St Lawrence’s Church, Hungerford, has planted nearly 3,200 trees in 2021 as part of efforts to offset the carbon emissions of the local area.
During November, in partnership with the local community and the Hungerford Environmental Action Team, the church planted 840 new trees in the Town and Manor of Hungerford. The trees, provided by the Woodland Trust, form two new hedgerows near the churchyard.
The Woodland Trust provides trees for planting to schools and community projects free of charge. If your church or school is interested in planting trees in your local area, the next delivery of trees will be in March 2022.
Tree planting helps to increase the carbon storage capacity of the earth as well as providing important habitat space for wildlife. However, it is not just about the environmental impact and showing that local churches are taking action to help tackle climate change. It is also an effective way to engage with the local community and build relationships and is an activity for people of any age.
The Revd Mike Saunders, Vicar at St Lawrence’s Church said:
“God’s original design for our world was a garden, the Garden of Eden. At the end of time, it will be restored and since we are on God’s team, we want to play our part in restoring it through planting trees and encouraging environmental action in our local area of Hungerford.
“It’s really exciting that the church is heavily involved in the environmental actions of the community by helping to plant new trees each year and supporting the efforts of other schemes including the refill shop and repair cafe.”
St Lawrence’s Church, Hungerford is one of more than 30 churches in the Diocese of Oxford with a Bronze Eco Church award from the A Rocha scheme. The scheme recognises the commitment of churches to good environmental and ethical stewardship in five key areas of parish life: worship and teaching, buildings, land, lifestyle, and community and global engagement. The changes your church can make towards becoming an Eco Church can be as simple as completing an energy audit, switching to low energy lighting, and hosting churchyard wildlife projects.
The A Rocha Eco Church and Eco Diocese schemes are two of the ways we can measure the diocese progress towards reaching net zero carbon emissions by 2030.
St Lawrence’s Church also has an exciting event coming up in 2022. The Eco Conference will take place on Saturday 18 June and will be chaired by the Bishop of Reading, the Rt Revd Olivia Graham. Other speakers include Dr Mike Morecroft, Natural England Principal Scientist for Climate Mitigation and Adaptation, the Revd Margot Hudson, and Helen Stephens, A Rocha. Email the church to find out more: admin@StLawrencesHungerford.org.uk