Sheriff Hutton churchyard – haven for wildlife

There are some wonderful churchyards in the Diocese, carefully managed to care for plants, insects and animals. John Oakley, PCC secretary at St Helen & the Holy Cross, talked to me about what’s happening in their churchyard.

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Living Churchyards

If you think your church could do more to help local biodiversity by caring differently for its churchyard, get in touch with Yorkshire’s Living Churchyard Project, run by the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust.

The purpose of the Yorkshire Living Churchyard Project is to promote the management of churchyards and burial grounds in ways that are sympathetic to the natural habitat and ecology of native plants and animals. At the request of local people, members of the Project make advisory visits to Yorkshire churchyards and burial grounds to survey the wildlife present and draw up a suitable management plan. A large number of parishes, after a visit by the Project’s volunteers, have become self–reliant and successful in developing their churchyard or burial ground as a well–kept haven for wildlife that still remains a place of reverence and remembrance, the last resting place for our forebears.

Taken together, the 1300+ Yorkshire churchyards make a significant area of land that has survived untouched by pesticides and herbicides or by intensive agriculture and urban development. Many native plant and lichen species and their associated fauna survive only in churchyards.

Visit their website, and have a look at their brilliant booklet giving advice on how to manage your churchyard. Elizabeth Hardcastle is the Project Officer, and she will be pleased to discuss any thoughts or aspirations relating to your churchyards.

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Cherishing Churchyards

The Diocese is focussing on biodiversity from 10th to 19th June, which is also Caring for God’s Acre’s Cherishing Churchyards week. Churchyards are vital tools for churches wishing to help the biodiversity of their locality.

Caring for God’s Acre is a national organisation which aims to inspire and support local communities to care for churchyards and burial grounds in a way which benefits both people and wildlife. Cherishing Churchyards Week is a chance to celebrate churchyards and burial grounds and to raise awareness of the treasures they contain.
You can visit their website and discover how you can celebrate your churchyard and discover what it contains. They’ve got great ideas to make your churchyard a place for families with quizzes, treasure hunts, a mini beast safari and more.

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Focus on Biodiversity

From 10th to 19th June we're looking at biodiversity as part of the Year of the Environment. We’ll be posting ideas and stories on our website, blog, Facebook and Twitter accounts looking at what you can do in your churchyards and in your own homes to help the variety of plants, insects and animals that share our world.

Biodiversity is the technical term for the variety of life on Earth. It refers not just to the diversity of species of plants, animals, fungi, bacteria etc, but also to the variety within any one species and to the various ways species live together in ecosystems. Often there is a sense that what is to be preserved is the genetic diversity so that future generations can draw on this as a resource, but many people feel delight in the diversity itself and want to preserve it for its own sake.

The Revd Canon Richard Rowling has written collects for the Year of the Environment – here’s the collect for biodiversity. Could you pray this throughout our period of focusing on biodiversity?

Almighty God our Creator, you have given us a world that is rich and diverse.
Help us to honour the integrity and balance that lies at the heart of your creation.
Give us vision to see the harm that is done by us and in our name, through greed and carelessness;
and give us true repentance, that through humility and reconciliation with your creation we may bring healing to your world and restore it to your glory,
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.

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Rogation Service in Whorlton with Carlton and Faceby

The Revd Linda Shipp, vicar of Whorlton with Carlton and Faceby, emailed us to tell us about her churches' Rogation day service.

She said, "Every year we hold a Rogation service in a local barn, this year we decided to celebrate local farming, using local produce to make pancakes during the service. The children helped to make pancakes from eggs donated by a local farmer (laid fresh that morning) and then ladies cooked the pancakes as the service continued. The pancakes were eaten at the end of the service with locally produced jam and honey before we had a BBQ. It was great fun, we prayed for our environment, local farming and blessed soil, seed, water, and went outside to bless the land and animals. Donations were made to Farm Crisis Network."

What a great idea!

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Caring for our Churchyards

The BBC Website has news of a new Government white paper.  (Link - Natural Environment White Paper) This is very encouraging, as the biodiversity of our churchyards represents one of the commitments the church is able to make to the nurture of our Environment.  Let us hope that the new legislation reflects this.

Visitors get growing in York Minster

Visitors to York Minster on Saturday got a taste of the green life as they enjoyed drama, competitions and a host of stalls and displays at the diocese’s Big Environment Celebration.  You can see our pictures here.

Shrinking the Footprint, the Church of England’s national environmental campaign, staged a ‘get growing’ seed giveaway along with a competition to win a year’s supply of local Yorkshire Tea, supporting the Yorkshire Tea Rainforest project.

The event, organised by York Minster and the Diocese of York as part of the Diocese's Year of the Environment, was supported by environment groups and organisations from across the county. Visitors also enjoyed an art competition themed on celebrating God's creation and drama sketches throughout the day, performed by the Riding Lights Theatre Company.

The Archbishop of York Dr John Sentamu said, “The Big Environment Celebration is a great way to show that the Church of England cares about our environment. As Christians, we have a duty to care for our environment. We believe that we are only tenants on this Earth, and it ultimately does not belong to us. If we are tenants of the Earth, we have a duty to care for it – a duty to God, to the rest of the creation that we share the world with, and to future generations.”

David Shreeve the Church of England’s national enviornment adviser said: “The Big Environment Celebration is a great example of sharing our buildings to show our concern and best practice about the importance of caring for the environment. Not only are many people making the most of their land by growing their own produce but the large number of stalls showed how the Church is working with a whole range of groups and organisations.”





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