In 2025 St Peter's PCC and the congregation embarked on a long-term project to become an Eco Church. This is a fully 'holistic' approach to the church to acknowledge God's creation and our responsibility to care for it, with-in and with-out the church - as church members both at church and at home. A number of parties are available to encourage us in this project and details on these are below.
1. A Rocha Eco Church
A Rocha UK’s Eco Church programme equips churches in England and Wales to care for creation.
Eco Church is a learning community of churches of all shapes and sizes open to all denominations. It provides a framework to support your church and its leadership to take practical action on caring for God’s earth, through the Eco Church survey. The survey covers five key areas of church life:
- Worship and teaching
- Buildings and energy
- Land and nature
- Community and global engagement
- Lifestyle
Worship and teaching
We will preach and teach about God's creation. We will include creation in our prayers and praise.
Buildings and energy
Given the historical build of our main building we will endeavour to source the best enviromentally friendly source of electricity. We will be mindful of our energy use, through management of heating and lighting.
Land and nature
We will manage our churchyard both for the community and for nature. Engaging with both conservation groups and the community.
Community and global engagement
We will engage with our local community via both worship and the churchyard.
Lifestyle
We will endeavour to reflect our love for God's creation both at church and at home.
Further details on Eco Church can be found here: Eco Church - An A Rocha UK Project
2. Suffolk Wildlife Trust
Managing the churchyard for both wildlife and parishoners can be challenging to balance out. To that end we need to know what we do and don't have in our churchyard, apart from memorials to loved ones. We called in Suffolk Wildlife Trust to do a prelimary survey in Autumn 2025. The resulting report can be found here:
Churchyard Conservation Report Autumn 2025
More details on SWT and Churchyards can be found here: Churchyards | Suffolk Wildlife Trust
3. East Suffolk Council
East Suffolk Council actually found us first! But we quickly acted to work together to promote 'Nature at Work' within the Churchyard. You will find at least three of these signs around the churchyard. Two are in general notice on our signboards whilst the other is against a small area in the north of the churchyard that is being managed by our neighbours in an informal engagement between the church and the community.
Details of the full ESC community project can be found here: Nature at Work | East Suffolk Council
4. Diocese of Norwich (and Norfolk Wildlife Trust)
Becoming an Eco Church is very much encouraged by our own Diocese of Norwich.
Their web pages on this can be found here: Eco Church - Diocese of Norwich
We attended a seminar on 'Holy Habitats' soon after embarking on this project. Being in the county of Suffolk but within the Diocese of Norwich has yet to be either a blessing or a curse as the Diocese works closely with Norfolk Wildlife Trust and not Suffolk Wildlife Trust (who work with the Diocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich). It is hoped our placing on the overlap between county and diocese will benefit ourselves and other churches within the Deanery of Lothingland
Latest:
On Saturday 7th March 2026 Mark Ellis attended a Licensed Lay Minister training morning, led by the Bishop of Norwich. He offerred two thought provoking quotes of the climate crisis we are facing: Perhaps you may like to read them:
“I used to think that top environmental problems were biodiversity loss, ecosystem collapse and climate change. I thought that thirty years of good science could address these problems. I was wrong. The top environmental problems are selfishness, greed and apathy, and to deal with these we need a cultural and spiritual transformation. And we scientists don’t know how to do that.”
James Gustave Speth, (born on March 4, 1942) is an American environmental lawyer and advocate who co-founded the US Natural Resources Defence Council.
“…The problem of global climate change is one that affects us all and action will only be effective if it is taken at the international level.
It is no good squabbling over who is responsible or who should pay. Whole areas of our planet could be subject to drought and starvation if the pattern of rains and monsoons were to change as a result of the destruction of forests and the accumulation of greenhouse gases.
We have to look forward not backward and we shall only succeed in dealing with the problems through a vast international, co-operative effort.”
Margaret Thatcher, 8th November 1989 Speech to United Nations General Assembly (Global Environment)
Updated: 20260312