A Rocha UK Launches 2011 Environment Resource Pack

A Rocha UK, the Christian environmental and nature conservation charity, has announced today the launch of its 2011 Environment Resource Pack. Entitled ‘Just Food?’, the resource pack reclaims a biblical understanding of food as a source of celebration and joy, and as a means of cultivating God’s Kingdom values of justice and restored relationships and can be used to help celebrate Environment Sunday on 5th June or Creation Time, 1st September - 4th October.

Food is God’s gift in creation, yet today it is often either cheap junk or an ethical nightmare. The pack can be used for single services or a 5-week series. It includes:

• Five specially-made short films on food
• Five sermon outlines, with prayers, liturgies, songs and more
• Five group bible studies
• Extra resources for children, further reading and ideas for action.
• The pack is especially suitable for Harvest, Environment Sunday (nearest to June 5th), and Creation Time (1st September – 5th October)

Dave Bookless, A Rocha UK Director for Theology, Churches & Sustainable Communities commented: “This resource pack represents an opportunity to relearn how to value God’s gift. Let us learn again to celebrate the wide variety of delicious, diverse and bizarre-looking foods God has made to excite our taste buds, bring people together and sustain us physically. Let us rejoice in the abundance of God’s world - the fantastic fruitfulness of the earth. Let us recover our sense of dependence – on God, the land, and each other, and let us restore our broken relationships as we build community around sharing food.”
To purchase your copy of Just Food? please either:

• Order online using PayPal at www.arocha.org.uk/resources
• Send a cheque for £10 + £1.50 P&P made out to ‘A Rocha UK’ with a clear note stating that you wish to purchase a copy of Just Food? to A Rocha UK, 18-19 Avenue Road, Southall, UB1 3BL.

New funding available for groups to cut their carbon

A new initiative called energyshare is helping people come together to save and generate their own energy. And they’ve just launched a fund of up to £500,000 to help projects get started.

Energyshare is looking to fund projects that aim to save or generate energy locally, and will benefit the local community.

If your church would like to save or generate your own energy, and you have an idea for a new project - simply set up a group on energyshare and register for the fund. It’s easy to register, just fill in the form and start inviting supporters, friends and community members to join your group.

Eleanor Course.

Bird boxes at Gilling East

We've heard from Rosalind Field, churchwarden at Holy Cross Gilling East - she said, 

"We followed up the Archbishop's gift of a bird box by holding a bird box morning when the children from the village came to the churchyard to make their own birdboxes. As you can see from the little girl in pink, some preferred just to look at natural objects! This is the first activity in our Living Churchyard Project and has got off to a good start."

Keep sending us your bird box photos!

Eleanor Course

Spring Bird Watch

The BBC web site has published good news on a resurgence of small garden birds this year despite the terrible winter chills that we all experienced.  British Garden Birds are Bouncing Back

This is good news and the RSPB record that part of this is due to incresing numbers of people feeding birds through difficult winters and also planting bird friendly trees and shrubs in their gardens. 

Small actions count as we learn to foster environmental sustainability in our actions and attitudes.

(Photo: Andrew Vaughan from the Diocese of Lincoln!)

BBC Radio Humberside at St Botolph's churchyard, Allerthorpe

BBC Radio Humberside discovered the wildlife in the churchyard at St Botolph's, Allerthorpe, in advance of their Open Churchyard day on 10th April.  Listen again here, beginning at 1 hour 14: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00fp55m.

This Open Churchyard day is part of Yorkshire Living Churchyard's Open Churchyards project - you can find out more here: http://www.ywt.org.uk/living_churchyards.php.