How will you mark the season? Roo Stewart gathers great green ideas

Each year, a growing number of URC congregations plan services and activities focused on caring for the environment in the time from 1 September to 4 October, the ‘Season of Creation’. Will your church be one of those this year? Here are some great ideas, sent in by URC members, that have helped their churches connect with creation and the Creator.

If you have other ideas, photos and resources that you’d like to contribute, please send them to
roo.stewart@urc.org.uk. We’ll share these on URC social media before and during the Season of Creation. If you use any of these ideas, or come up with your own, please send us a photo and let us know how it goes.

Rooftop salad – Clitheroe URC

After receiving our Eco Church Gold Award in 2023, we set a target for carbon offset and the congregation embraced the challenge. We invited people to plant trees and they planted saplings in their own gardens, donated saplings for others to plant, pledged trees with the National Trust or used the search engine Ecosia, who plant a tree for every 45 searches made. In 2024 we met our carbon offset annual target and are well on the way this year too. A church member painted a beautiful tree and people stuck on leaves to represent trees they had planted. The enthusiasm has been infectious!

We only have a small patch of grass in front of the church, but it faces the high street, so we take part in No Mow May, with a sign to promote this. We grow peas in pots on this land to promote Christian Aid. Rangers, who met in our church hall, helped with our small wildlife garden, planting snowdrop bulbs donated by Lancashire Wildlife Trust Greenhouse Project, and have started work on a small greenhouse made out of recycled plastic bottles. Brownies, Barrow URC School and Junior Church will take part in Count on Nature in our church in June. A local restaurant, Tom’s Table, grows salad leaves and edible flowers on the roof of our shed.

We launched a monthly Repair Café this year run by Ribble Valley Climate Action Network in our church. A regular Eco Church update is included in our church magazine, with information on fairtrade products, recycling, or other ideas to help care for our planet and those who live on it.

Darleen ten Cate, Mission and Discipleship Mentor

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This is an extract from an article published in the Issue 4 – 2025 edition of Reform

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