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Viewpoint from Rev Liz Dawes 22/03/2024
 Rev Liz Dawes
Curate, Great Yarmouth Team Ministry
Recently Great Yarmouth Minster and St Paul’s, Newtown achieved their bronze eco church award. If you don’t know much about Eco-Church, it’s a scheme run by a Christian Environmental Charity called A Rocha whereby churches can very clearly demonstrate their efforts to become more sustainable through the use of their buildings and churchyards, but also about how teaching about creation is infused in our worship and the way we go about our daily lives
Our care for the planet we inhabit has to be one of our biggest priorities as the world faces a changing climate, the destruction of natural habitat around the world, and a loss of many species of plants and animals
 Living sustainably isn’t at odds with the way we want to live our daily lives. Who wouldn’t want to live in a place where we can breathe fresh, unpolluted air, enjoy clean seas and rivers teaming with life, appreciate the beauty and shade of trees which help our planet to breathe, and live in a community where travel on foot, by bike, bus or train is easy and convenient. And our churches should be at the heart of this sustainable way of life, setting a good example and showing the rest of the world how to truly live in community with one another and the world around us
God has created a world where relationships are important. Not just relationships between people and between us and God, but also the relationship we have with creation itself. The two are inseparable. As Pope Francis puts it ‘our responsibility is to cultivate and care for the earth in accordance with God’s command (in the book of Genesis). We are called not only to respect the natural environment, but also show respect for, and solidarity with, the members of our human family’
In our churches and in our daily lives we can do so much to care for creation, by using fairtrade and eco-friendly products, by looking after the nature in our gardens and outside spaces and by trying to cut down waste and recycling. Then together we can create a community which has clean, unpolluted air and waterways, is free from rubbish and teeming with nature and allows people to flourish in harmony with the natural world
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