Eco Church

The North West England District is a strong advocate of the Methodist Church in Britain’s climate policy Action for Hope and sees its role as being to encourage, enable and support circuits, churches and members to respond positively, responsibly and in hope to the climate emergency.

The main aims of Action for Hope are that the Methodist Church in Britain will:

• have net zero carbon emissions by 2030.
• increase the positive environmental impact of its investments.
• encourage churches, circuits and districts to work towards awards administered by Ecochurch.
• support members to reduce their personal carbon footprints to one tonne of CO₂ per year by 2030.

District Environmental Policy

The North West England Methodist District considers environmental concern and action a priority in line with the 2021 resolution of the Methodist Church in Britain that:

“Conference wholeheartedly agrees and affirms that ‘the global climate emergency is a crisis for God’s creation and a fundamental injustice’”.

As a District, we commit to act wherever we have direct responsibility, and to encourage, enable and support circuits, churches and individual members to take action where they are responsible. The District’s Environmental Policy can be viewed here.

Links

There are many resources within and outside Methodism to support people and organisations (such as churches) to respond positively to the climate emergency. Some of the most relevant are listed below:

Methodist Church in Britain:

Environment and Climate Change – general overview

Getting your church to net zero – a practical guide for churches

Others

The Arthur Rank Centre – for worship resources

Climate Stewards – for individuals to calculate their carbon footprint and offset their emissions.

Ecochurch – for churches wanting to “to demonstrate that the gospel is good news for God’s earth”.

As part of the Tread Gently strand of the God for All vision, is our Ecumenical Eco Strategy and our commitment to be carbon neutral by 2030. For this we will be engaging with Action for Hope Six Steps to Net Zero and the Hope in God’s Future report. We will also seek to equip our children and young people through the God’s World, Our Home resources and commit to a quarterly newsletter.