We as a house group decided to see if we could motivate the Church into becoming an eco-congregation. We achieved the award in July and invited our local MP to come to present it at our weekly coffee morning so that we would get maximum publicity from it to encourage other congregations to do the same. In fact our circuit and the Birmingham District are looking towards promoting the Eco-Congregation Awards.

We started by downloading from ecocongregation@rase.org.uk Module 1 the churches' environmental check up. It is surprising what we were already doing.

We had done the usual things like low energy light bulbs and double glazing but we were going to refurbish the toilets so we had low flush and self turn off taps etc. We put receptacles around the premises for recycling. We informed all of the premises users what we were doing and they support us. We put new programmers on the central heating to be more efficient. My husband and I write in our Church newsletter each month about the latest ideas and give a tip of the month. We have switched to Fair Trade products and sell them monthly at Parade services. We have involved Junior Church and Brownies and Guides in activities to raise money for Water Aid and other charities and we involved the children in a service "Caring for Creation" and used the Noah's Ark Sketch "The Ark in the Garage". Also in that service we used a song and we printed some footsteps and invited the congregation to suggest ways of helping to save the planet. We also used a responsive version of the Lord's Prayer.

For our lenten cross this year we used different items, such as plastic bags etc. with meaningful words. We also surveyed the Congregation on their recycling habits. We invited the Energy Efficient Advice Centre to our Parent and Toddler Group. 

It was all hard work but worth it and I made a portfolio of everything for the assessors and they took away a few of the ideas with them. It's amazing how the Government has followed our example!!!

Sheila and Brian Leather