The Diocese of Bath and Wells

Environmental Website

IN PARISHES, LMGs and DEANERIES….

The Working Party recommends that PCCs and Local Ministry Teams should:

Community

1. encourage church members to work with others in their communities in caring for the environment.

2. support the concerns of environmental organisations through church magazines and by other means.

3. be aware of what is already happening in local schools to encourage green thinking; support this work as much as they can; collaborate with local schools in environmental projects; and provide opportunities for children to share with the wider community and the congregation what they are doing.

Worship and Prayer

1. help local churches celebrate festivals of the agricultural year in ways appropriate to the church context.

2. invite local environmental organisations to take part in church worship, particularly when the service has a particular creation theme or on Environment Sunday.

3. help people realise that activities which help them engage creatively with nature are a part of their spiritual life and not something apart from it; and provide the means and opportunity for people to encourage each other in developing this participation in creation.

Discipleship

1. consider taking part in the Eco-congregation programme, or an alternative.

2. help people appreciate the diversity of sources of our food and the particular benefits of locally produced, environmentally responsible, animal friendly and fairly traded products.

3. develop ways of helping parishioners find out about and discuss issues of land use, food production and food distribution practices, and act in ways that are just and environmentally responsible.

Resources

1. pay attention to ensure that materials are not being used unnecessarily.

2. wherever possible, recycle materials: and put in place ways of enabling church members and local communities to recycle more.

3. wherever possible, phone or e-mail instead of using paper.

4. in order to reduce their environmental impact, carry out an energy audit on church buildings, and  then work to improve their energy efficiency. This will include both reducing losses and schemes for energy generation.  PCCs might do this as part of the eco-congregation programme or might do it separately and compare their figures with the national benchmark for their kind and size of building.

5. think creatively about how the environmental impact of a church building can be reduced, and submit applications to the DAC, with PCCs seeking advice from architects and specialist advisers in the relevant fields. The situation is changing fast and no one adviser can be expected to be up to date with all developments.

6. for travel, encourage walking, cycling, the use of public transport and car sharing.

7. meet centrally unless there is good reason to do otherwise, as this reduces travel overall, but also bear in mind that it is often helpful and supportive to church members on the edge of a group if people sometimes come out to them.

8. encourage particular people in the area to develop a knowledge of local public transport so that they can inform others when decisions are made or questions are asked.

9. when there is a group outing, use a community vehicle or a hired minibus or coach.

10. locate the clergy where there are public transport links which can then be used by their families, as well as by them on occasion.

IN THE DIOCESAN OFFICE, BOARDS AND COMMITTEES….

The working party recommends that:

Office, Administration and Resources

1. an environmental audit should be carried out on The Old Deanery and the practices of the Diocesan Office and a budget prepared for improvements and submitted for consideration by the managing body.

2. The Old Deanery should be switched immediately to an electricity supply from renewable sources, and in the longer term, aim to make it carbon neutral.

3. attention should be paid to ensure that materials are not being used unnecessarily, and are being re-used or recycled wherever possible.

4. wherever possible, phone and e-mail should be used instead of paper.

5. a diocesan officer should have the time and resources to provide regular up to date information and advice to churches and officers on food, trade justice, recycling, purchasing, land use and other activities which impact on our environment.

6. a diocesan officer should arrange for the bulk buying of items which will help local churches reduce their environmental impact.

Education

1. the Diocesan Board of Education and its officers should continue to help schools make links between RE and other aspects of the curriculum in which ecological awareness and thinking are being developed; follow such relevant themes as creation, stewardship, penitence and hope in school worship; and adopt an environmental education programme such as eco-school.

2. the Board of Education should continue to work with the various Local Authorities, who have officers working on energy reduction and generation, to assist Governing Bodies to take steps to make their school buildings increasingly environmentally friendly.

Housing and Glebe

1. the Diocesan Surveyor should continue to work to steadily improve all diocesan housing towards a passive house standard.

2. new vicarages should be built to a high environmental standard.

3. the Housing and Glebe Committee should work towards ensuring that glebe land is either (a) cultivated in an environmentally friendly way (b) used for local food production e.g. as allotments, (c) used for wood production, (d) used for energy generation, or (e) used in some other way that is good overall for the environment.

Church Buildings

1. an Environment Adviser should be appointed to the Diocesan Advisory Committee.

2. in addition to the work of the DAC and Diocesan Architects, an additional system should be put in place for exchanging ideas and information about good practice.

Meetings and Travel

1. diocesan meetings should be held less often but for longer. This diocese could have two synod meetings a year, each for a full day.

2. where the membership of a group is from across the diocese, meetings should be held centrally unless there are good reasons for sometimes meeting elsewhere.

3. Archdeaconry Meetings should be held for consultations; and serious consideration should be given to moving Locking Deanery (Weston-super-Mare) back into Wells Archdeaconry, at least for the purposes of Archdeaconry meetings.

4. car sharing should be encouraged, and could be facilitated by e-mailing to the people attending meetings a list of the others in the group together with their phone number and e-mail. People can work out routes and cost sharing between them.

5. when arranging the times of meetings bus timetables should be considered.

6. the practice of deanery confirmations should be continued.

7. the Bishops and Archdeacons should continue to meet with groups of people in their parishes or deaneries.

8. the Bishops, Archdeacons and Diocesan Officers who work over a wide area should use hybrid cars or others with very low fuel consumption.

9. in reimbursing travel costs it should be assumed that public transport will be used if it is available.

Diocesan Environment Officer

a Diocesan Environment Officer should be appointed with the time and resources to help local congregations and LMGs consider and carry out the diocesan commitment, and to represent the diocese to other bodies concerned with environmental matters.

 AT THE BISHOP'S PALACE…

1. Consideration is being given to installing a heat transfer system in the moat to generate electricity, to putting a turbine into the moat by-pass, and to using a restored water wheel to raise water for allotments. We commend this work. The first two could be significant electrical generators from renewable sources.

2. We recommend that an environmental audit should be carried out on the Palace building and the practices of the Bishop's Office; a budget prepared for improvements; and the case should be put strongly to the relevant bodies that changes should be made accordingly.

AT THE CATHEDRAL….

1. The Cathedral Chapter should be encouraged and supported in their concern to reduce the environmental impact of the cathedral; and the other churches of the diocese and the diocesan organisation should consider how they can help in that.

2. The Cathedral is an important visitor and pilgrimage centre and its ministry impinges on the lives of very many people. Care for the earth needs to be a significant and visible feature of its witness through displays and events and its worship.

3. The Cathedral Chapter should seriously consider being involved in and publicising a carbon offset scheme

ARCHDEACONS' VISITATIONS….

The working party recommends that the Archdeacons' Articles of Inquiry in 2008 should ask Churchwardens what action is being taken in their parishes in response to these recommendations.

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