Eco Church

“The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it” Genesis 2:15

As Christians, we believe that earth is God’s gift to all humanity, and our responsibility is to care for God’s creation. Eco Church is an award scheme for churches who want to engage with caring for the earth as a key part of their Christian faith, in response to the climate and nature crisis.

Climate change, plastic pollution, habitat loss and our use of resources are just some of the issues that face us all. We want to learn more about our responsibility as stewards of the earth through becoming part of the wider Eco Church network, working on activities that nurture and protect our local environment and contribute to the planet’s wellbeing.

The Eco Church Group fosters work with other organisations with similar objectives. It aims to encourage our church community to be more aware of environmental issues and suggests actions that individuals and the church can do, to be better stewards of the environment and reduce our environmental impact.

Eco Church Silver Award - January 2026

The Eco Team are delighted to announce that St Mary Magdalene’s has been awarded the Silver Eco Church Award by A Rocha UK. We would like to thank everyone for their engagement and support over the last year. We are now going to try for the next level - Gold - and would welcome any ideas or suggestions that would further this aim. Look out for more events coming soon!

Eco Church Bronze Award - March 2025

We are pleased to have recently won a Bronze Eco Church Award in recognition of our efforts to care for God’s earth in the key areas of

Worship and Teaching
Buildings and Energy
Land and Nature
Community and Global Engagement and
Lifestyle.

Further information about this scheme from Christian charity A Rocha UK can be found at their website: https://ecochurch.arocha.org.uk/

Our actions so far

Worship and Teaching - The church celebrated Creation Sunday on 7 September 2025. All services had a creation theme and during the day there was a Guided Benefice Walk and Scavenger Hunt for members of the community. A huge range of natural items were found and photographed and people came together and shared their knowledge on plants, trees and wildlife with others. The Eco Church Group provides information boards in church to help people to understand how they can play their part in caring for nature and promoting sustainable activities.

Buildings and Energy - In 2025 we installed solar panels on the church roof, together with a solar battery. This helps to reduce our carbon footprint by generating energy for the use of the church and its community activities, and also promotes environmental sustainability.

Land and Nature - We create and look after wildlife-friendly areas in our church grounds and encourage people to access nature for their wellbeing. We work in partnership with Sustainable Woodstock, organising events and sharing information to help people to learn and care for creation. Some examples are below:

In December, members of the church and the wider community came together at an event to make Christmas wreaths from natural, locally collected foliage.
We hosted the Woodstock Natural History Society’s exhibition of children and young person’s artwork on the theme of ‘Our Natural World’ to celebrate their 50th anniversary.

Community and global engagement - We create greater impact when we work with others to bring about local and global change. We aim to build an understanding of the issues and kick start action. The Eco Church Group has

Held a joint exhibition in church with the Woodstock Natural History Society
Met with the working party for the Woodstock Community Orchard to foster a future working relationship.
Joined in the Pilgrimage to Christchurch, Oxford, for the festival of Frideswide in October

Lifestyle - God loves the earth he created and calls on us as individuals to care for it. We have

Published a monthly list of eco tips on the church notice board and in the church notices to encourage individuals and households to integrate creation care into their daily lives
Organised Christmas decoration ‘swap events’ and taught people to print their own wrapping paper during the church monthly cafe mornings in December