ECO ISSUES
Welcome to the “Eco” page on the District Website
Nailsea church becomes the first in the town to install solar panels. Athe status of Eco Congregation in February 2011
Forty panels have been installed on the roof of the church in
The church, which was awarded Eco-Congregation status earlier this year, raised the money to pay for the panels through financial gifts and loans from the congregation and a grant from the national
It is estimated that the system, installed by Backwell company Solarsense, will dramatically shrink the church’s carbon footprint and lead to a 4.5 tonne carbon saving in the space of a year.
Project co-ordinator Alan Emery said: “As a Christian community we endeavour to be good stewards of the earth’s resources. We also have a deep concern for those whose livelihood is threatened by changes in the climate. In this project we demonstrate in a small way our support for ambitious targets to reduce the nation’s carbon footprint.”
Minister, Rev Mandy Stevens, said “It is really exciting to see the panels installed and Solarsense have been brilliant to work with. We are committed to being an Eco-Congregation and caring for our community and planet and this project contributes to that.”
Solarsense UK Ltd, established in 1994, are based in Backwell and have designed and installed over 5500 solar thermal and PV systems since then. Winners of the REA Company of the Year Award 2011, their longstanding experience and direct action approach to charity mark them out as the South West’s leading solar company.
Every year they dedicate considerable time as well as a percentage of profit to charitable solar projects, usually teaming up with an existing charity to go out and install, using solar energy systems to improve community health or social facilities in various parts of the developing world. (2011-12 overseas charity partner is For-Ethiopia).
Keynsham Joins Bethesda with ECO Award 7th Feb 11
Keynsham in the North East Somerset and Bath Circuit registered for the Eco Congregation Award Scheme in 2008. They had an inspection by the assessors on 7th February 2011 which resulted in Keynsham receiving it's first award. This is of course only the start as the award runs for 3 years and they plan to re-apply in 2014.
Bethesda award presentation 10th Oct 2010
Bethesda Methodist Church, Great Norwood Street ,Cheltenham
NEWS RELEASE
Cheltenham Methodist Church receives third national environmental award
- one of only three churches in country to achieve this status
October 7, 2010
Bethesda Methodist Church in Cheltenham has been granted its third national Eco-award one of only three churches in England to receive this honour. The independent assessment was carried out by Climate Change & Transition Town campaigner Jerry Barr and Rev Dr Simon Topping - founder and director of the Gloucester Green Cross Coop. Simon will present the award plaque at a special service on Sunday morning October 10th. Since collecting its first award in 2003, followed by a 2nd in 2008 the church has continued to develop its environmental programme and is widely known as an "eco church". 
Congratulations on achieving a 3rd Award have been received from Jonathon Porritt- and local MP Martin Horwood.
"Some organisations describe sustainability as ‘a never-ending journey" writes Jonathon - former Chair of the Government Sustainability Panel and Director of Forum for the Future –"and that’s just how it must feel to the Bethesda Community! But three national awards in eight years provides telling recognition of the extraordinary commitment (and creativity) of church members. So the message here is simple: keep lifting up your eyes not just to the hills, but to the solar panels too!"
"This is a fantastic achievement by Bethesda" said Martin. "Their third Eco-award reinforces their green credentials and sets a great example for other community organisations who want to help create a cleaner greener country with more renewable energy and less waste."
The assessors were pleased that environmental concerns were evident in all aspects of church life. Members reported that the eco-congregation programme was already helping them to make positive lifestyle changes to reduce personal carbon footprints. Activities include more recycling, campaigning against excessive packaging, reducing car travel by walking and cycling where appropriate, and offsetting flights. One member explained that he had also sought to encourage his business clients to become more environmentally friendly.
Since embarking on the Eco-Congregation Award scheme in 2000, Bethesda has sold almost £20,000 worth of fair-trade goods, runs a regular "Traidgreen" stall, and been formally recognised as a FairTrade church. It has distributed 1000s of low energy light bulbs, extended its recycling programme to cover 9 different items, started its own carbon offset scheme, paid for a solar hot water system for an AIDS orphanage in South Africa and presented public showings of films on the subject of climate change. The church has now generated almost 7000 kW hrs of electricity since it installed solar panels a year ago.
The Environment Agency asked a panel of experts to come up with the most important actions we could all take to "save the planet". The second of their 50 recommendations read as follows: "It is time the world’s faith groups took a lead in reminding us that we have a duty to restore and maintain the ecological balance of the planet". Bethesda has played a leadership role on environmental issues for over a decade and has been described as a "beacon church". It is now actively sharing its considerable knowledge and experience with other churches and encouraging them to consider becoming eco-congregations.
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How green is your church?
In one form or another, environmental concerns have now become daily news. - not just climate change and peak oil – but also loss of biodiversity, food and water security, waste disposal and carbon footprint reduction; in short, the whole business of the need for us all to live more sustainably.
The Methodist Church is committed to doing all it can to help lessen the damage caused by climate change and as responsible stewards of God’s world our churches must become more involved addressing these global issues and to do so starting with their own congregations. Methodists are already cooperating with URC on Creation Challenge (www.creationchallenge.org.uk/) and the Baptists have recently joined in.
Evesham Methodists became involved with these pressing issues almost a decade ago, and became the first church in the country to receive a National Eco-Congregation Award. Since then a further 130 churches throughout the country have gained the award– 36 of them Methodist. Regrettably
I hope this page will encourage more of you to become involved.
There are already four active Christian-based organisations encouraging ‘Caring for God’s Earth’.
To involve your church community in an ongoing programme of environmental stewardshio find out more about Eco-Congregation - www.ecocongregation.org .
If you want to know more about campaigning and practical action contact Christian Ecology Link (CEL) – www.christian-ecology.org.uk. CEL also initiated Operation Noah (http://www.operationnoah.org) which campaigns on climate change and under “Take Action”/”Groups” there is a Bristol District group which you can sign up and/or contribute to.
For more news of creation care both in the
And if you’d like to learn more about bringing together scientific and Christian understanding of the environment visit the John Ray Initiative web site www.jri.org.uk
Christian Aid (www.christianaid.org.uk) Christian Aid is involved in the runup to the Inter-Government Copenhagen Climate Change Conference inDecember through their 'Countdown to
District Environmental Advisor Mark Boulton is available to help Methodist churches in this District become actively involved in environmental issues and to provide practical advice on becoming an eco-congregation, energy conservation/micro-generation or any other environmental concerns. And If you are already involved please let me know so we can all share in what you are doing.
Feel free to contact him by phone (01242 674839) or by email (cec@brocklebank.plus.com)
NEWS - Bethesda Methodist Church gets power from on high
Work commenced on 1 September 2009 on the installation of a major photovoltaic array on the south facing roof of
Funds to cover the £39,000 installation cost, have come from the UK Government Low Carbon Building Fund, the local Methodist Church Circuit Advance Fund, Cheltenham Borough Council, The Summerfield Trust and members of the church congregation. The work is being carried out by SolarSense, the leading Bristol/South West suppliers and installers of solar PV systems, and any surplus electricity not used by the community church will be sold back to the national grid.
For more details visit BBC website:
READ latest PSEG newsletter from Rev Tim Harrison which reports on other Methodist climate change initiatives . . .
Updated 22 September 2009
Monday 12 December 2011
