St Arilda's Church Oldbury on Severn
St Arilda's ChurchOldbury on Severn

EcoChurch

As a church, we believe it is imperative to preserve and improve our environment. The land is a gift from God and He clearly expresses our responsibility to take care of it. We chose to take part in the “A Rocha” initiative called EcoChurch. A Rocha is a Christian charity “working to protect and restore the environment and to equip churches to care for creation”.

 

This is an award scheme where churches can earn gold, silver or bronze awards.  7000 thousand UK Churches have joined up. Less than 60 have been awarded Gold. This is a VERY tough task.  We achieved the Bronze award on 10/3/2020, the Silver on 30/9/2020 and have this week had 2 x Judges for 2.5 hours to assess us for Gold standard, which we recieved news this week (28/10/24) that we had indeed achieved the gold award!

 

Each of the sections assessed covers a specific area of Church and Community life;

  1. Worship and Teaching - in essence whatever the sermon includes each week, plus hymn selection, newsletters, Noticeboard and small groups, how we lead our parish.
  2. Buildings - how “green and sustainable” we are being within the various church premises (Church, halls, offices), if our carbon footprint is calculated and offset, if our electricity is on a “green” tariff, are we using LEDs, rainwater collection and recycling facilities. Not easy in such old buildings.
  3. Land - encouragement of wild flora & fauna, safety of wildlife (Glow worms, Newts, Owls lots more!) and encouraging the use of our land by the community.
  4. Community and Global Engagement – encouraging both church and community to reach out into the world, rather than be insular within church boundaries. Initiatives to help Refugees, asylum seekers, Foodbank and others less fortunate.  We encourage others Churches within Thornbury and further afield who are just starting on their Eco journey. We ensure we have a representative on Sustainable Thornbury and other environmental Groups.
  5. Lifestyle – promoting an ethical lifestyle to all members of the community, as well as ensuring all church investments, activities and events are ethical.

 

To be fair, sometimes it has felt like walking through treacle to get anything done, and there are areas that still need to change, but we can celebrate a number of successes in all the areas;

 

  • Producing a mowing regime that allows native wildlife, such as our glow worms to flourish, and opens the churchyard for community use on the new Labyrinth. YES, there is a GOOD reason for the long grass BUT soon we’ll be cutting it and any village volunteers are welcome for this huge task!
  • Joining with our Oldbury school to produce a wonderful mosaic embodying the school’s values. Encouraging joint worship outside.
  • Joining with other local churches to promote this as a way of life.
  • We also took part in the Britain in Bloom, In Your Neighbourhood scheme for the first time and achieved a level four out of five, “Thriving” rating.

 

This has been a developmental journey for us all, but we are far from the end.  As each step forward is taken, there is more to consider, such as now we are in early planning stages to use wind power to generate electricity.

 

If anyone wishes to help keep the beautiful St Arilda s environment for future generations do come and help, by initially contacting the Thornbury Benefice Office,

 

 The future looks bright (and green)!!

 

Churchyard Management Plan

 

St Arilda’s churchyard serves several functions across our community, including, but not exclusively;

  • A historical burial ground,
  • Somewhere to inter ashes,
  • A memorial ground,
  • A place for quiet contemplation, and to admire the views,
  • A place for the conservation of nature.

 

For the past few years, we have been planning and executing those plans to extend the churchyard onto land owned by the church for this purpose. In order to plan successfully for this, we needed to understand our churchyard which involved many surveys above and beyond those we already action. 

 

We had previously implemented a grass cutting regime, which has recently been updated to include some more eco-friendly actions as well as the churchyard extension.  We also have policies and rules in place for what the community can put in the churchyard and what memorials can be erected, and how they must be maintained, which has had a great influence on the grass cutting.  This is proving an interesting area to manage, due in part to the aging population that is willing to maintain the churchyard, but also to deal with members of the community that believe that a churchyard should be close-mown for access to the graves and no attention to nature.

 

We already understood the birds, glow worms and other flora and fauna that dwelt or depended upon the churchyard, however it was interesting to note the flora and fauna that we hadn’t noted when professional observers were used during the planning of the Churchyard extension.

 

Bats were deemed unlikely to be roosting in our property, and Dormice were unlikely to be in our hedges.  Great Crested Newts were identified in our pond and a mitigation plan put in place.A tree survey was also conducted that allowed the removal of dead trees and the planting of new species on the land. Having completed this work, we now have a lovely area that is also suitable for community activities.

 

Plans for 2024/5

 

Having completed so much over the last few years, much of what happens in the next two years will be about embedding practices, although much still remains to be done.

 

We intend completing pathways so that the children from the neighbouring school can walk safely to services through the churchyard, without having to use a very tricky country lane to get there.

 

Our first internments, both burials and ashes, will take place and the commencement of rows will be closely managed.  A new bench will be installed near the new tree grove for visitors. Ashes interred within the woodland area will be interred loose and without memorial marker. There is a separate area designated for those wishing for internment in a casket and with a memorial stone.

 

The new trees will be monitored to ensure that they are growing well, and the three that have died will be replaced with Cherry trees to feed the wildlife.

 

New benches will be installed as necessary throughout the churchyard, where older benches have decayed and now need replacing.

 

A new steel shipping container has been installed for the secure safekeeping of tools and lawnmowers in the new churchyard and will be painted to make it in keeping with the surroundings.

 

Hedge-laying will continue around the periphery of the churchyard to maintain the boundaries and encourage wildlife.

 

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The Parish of Oldbury on Severn