Eco Gold for Chester

Angela Macquiban, Eco Group convener at Wesley Methodist, Chester shares this story of how it received a Gold Eco Church award.

Wesley is a city centre church which endeavours to communicate the gospel as a Fairtrade Church, Inclusive Church and a Church of Sanctuary.

Our Eco Church journey began in 2020 when a former minister, Revd Dr Christine Dutton, suggested Wesley might start an eco-group. We first met in November and at the Church Council meeting in January 2021 our proposals were agreed:

i) We register with Eco Church and begin working towards the bronze award

ii) Everything that Wesley does should be seen through an environmental lens

We achieved bronze in May 2021, silver in February 2024 and gold in July 2025.

One of the major factors in making changes to our premises was commissioning an environmental audit by Inspired Efficiency in 2023. Among other things we changed were our gas tariff to a greener one, replaced lighting with LED lights, replaced some of the existing windows to improve insulation and installed solar panels in February 2025.

We have regular eco displays in the church foyer and have led services including Climate Sunday, Creationtide, Harvest and on themes based on books we've studied in church book groups such as Braiding Sweetgrass. We've also held Zoom discussion groups on plastic waste, climate change and difficult questions relating to environmental themes.

Our church meals are vegetarian with vegan options and we have produced a vegan recipe booklet, available on the church website.

Engaging with the wider community has been an important part of our environmental aims. The church is used throughout the week by a large number of people in a variety of activities. We have widely advertised some events such as a pancake evening focusing on issues around food and the LOAF principles, (local, organic, animal-friendly and fair trade) and a Tax Justice talk by a trustee of Just Money, attended by members from other city churches and a local councillor. We've had meetings with our MPs. (Chester city is now covered by two constituencies and some church members live further afield in two other adjoining constituencies.)

Working through the Eco Award levels has helped us and the whole church community appreciate the need to reduce our collective and individual carbon footprints, in line with the Methodist Church's aspiration to reach net zero by 2030. We are linked with the District and Connexional Environmental Network and attend online meetings. We are also part of local environmental events such as Great Big Green Week and promote Eco Church with our stalls at the Green Fairs.

Our weekly church and circuit e-bulletins have an Eco Matters slot with lifestyle tips and local environmental issues people can engage with. The whole Eco Church journey has been a learning experience as we've appreciated even more our part in caring for God's world as an ongoing part of our Christian commitment.