A touch of gold
A guest post by Green Christian member John D Anderson.
Baildon Methodist Church in Bradford has won an Eco-church Gold award from A Rocha. Assessors came for a day to listen to what eco-activists in the church said, and to see what had actually been done over the last 20 years. They wrote “high congratulations to … everyone involved with the Eco-church team … on reaching this significant milestone…“ Baildon Methodist Church is now the eighth Methodist church in England and Wales to achieve this status.
The A Rocha assessors said that there was “a strong embedded attention to care of creation and social justice themes in general teaching and formal worship, not least as evidenced by there being an Eco-officer for some 20 years”. “The church council had taken on the responsibility of challenging the MP and local organizations around not just climate change but structural inequality and the need for change in society.” The Church Council does not simply administer the activities of the church and the Wesleys community outreach; every meeting prophetically acts on an important political or social issue. Baildon Friends of the Earth and Fairtrade Baildon had been founded in and by the church and had now flourished for over 15 years, embracing dozens of members of the community. “Creation care was at the heart of worship and action within the church; [and] visible everywhere”. Worship had centred on occasion on themes such as water, oil, electricity and travel.
Special note was taken of the 52 kWp solar arrays, the batteries and the sophisticated and sensitive Smart controls of the totally renewable Far Infrared electric heating system within insulated buildings. Careful calculations of energy consumption informed the installation and of the optimum “size of solar array on roofs for maximum effectiveness”. The controls can be adjusted for each room based on the local weather forecast and the projected hours of booking. By May, on one full working day, the electricity bill was for zero pounds. So successful has this been that, since COVID, the church has not had to significantly raise its booking charges and has kept stable the cost of the daily popular meals in its Wesleys café. This is further facilitated by the continuing rise in the number of users. The essence of warm but economical heating is full occupation; to a large extent the church has achieved this. Moreover, rooms used and heated every day do not have mould or other damp-related damage. The Fold building was constructed for £1 million to standards similar to those of a Passivhaus; in one of its small rooms a hirer attested that he never turns the heating on. Above its entrance is the commandment of Jesus in Mark 16:15, “Go and preach the good news to the whole of creation.” This is the comprehensive ideal of the church.
One garden area had developed “from an abandoned clinker-filled strip of land into the bio-diverse and productive area it is today.” There were eighty-seven species of plant in the modest-sized gardens; these were of particular value to the church flower arrangers. Its particular glory was the unusual collection of twenty rare heritage fruit trees, partly to provide fruit for the kitchen of Wesleys, the daily provider of lunches and refreshments for the church and the community. The flower-beds with spring bulbs round the lawn enhanced the grounds. The assessors wrote, “Bird boxes, hedgehog habitats, a solo bee house and small water stations for birds had all been developed recently, some of them by children’s groups”. The flourishing Sunday morning “Stay and Play” group during the worship service, the uniformed organisations and the Youth Club all deal with creation themes.
Wesleys activities, staffed by church members and others from the community were praised: “particularly those involving well-being and needs as opposed to simply letting out space for non-church groups to use”. Each week the premises were used by 1200 people – from prayer groups and worship to Alcoholics Anonymous and three choirs.
The assessors advocated further steps on the “journey of caring for creation”: a gold award provided a shimmering platform; it was not to be just a plaque on the wall. The church was asked to “explore whether there are ways to use… excess electricity to benefit the local community” and to be further involved with “uniformed and local school groups on matters such as food”.
Being an Eco-church asserts the relationship between creation, beloved of God who saw that it was “very good” (Gen 1:31), and structures, such as the church, built up to manage our lives within it. Many of these structures inflict damage on creation, often for monetary gain. An Eco-church aims to hold them to account before God; such a church cannot exist for, and in itself, alone.
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