We have made good progress on our greening journey but we all have to do more to deal with the climate crisis. Below is a flavour of current activities and future plans.

Worship and Teaching

Strengthening our stewardship of God’s creation through our weekly Worship and by marking events such as ‘the Season of Creation‘, Environment Sunday, The Great Big Green Week and Climate Sunday.  We also seek to invite speakers on environmental concerns to church-based groups and have held creation-themed bible studies.  Further resources for worship around the theme of Climate and Creation can be found on the Methodist website – https://www.methodist.org.uk/for-churches/resources/articles/climate-and-creation-other-worship-resources/

Currently:

• Our minister regularly draws attention to creation care in their worship, teaching and prayers;
• We encourage visiting preachers to include creation care in their prayers and teaching;
• Our ‘green group’ leads local arrangement services focusing on the environment and climate crises at least annually;
• We seek to find creative ways to appreciate and celebrate aspects of creation in our worship that can be shared with the community.

Buildings and Energy

In 2024 we installed a battery to enable fuller usage of the solar electricity generated on the Stratford site.  Crucially, this year also saw our joint church council adopting a net zero policy and action plan.

We also seek to:

• Maintain all lighting, heating and cooking facilities in good working order with regular servicing;
• Try to maintain what we do have, only replacing when necessary;
• Provide clearly marked recycling facilities on our premises, including a charity clothing bank, and ‘signpost’ people to other local facilities for recycling items not currently included in the local council doorstep collections;
• Use only stationery and cleaning products that are environmentally friendly;
• Encourage each group that meets in our buildings to be aware of, and if possible reduce, the impact of their own activities.

As resources allow, future aims include:

• Improving the capacity of the PV (photovoltaic solar energy) at the Stratford site;
• Adding solar panels at the Henley site;
• Investigating the feasibility of replacing gas heating and hot water in the older parts of the Stratford site not served by the ground source heat pump;
• Investigating suitable alternatives to our gas oven/hob.

Land and nature

In 2024, as we celebrated the 10^th anniversary of the redevelopment at Stratford, we planted a Rowan tree in our recently re-established wildlife garden.  This was inspired by ‘Stratford Wildlife Friends’, who assisted a newly-formed garden team clear overgrowth and made suggestions for changes to be made.  The bug house and bird feeding stations have been upgraded and are now maintained by our toddler group and ‘Forest Church’, a joint project with Holy Trinity Church.  The garden is now not only wildlife friendly but provides a better facility for the community.  Our minister is planning to introduce leaflets to facilitate using it as a space for prayer.

In the near future we plan to:

• Set up new water butts to make watering the garden easier/more efficient;
• Setting up bat or swift boxes under the guidance of Stratford Wildlife Friends;
• Encourage our congregation and others to join the RSBP great big bird count, annual butterfly count and regular recording of any wildlife seen in the space.

In the future, as volunteers permit, we hope to establish a pond that will encourage more wildlife, whilst being safe for the children that now help maintain it.

We have also introduced additional recycling facilities to the side of the building at Stratford.

Community and Global Engagement

Working more closely with other local, national and international organisations for social and climate justice.

• As a Fairtrade Church we promote the use of Fairtrade products on our premises;
• We seek to promote Creation care amongst all who use our premises, providing clearly marked recycling facilities, displaying our ‘toilet twinning’ certificates, encouraging good practice and advertising local, national and global campaigns and initiatives.  As part of the 10^th Anniversary celebrations of the redevelopment at Stratford, we held a community fair to which we invited all user groups to join us and share what they do.  The U3A choir were also invited to perform a concert, at which their set included a piece about the environment that their conductor had written especially for the occasion.
• We have links with local groups such as Stratford Climate Action, Stratford Wildlife Friends and the Heart of England Forest, a local charity planting new native woodland.  We look for opportunities to work together with them and others to promote creation care, this has included our churches co-signing a letter to all candidates in our borough at the 2024 election encouraging them to support the climate and nature bill;
• We have been invited to help two local C of E primary schools deliver the new Eco-Church section of their RE curriculum;
• We have been invited to share our green journey in a number of church forums, both locally and nationally;
• We actively encourage other congregations in our Churches Together groups, the South Warwickshire Methodist Circuit and the Birmingham Methodist District to become Eco-Churches, lobby their MPs, take part in The Great Big Green Week, mark Climate Sunday, the Season of Creation and other similar events and campaigns;
• We continue to work with Stratford Churches Together, especially participating in their eco group.  This group regularly has a stand highlighting the Christian commitment to creation care at the Sustainable Shakespeare Day – a local launch event for The Great Big Green Week – and helps churches progress their Eco journey.  To date, 7 congregations in Stratford Churches Together have at least one award;

Lifestyle

• We seek to promote environmental campaigns and tips for greener living through the weekly newsletter, social media and on our website;
• We have hosted Stratford Repair Café on the first Saturday each month since 2023;
• We endeavour to provide resources about green issues and web links to enable individuals, households and organisations to reduce their carbon footprint, increase their knowledge about the issues faced and promote local, national and global campaigns;
• We encourage those who attend our Monthly Fellowship Lunch to bring food that follows at least one aspect of the LOAF principle where possible (Locally sourced, Organic, Animal Friendly, Fairly Traded);
• We carried out a lifestyle survey in a Sunday service led by the green group to inspire and equip our congregation to take actions in improving their lifestyle for creation care;
• We seek to provide clearly marked recycling facilities, including providing a collection point for empty medicine blister packs, stamps and postcards and by introducing a charity clothing bank for South Warwickshire Air Ambulance in our church car park.