This summer we're deliberately encouraging wild flowers and pollinators into our church grounds. We've left a strip by the edge of the car park unmown and sown a wild flower mix. Do let us know if you spot any butterflies, bees or other insects enjoying the plants.

On Saturday 25 March at 8:30pm, millions of people across the globe will switch off their lights and spend 60 minutes doing something positive for our planet.

Find out more, including lots of ideas of what you could do with your hour at https://www.wwf.org.uk/earth-hour

As well as being good news for God's creation, supporting Earth Hour also helps us gain Eco Church points so do let us know what you did with your hour via online@putnoechurch.org.uk and we'll feature some of your ideas in the next Eco Church newsletter.

As you may have read in the latest Eco Church newsletter, Putnoe Heights has recently calculated its carbon footprint for the last two years. At our Church Council meeting on February 28th we voted to offset our carbon emissions through the Climate Stewards programme. 

Carbon offsetting means compensating for the amount of carbon we have emitted. It funds projects which avoid, remove or reduce carbon emissions from the atmosphere. Paying this in full means we can say we are a net zero church. In the longer term we are looking at ways to reduce our energy use rather than relying on offsetting but there will always be some unavoidable emissions. 

Climate Stewards work with nine partner projects in six countries which are all based at the heart of their local community. Each project is initiated and designed by local organisations to bring benefits to health, family finances and the local environment, alongside carbon mitigation. You can read more about the projects on the Climate Stewards website.

Caroline Pomeroy, the director of Climate Stewards, explains more about how they work to do offsetting well in this blog post which you may find helpful.

In October our Church Council voted to register with the Fairtrade Foundation's revamped Fairtrade Places of Worship scheme.

This means we are committed to:

• Using Fairtrade products wherever possible (at least tea, coffee and sugar) and to share this information with congregants. 
• Celebrating Fairtrade Fortnight and integrating Fairtrade into the life of our church through other faith-based holidays, sermons and services. 
• Engaging with other Fairtrade campaigns and connect with community groups, such as schools and towns, where possible.  

The birds are on the Red List of UK’s Birds of Conservation Concern. In recent years they have been losing nest sites when properties are repaired or modernised.

Swifts are also part of Target Twenty-five, A Rocha UK’s project to help a wide range of places and species that are struggling with the effects of climate change, habitat loss and pollution. 

Find out more about swifts with the RSPB

We are delighted to make available some resources that you can borrow for as long as you like, read and then return. These will be available in the welcome area and we hope to add more titles in due course.

    • Back copies of ‘Root & Branch’ – the magazine of A Rocha UK which is published twice-yearly. It focuses on a topical theme and includes well-researched, scientifically sound articles, interviews, stories from individuals and Eco Churches, a Biblical reflection and ideas for action. It also contains updates on the work of A Rocha UK and the wider international A Rocha family.

    • ‘A Christian Guide to Environmental Issues’ by Martin and Margot Hodson is designed for group or personal use. The book covers eight key issues including climate change, biodiversity, food and development. The chapters are part autobiographical and part background information; they also include Biblical reflections on the themes and Bible studies with questions for reflection or discussion. This is a great introduction for anyone who would like to study a few key areas in some depth and relate them to the Bible.

    • ‘Responding faithfully to the environmental crisis: Christianity at the Time of the Anthropocene’ by Timothy Howles is part of the Grove Ethics series, pamphlet length (28 pages) introductions to a variety of topics. They say "We would like Grove Books to be your first call for comment on contemporary issues that is based on biblical principles, engages with best practice, and offers practical application." 

Toilet Twinning features in the Community & Global Engagement category of the Eco Church programme. In April 2022 we twinned all the toilets in the Putnoe Heights Church building using the Toilet Twinning Scheme. Our toilets are now twinned with latrines in Cote D’Ivorie and Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Twinning toilets helps fund projects in poor communities, enabling families to build a basic toilet, have access to clean water and learn about hygiene – a vital combination that saves lives.

Our service on Sunday 15th May celebrated the work of Toilet Twinning and their partners using their theme for churches: What does it mean to be blessed – and to be a blessing?

The Queen’s Green Canopy (QGC) is a unique tree planting initiative created to mark Her Majesty’s Platinum Jubilee in 2022 which invites people from across the United Kingdom to “Plant a Tree for the Jubilee.”

Everyone from individuals to Scout and Girlguiding groups, villages, cities, counties, schools and corporations are encouraged to play their part to enhance our environment by planting trees during the official planting season between October to March. Tree planting will commence again in October 2022, through to the end of the Jubilee year.

With a focus on planting sustainably, the QGC encourage planting of trees to create a legacy in honour of The Queen’s leadership of the Nation, which will benefit future generations.

Putnoe Heights are enthusiastic about playing a part in this celebration but we thought long and hard about where we might plant a tree on our limited space. Then Bedford Borough Council organized a big giveaway of trees and hedgerow shrubs and we realized that we could plant a wildlife friendly hedgerow along the back of the car park.

Planting trees provides such a boost to the local environment, from helping to tackle climate change, making the local area more beautiful, improving health and wellbeing, and creating better habitats for local wildlife. Over this year's planting season, the Council and its partners have been involved in the planting of over 10,000 trees across the Borough.

A team of Putnoe Heights volunteers gathered in the car park on a Saturday morning to plant the hedge and tidy the border, We now await the results in the next year or two.

A prayer for our hedgerow:

“Lord we thank you for all who have given us this hedgerow. For the Queen’s Green Canopy organizers, the Borough who arranged the distribution of trees and for the team who have planted it. Grant that, in time, it will flourish and provide shelter and food for birds, insects and other wildlife as an example of your loving kindness to our church and our planet. Amen”

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The posts encourage people to appreciate the natural world by finding new ways to slow down and connect to God's creation.

One of the things we had planned for 2020 was a Tearfund pray for the climate prayer room. When Covid-19 forced us to rethink we created two virtual prayer stations.

The first is HOME. Click on the first image to open the gallery and scroll through.