Laindon. A passion for hard work, tea and doughnuts will be an advantage!
FAIRTRADE
St Nicholas Church is a Fairtrade Church. We believe passionately
that unfair trade practices which
exploit the poorest and most vulnerable people of the world must be stopped
now.
All the tea, coffee and sugar
that we purchase for after-service get togethers and Saturday morning
work parties in the church and grounds, are Fairtrade.
More details can
be found out about Fairtrade here
BIODIVERSITY
St Nicholas Church sits of top of a hill surrounded by approximately
3.5 acres of land, which is a designated Wildlife Site, having
been set aside for nature conservation. In 2008, we invited the Essex
Field
Club to
carry out a biodiversity survey in and around the church, to explore
and record
as many species as they could find, living in or using this valuable
habitat. Members of Essex Field Club met on Saturday 5th July 2008 and
investigated the church, including the bell tower and grounds.
Sylvia and Roger Jiggins, from the Essex Bat Group explored the interior
of the church, while other members of the Essex Field Club, including
Ken Adams, Mary Smith, Barbara Chapman and David Bloomfield searched
the grounds.
There were 228 plant species recorded, none of which are rare but this
number of species in such a relatively small area has been described
as 'impressive' by the Essex Field Club.
In addition, mammals, birds, reptiles, insects, molluscs and amphibians
were recorded, including the endangered Great Crested Newt
. The full report can be downloaded here and
the list of species can be downloaded here (both documents are pdf files)
If you are interested in joining our conservation efforts please contact
us Those who are interested in conservation work usually gather on
Saturday mornings under the guidance of Ken Porter, Stuart Ricketts,
Peter Hartgrove and Maurice Eldridge (see bottom photo)
More details can be found out about the Essex Field Club here
LETTER TO THE FUTURE
The leaf logo in the top right hand corner shows our support for the Letter
to the Future campaign
by the RSPB, who would like us all to sign and make our voice heard
by the politicians who can provide a healthy environment for future generations.
If you would like to sign the Letter
to the Future, click here
Letter to the Future:
I’m writing this now to make sure our children have a chance of growing
up in a world worth living in.
Today there’s still time to save nature.
If we act now, our children may yet be able to share their world with sparrows and polar bears, eagles and tigers. There’s still a chance that they’ll inherit a world where the engines of life – the air, seas, rivers and forests – are healthy. Where bluebell woods and rainforests won’t be lost forever.
Yes, I accept that recovery from recession has meant spending billions of pounds – one way or another future generations will have to pay for this. The least we can do is to use this money to create a future they’ll thank us for. I want governments to invest in a healthy economy and a healthy environment. As well as protecting jobs, I want them to tackle climate change and to protect our seas, countryside and wildlife.
I’m signing this letter to show that I care deeply about nature and the world we are creating for our children. In years to come I hope they’ll be able to see that their world is a richer one because of the action we took today.
I’m hoping that many thousands of people will join me in signing it.
Together we can be a powerful voice for nature.
Yours in hope.
To add your signature to this letter, go to the RSPB website, here
This page is still under construction
Please check back later!
