How it started

Sustainability has always been part of our DNA. When our first Bishop's Mission Order was granted in 2019, we committed to  "becoming sustainable ". When our BMO was reviewed in 2023, we recognised that we had made significant progress, and again committed to "Work towards environmental sustainability in all our activities."  One action, discussed at the October 2024 Church Meeting, was to use the Eco Church Award Scheme as a way to measure our impact.

You can read about our existing eco commitments on our About page, including our Plastic Free Pledge, and the Litter Picks we've run in partnership with other great organizations right from the early days of our new town. And, on this page, a log of ongoing small steps, month by month.

Read our existing eco commitments

Resources to support our prayer and worship

The climate crisis hits those in poverty first and hardest, destroying homes, crops and livelihoods. As followers of Christ, we are called to love our global neighbours and speak up for a fairer world.
Learn more with Tearfund

Take time for an “Ecological Examination of Conscience”
What if we paused—not just to examine our hearts—but to examine how our lives touch the earth? This reflective resource invites us to ask: “Have I accepted God’s gifts of creation with gratitude? Have I used them with respect? Have I acted for justice when others suffer because of consumption and harm I may never see?”

Explore the full guide and let it stir your faith, your habits and your care for God’s world.

We often draw on the prayer resources from JPIT: Stay&Pray, which are brilliant at highlight environmental and global issues. Why not include these in your private prayers, as well as our gathered worship.
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God of Science (Rend Co Kids) is such a favourite in school as we celebrate our Great God of Science. This vision shapes how we engage with environmental activities.
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This song is a particular favourite here in Northstowe
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This is another brilliant song from Resound which we sometimes use

Eco Champion

Becky Eccleston is currently leading on our EcoAward work. Itf you'd like to get more involved, do talk to her, or Revd Beth

Recent highlights

🌍 Stir-Up Sunday: Stirring Up Climate Justice

Stir-Up Sunday is an old tradition, when families stirred their Christmas puddings and prayed, “Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord…” This year, as we mix our ingredients in worship, we are asking God to stir up our hearts for climate justice.

The climate crisis is already hitting people living in poverty the hardest. Many communities in the Global South face droughts, floods, food insecurity and the loss of homes and livelihoods, despite contributing least to the problem. As followers of Christ the King, we are called to love our global neighbours through prayer, lifestyle change, and speaking out.

Here are just two places where you can learn more or take action:

🔹 Tearfund: Climate Campaign — climate injustice and a call to Christian action:
https://www.tearfund.org/campaigns/climate-campaign

🔹 Eco Church NZ: Ecological Examination of Conscience — a reflective tool for prayerful change:
https://www.ecochurch.org.nz/soc-resources/an-ecological-examination-of-conscience

May God stir us to courage, compassion and hope for all creation.

☕️ Kickstart Coffee Becomes a Certified B Corp

We’re pleased to hear that Kickstart Coffee — the company that supplies the coffee we serve at church gatherings — has been officially certified as a B Corp. This recognises their high standards of social and environmental responsibility, from supporting smallholder farmers on Mt Elgon to funding education, healthcare, and long-term community development in Uganda. Reflecting on this, Revd Beth said :

“We’re glad to buy our coffee from a producer whose values align with our own. Choosing a B Corp coffee supplier  is one small way our community lives out Eco Church’s call to Community and Global Engagement — recognising  that justice for people and places should shape even our everyday decisions.”

After Apple Day: Praying with a Māori Lord’s Prayer and Continuing the Conversation


Our recent Apple Day celebrations ended in a moment of quiet, as we prayed together using the New Zealand & Māori version of the Lord’s Prayer from A New Zealand Prayer Book | He Karakia Mihinare o Aotearoa:

Eternal Spirit,
Earth-maker, Pain bearer, Life-giver,
Source of all that is and that shall be,
Father and Mother of us all,
Loving God, in whom is heaven:

The hallowing of your name echo through the universe;
The way of your justice be followed by the peoples of the world;
Your heavenly will be done by all created beings;
Your commonwealth of peace and freedom sustain our hope and come on earth.

With the bread we need for today, feed us.
In the hurts we absorb from one another, forgive us.
In times of temptation and test, strengthen us.
From trials too great to endure, spare us.
From the grip of all that is evil, free us.

For you reign in the glory of the power that is love,
now and for ever. Amen.

This version, which we used as the basis for our reflective colouring sheets, draws on the worldview of indigenous people who are followers of Jesus.

After the event, we shared a podcast conversation in our church WhatsApp chat for those who wished to reflect further:
A Māori Ethic for Earthkeeping — Jay Matenga
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/a-maori-ethic-for-earthkeeping-jay-matenga-of/id1503271817?i=1000522908493

Continuing the Journey: Learning with Jay Matenga

This week, Revd Beth attended a follow-up seminar with Jay Matenga of Aotearoa New Zealand, reflecting on how Indigenous Christian perspectives might help us live more faithfully and attentively where we are. Jay offered an important reminder that when we seek to learn from cultures not our own, we will never fully understand another people—at best, we might become hybridized. That humility protects us from speaking for others or taking what is not ours to take; a principle many Indigenous communities express as: nothing about us without us.

Gifts for the Body of Christ

At the beginning of the seminar, Jay did not introduce himself only by name or role, but by naming the land and the people who have formed him. He spoke of genealogy, history, and whenua (land) as the ground from which he understands himself. It was from there that he said:

“I am first and foremost Māori — and as Māori I follow Jesus.”

This was not a statement of separation from the wider Church, but a reminder that Christian identity does not require the shedding of culture. Jay reflected on Paul’s words about being one in Christ, noting that this does not mean becoming the same; rather, true unity is power-sharing, not cultural erasure. He suggested that the global Church is most faithful when followers of Jesus bring what is theirs—language, story, prayer, practices, relationship with land—without needing to leave themselves behind.

As Jay put it:

“What we bring from our cultures becomes our gift to the Body of Christ…
In this way we co-create new creation.”

Belonging, Not Possessing

Jay also spoke of how Māori language expresses relationship with land. When a Māori person says “my mountain,” it does not mean possession; rather, it means they belong to the mountain. This challenges familiar Western assumptions that land is something to be owned, controlled or improved, and invites us instead to imagine land as a relationship of belonging. (Something Ruth Valero has also emphasised in her criticism of the word "Stewardship")

Through stories of disrupted rivers and drained wetlands, Jay reflected on how ecological harm is also spiritual and communal harm, breaking relationships with land, water, culture, language and wellbeing. Yet even within that history of loss, he spoke of hope: of restoration, reconnection and renewed identity.

Here in Northstowe—surrounded by lakes, wetlands and fen edge—are we learning what that might mean in practice as we seek not just to live on this land but to live well with it?

Creation as Fellow Creature

Jay described how many Māori Christ-followers speak of mauri (life force) and mana (dignity) as gifts from God. Rather than treating creation as an object for human use, this approach recognises that creation itself participates in God’s life—echoing Jesus’s words that the stones might cry out and that the wind and waves recognise him. This is not worship of creation. It is a way of seeing creation as a fellow creature and a partner in praising God, the Maker of all. Far from distracting us from Christ, this perspective can draw us deeper into worship of God, whose love holds all things in being.

For us as Christ-followers, this may invite prayer that listens rather than only speaks, and a way of living that honours the more-than-human world God loves. 

For a community such as ours in Northstowe, where many arrive from different places, carrying different experiences of land, loss, faith, migration, and belonging, this invitation feels especially important. It encourages us to honour what each person brings, and to trust that Christ is revealed not in one culture alone, but in the meeting of many.

Questions for Our Shared Life

As we continue to shape an emerging Christian presence here—especially as we imagine a future lakeside home for worship, wellbeing and welcome—perhaps we should be asking:

  • How might we see the land not as a resource but as a relative?

  • What could we learn if we listened more deeply to voices and wisdom that have lived in long relationship with land and water?

  • How might our life of following Jesus reflect not possession, but shared belonging—to Christ, to one another, and to creation?

With Thanks: Thank you to everyone who helped make Apple Day such a joyful and reflective gathering. May the prayer we shared continue to take root—in us, in our neighbourhoods, and in the land and waters that frame our lives.

Growing Care for God’s World amongst our Children

In Little Explorers and Pathfinder Church Club, our “God the Maker” theme has been helping children discover the goodness of the world God has made — and their part in caring for it. Through storytelling, sensory play, and outdoor exploration, children have been learning to notice and value creation. This term they delighted in collecting natural objects for our sensory trays, taking great pride in the treasures they found. Older children at Pathfinder Church Club have also been quick to spot our use of reusable bowls at snack time, celebrating that we’re cutting down on waste — and happily volunteering to finish up any leftover snacks so nothing goes to waste! Together, these small but joyful moments are nurturing habits of wonder, care, and responsibility for God’s world.

🕊 Sustainable Travel for Remembrance

At this year’s Act of Remembrance by Bug Hunters Lake, many of the 200 participants walked. As event organisers, we used a hand-pulled trolley to move equipment instead of a vehicle, helping us care for the beautiful landscape where we gathered. Research highlighted by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum suggests that climate change can worsen pressure on land and resources, increasing the risk of violence and even mass atrocities. The United Nations also warns that modern conflicts don’t just cost lives — they can destroy farmland, forests, and water systems, turning living places into wastelands. Choosing low-carbon travel is one quiet way to honour peace, protect creation, and remember well.

🍂 Autumn Term Reflection: Creation, Climate and Prayer

This Autumn, alongside more obviously creation-focused moments such as Harvest and Apple Day, themes of climate justice and care for creation have flowed through our worship.

As we began our series exploring prayer, Jeremiah’s honesty helped us speak the truth of a world in crisis:

We pray for your Creation,
as the seasons turn
and yet again, records have been shattered,
unexpected weather events occur.
We pray for resolute attention
and determination to care for this beautiful world.

In another week, our thanksgiving was shaped by wonder:

We offer our thanks and praise
for creation more intricate and awesome
than we can imagine,
for the gift of life
in all its complexity.
Sing to the Lord! Praise the Lord!

In October, reflecting on Psalm 96:1–9, we prayed:

Teach us to honour the earth as your sacred gift,
to sing not only with our voices
but with our choices,
choices that nurture, protect, and sustain.

As we concluded the half term with a Reformation Day service grounded in the booming theophany of God recording in Job 38, we reflected that, through lament, thanksgiving, justice, and awe, creation has been not just the backdrop to our worship, but one of its teachers, calling us to deeper praise and faithful action.

Prayer extracts from (c)2025 Spill the Beans

📱 October 2025 - Balancing Inclusion & Sustainability in Service Resources

At Pathfinder Church we’ve always projected the words of our services on the big screen. But we know this doesn't work for everyone. For some children, people for whom English is a second language, and those living with sight or hearing loss, holding the full text in hand can make worship more accessible, and easier to follow. We want to honour that need and reduce waste.

Now, we print a just small number of service sheets and place QR codes on every table so those who can may download the words to a phone or tablet. This “digital-first, print-when-needed” approach reduces our environmental impact.

StopWaste notes that nearly half of all industrially harvested trees are used for paper, and the pulp and paper industry is a major water user, polluter, and source of greenhouse-gas emissions, with paper still making up about 30% of municipal waste: https://www.stopwaste.org/at-work/reduce-and-reuse/reduce-paper-use/the-impact-of-paper-waste

So, by printing less, we protect forests, save water, cut emissions, and still ensure everyone can take part fully in worship. Inclusion and creation care belong together.

🍃 August 2025 — Transformation Challenge at the Running Festival


Reusing timber, sparking imagination, and dreaming of a lakeside home

At the end of August, the Northstowe Church Network hosted a Transformation Challenge at the Northstowe Running Festival. Instead of buying new materials, we built a striking, gazebo-sized art frame from reclaimed timber and leftover sheet material. This kept resources in use, prevented waste, and modelled the kind of re‑make, re‑use and re‑imagine approach we hope to embed in our future Lakeside Centre and Chapel by the Lake.

Runners, families and supporters were invited to step up to the frame and imagine how the lakeside might continue to change for good: more wildflowers, increased pollinator habitat, and spaces where people and nature can flourish together. Many shared hopes for bird‑nesting areas, natural play, and meandering paths that encourage us to pause, breathe, and recharge in nature.

Alongside this, we shared fascinating interfaith conversations with neighbours from the Northstowe Muslim community, exploring how our different faith traditions encourage us to live more sustainably and honour our shared responsibility for the Earth.

🐝 July 2025 -- Youth Hive AGM & BBQ: Local Food on the Menu

Northstowe Church Network, a founder member of the Northstowe Youth Hive, supported young people’s request that this year’s AGM & BBQ serve locally sourced food by helping apply for grant funding from Capital & Centric Ltd.. In the lead-up to the event, Hive members asked that catering reflect shared sustainability goals by reducing food miles and supporting nearby producers. As a result, items served at the BBQ were supplied by Rosegate Farm, our local butchers. This practical change shows how young people are shaping decision-making within the Hive and contributing to Northstowe’s wider environmental commitments.

Practical Tips from Little Explorers
Jan 2025

At today's Little Explorers, we were discussing John the Baptist.  Our opening conversation starters were about washing (before the main session went on to talk about baptism as a ritual washing in other sense). This led to a recommendation of eco-household tips - and this book.  do keep sharing your other tips on the group whatsapp!

Praying and Learning with others across the Diocese
Jan 2025

Revd Beth took part in a meeting discussing the journey to Net Zero for churches in Ely Diocese. This highlighted The practical path to net zero carbon for churches | The Church of England as well as articulating how embedded care of the environment is becoming in every strand of church life - from operating buildings, staff and PCC training, and partnership with schools. 
We weren't surprised to hear that young people (11-19) felt that Churches ought to be working to help people respond better to climate change (image from Burning Down the House | Youthscape). 
These prayers, from David Adam, Celtic Daily Prayer set the scene well: 
 
Whatever befalls the earth befalls the children of the earth.
Every part of the earth is sacred.

The air is precious, for all of us share the same breath.
Every part of the earth is sacred.

This we know, the earth does not belong to us; we belong to the earth.
Every part of the earth is sacred.

This we know, all things are connected, like the blood that unites one family.
Every part of the earth is sacred.

Our God is the same God, whose compassion is equal for all; Every part of the earth is sacred.

We did not weave the web of life; we are merely a strand in it.
Every part of the earth is sacred.

Whatever we do to the web we do to ourselves.
Every part of the earth is sacred

Epiphany Wonder
Jan 2025

 

The Epiphany season reminds us to celebrate those breath-taking moments when we suddenly see the world—and our place in it—with fresh eyes. Often, our moments of wonder in Nature can point towards God, our Creator - and lead us, like the wise men, to worship 💚🌙✨

As part of our ongoing eco commitments, we’re embracing 'enjoying nature' this January. Here’s some inspiration from A Rocha:
🌿 Go birdwatching or sketch something that inspires you in nature.
🌱 Start growing your own fruits or veggies.
🏞️ Explore a new corner of our beautiful countryside.

 

Find more ideas here: arocha.org.uk/ideas-to-enjoy-nature/

We invited our social media followers to share their #MomentsOfWonder with us and post their photos, reflections, or creations online too. 📸✨


 

An Eco approach to Christmas Cards 

December 2024

At our special service in September, several people liked the idea of a Communal Christmas Card to save on paper this year. So we made use of an online group card so everyone would write a message - and then we shared the PDF within our group chats.

We do print Christmas cards for the wider Northstowe community, advertising our services. But we make sure that these are printed on paper from managed forests, and uncoated to make them suitable for recycling.
 

Local Food for our Communion Meal
November 2024

As the Compline Community prepare to host the All Saints' Communion meal, we've picked up these amazing jacket potatoes from the farm shop just down the road - and the potatoes themselves come from nearby Ramsey!
 

COP29

November 2024
As the global community convened for COP29,  we encouraged people to use the JPIT resources, dedicated to promoting climate justice through engaging discussions and resources. They published blogs that explore key issues, their impact on vulnerable communities, and the transformative role of faith in the climate justice movement.

Stay updated with their real-time social media posts highlighting significant developments and opportunities for prayer and reflection. Join this journey of faith and action! 

Celebrating Northstowe's Community Pantry
November 2024

We're so thankful to Sustainable Northstowe for running the Community Pantry. At the Youth Club tonight (which we support through our involvement in the Northstowe Youth Hive ) we were delighted to hear that Northstowe's young people think it's a brilliant scheme! Good for the planet... and our pockets.
 

Revd Beth's Dutch adventure... by train!
October 2024

When the Churches Together England New Housing Group planned to visit areas of new housing in the Netherlands, the environmental impact of our journey was a big consideration. So we decided to make the whole trip by train. And are using zoom to follow up with the new communities we met. 

Read Beth's Blog about the visit here: The power of encounter – Churches Together in England
 

Making Your church sustainable
October 2024

Have you seen the new book just out by Nigel Walter (of  Archangel Architects , who we are delighted to be working with on our plans for the Chapel By the Lake).
Revd Beth is going to read it... and then start lending it round! 
 

Toilet Twinning
October 2024

At the October Church meeting, a question was asked out our toilet twinning plans. We've twinned one of the toilets that we use while hiring space in school... what are our next steps? Something to work on next year!
 

Working with other local churches
October 2024

Revd Stephen took part in the North Stowe Deanery Synod where local churches encouraged each other with their own stories of their eco journeys. 
 

September's drive to auditing our lifestyles... and committing to reduce our personal energy consumption

September 2024

Creation Care and A Rocha UK encourage churches and individuals to take part in this personal audit: https://creationcare.org.uk
Visit Creation Care and take part!

WHY?

Changing our personal lifestyles is essential if we’re to worship God with heart, soul, mind and strength – and love our neighbours as ourselves. ‘We all need to make a complete, radical and honest audit of our lifestyles, their impact on the poor and on the planet,’ said A Rocha UK co-founder Dave Bookless, ‘and to ask God to pinpoint where we should start making changes.’

HOW?

It’s not always easy to know where to start, or how to get buy-in from other members of the family! A personal lifestyle audit helps you identify where you are doing well and where you could improve. There are many available measuring slightly different things. Focus on your personal decisions at home rather than corporate decisions of the church body, by using the Creation Care website.

The seven categories of questions are in the same areas as the Eco Church survey
  • Worship and prayer
  •  Home
  • Garden
  • Community and global engagement
  • Travel
  • Food
  • Possessions
As households participate,  we, as the church, will also see the collective impact of individual choices.

Ethical Investments
September 2024

As the Church Council consider opening a savings account, we're looking at ethical and green considerations.

More information: https://www.goingzerowaste.com/blog/ethical-and-green-banks/
 

Little Explorers' Big Questions Chalkboards

September 2024
Each week at Little Explorers we ask Big Questions. But rather than printing them on paper, we chalk them onto reusable chalkboards. We also have reusable plastic display cases for anything we do need to print and display indoors - rather than laminating

Celebrating Harvest with our very own apple harvest
October 2024

After all our gardening efforts earlier this year alongside Friends of Pathfinder School, it was wonderful to harvest some apples as part of our Harvest Festival. We shared them round and ate them during the church meeting. Yum!

We also joined with the school to raise a collection for Cambridge Foodbank - and worked together to take only one car when we delivered it to the warehouse.

Noah and our role in Caring for Creation
September 2024

At the AGM earlier this year, we agreed, as a church “to work towards environmental sustainability in all our activities”. Pathfinder Church recently explored this theologically by thinking about God’s covenant with all of creation as described in the accounts of Noah and flood (Genesis)… and by starting to look at the Eco Church Bronze Award. They invite others across the Network to join them in exploring the next steps towards this. Quick wins include walking and offering lifts to others taking part in church/community events, getting together to bulk buy things like fairtrade hot chocolate (let Revd Stephen know if you want to join an upcoming Clipper order!), and thinking about how to save paper through a communal Christmas card.
 

The latest updates on our Coffee
September 2024

Since 2022, we have been buying our coffee from Kickstart coffee. Not only is this ethically sourced Ugandan speciality coffee, roasted and packaged in Cambridge, UK, but every penny of profits supporting children's health & education in Uganda.

Read more: Our story & purpose – Kickstart coffee

A summer of outdoor breakfasts, storytelling, and watering
Summer 2024

Our Summer Breakfasts brought together Little Explores, Pathfinder Church and those from the Compline Community to enjoy the beauty of God's creation as we ate, shared, and prayed together in the school garden. Well done to everyone who helped water the Conservation Area! We're hoping all the mulch we spread earlier in the year will help keep the plants healthy.

A Rainbow of hope 
July 2024

How wonderful to see a rainbow arched over the school where we meet. What a wonderful reminder of God's love - and the covenant God made with all creation!

Litter Picking - whatever the weather! And engaging with the Town Council

15th July 2024

We were glad of the gazebo to keep us dry as we prepared... and then the weather eased as we started litter picking. Hooray!

Running litter picks with Sustainable Northstowe and Northstowe Town Council is just one way that we continue engage with the local council.

Exploring Labyrinth Designs in the school 

5th July 2024
We had such a brilliant afternoon at The Friends of Pathfinder School Fayre. We enjoyed sharing our giant chalk labyrinth with families, and inviting people to help shape the design of a dreamt of permanent labyrinth installation. Loved seeing sand sketches and full on colour drawings as young people suggested planting, benches, shells, bushes, water features, and signage as part of such a reflective space. Can't wait to see how the project develops!

Another Gardening Morning
11th May  2024

Another step in our Growing Faith partnership .. working with Friends of Pathfinder School on the school's Conservation Area. 

Youth Eco Focus
17th April 2024

Sustainability has always been a key concern for Northstowe's young people. As a church, we helped to set up the Northstowe Youth Hive, and advocate for professional youth work in Northstowe. Some of our members help out on a Wednesday afternoon at the Youth Drop In. Today, it was wonderful to see the young people exploring how they might make a difference

Want to know more or stay in touch?

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The Northstowe Church Network is committed to the safeguarding of children, young people and adults. We follow the House of Bishops guidance and policies and have our own Safeguarding Officer. The Diocese of Ely’s safeguarding pages contain vital links and information including contacts for the Diocesan Safeguarding Advisor (DSA) who advise our SO. If you are concerned that a child or adult has been harmed or may be at risk of harm please contact the DSA. If you have immediate concerns about the safety of someone, please contact the police and your local authority Children or Adults Services.