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
Next Steps
In September, having reflected on the covenant God made with Noah... we asked what steps we could take as a church to play our part in caring for God's creation.
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Here's what we came up with as our next priorities:
Auditing our lifestyles... and committing to reduce our personal energy consumption
Creation Care and A Rocha UK encourage churches and individuals to take part in this personal audit: https://creationcare.org.uk
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
A Communal Christmas Card
We liked the idea of a Communal Christmas Card to save on paper this year. So, at each of our worshipping communities, we'll have the opportunity to decorate a large sheet of sustainably sourced paper with our Greetings. We'll then photograph it, and share it through the group chats.We do print Christmas cards for the wider Northstowe community, advertising our services. But we make sure that these are printed on sustainable paper.
Resources to support our prayer and worship
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.
This song is a particular favourite here in Northstowe
This is another brilliant song from Resound which we sometimes use
Preparing for COP29
As the global community convenes for COP29, we encourage people to use the JPIT resources, dedicated to promoting climate justice through engaging discussions and resources. They will be publishing 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!
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
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!
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
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
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!
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!
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
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.
