Truro Cathedral receives Bronze Eco-Church Award
We are delighted to be able to announce that Truro Cathedral has been awarded Bronze Eco-Church status by A Rocha, the internationally recognised organisation that has pioneered work among churches of all sizes and denominations to encourage good stewardship of God’s creation. The award scheme, at bronze, silver and gold levels, assesses five areas of the life of participating churches: worship and teaching; land; buildings; community and global engagement; and lifestyle. Recent highlights of our work at Truro Cathedral in these areas to care better for God’s Creation are below:
Worship and Teaching
Prayer for the environment features regularly in our worship and in Holy Week 2023 we held a service of lament for creation which touched those who came with a deep sense of the urgency of the situation.
Over recent years, we have hosted several adult teaching courses on the theme of caring well for God’s creation – Windows into Eco-theology being one such, and the ‘Plenty!’ Course from Green Christian’s ‘Joy in Enough’ campaign being another. We have a small lending library of books on environmental themes which has recently been relocated to the reception area of the Old Cathedral School – all are welcome to use it.
Land
Over many years, a small but dedicated group of volunteers have spent most Saturday mornings tending the garden areas around the Cathedral Green. Thanks to them this space is now cared for in ways beneficial to nature – bees and butterflies included, and not forgetting the worms in the compost heaps!
Buildings
In the past two years we have used energy bills for the Cathedral and Old Cathedral School to submit data on energy use – and therefore carbon footprint to the central Church of England database. We will shortly be submitting returns for 2023 and anticipate a fall in carbon emissions, given the reduced energy use that has been entailed in cost-cutting measures. Our energy is supplied on a ‘green’ tariff and lighting throughout both cathedral and office spaces is low energy as far as possible. Along with other cathedrals we now possess a preliminary consultants’ report on possible ways of decarbonising the cathedral’s heating system and discussions continue on this topic.
Community and Global Lifestyle
The visit of the Gaia installation last Autumn afforded many opportunities to reach out to the community alongside learning. This was accompanied by Cornwall Wildlife Trust’s photography exhibition and an art display on climate grief by the ‘In This Together’ group of local artists. The juxtaposition of these two exhibitions was powerful, the one showcasing the wonderful variety and beauty of wildlife in Cornwall and the other offering artworks to stimulate reflection on the damage that humanity is doing to the planet and the resulting pain caused to both human and animal life.
Lifestyle
Truro Cathedral has a dedicated member of the clergy team whose remit is to oversee Creation Care in this place and she convenes a small group of interested members of the cathedral community who work in a variety of ways to improve our ‘green’ credentials. Under this heading, the eco-church scheme encourages churches to encourage their members, as individuals and households, to make changes in their lifestyles towards living more truly in harmony with nature. This is a significant area in which we need to carry out work in the near future, so expect to see and hear ideas in the coming months – or make a start right now by signing up to assess your own household’s creation care status at: https://creationcare.org.uk/
The members of Truro Cathedral Creation Care Group and, indeed, others have all contributed to the achievement of our bronze Eco-Church Award – THANK YOU to everyone who has played a part.
The Bronze Award is, of course, only the beginning! There are many more things we can and should do to care better for God’s Creation, and the Cathedral’s Creation Care Group is actively considering what will make the most sense for us in our circumstances. We already have a ‘to-do’ list of possible eco-friendly improvements that we could make to the cathedral premises and our ways of operating, and work will take place soon to establish which areas to address first. Unsurprisingly, the silver Eco-Church award is more stringent than the bronze, but concomitantly more worthwhile as well.
If you would like to be part of developing this work and helping Truro Cathedral towards a more overt witness in this vital area of Christian ministry today, do get in touch with Canon Elly Sheard (ellysheard@trurocathedral.org.uk) – you will be welcome to join in!