A ROCHA ECOCHURCH

Join us on our Eco- Church journey as we intentionally seek to be better stewards of our corner of our wonderful world!

We have changed over our energy supplier to one that generates power from renewable energy.

We have replaced the old filament light bulbs with LED lights inside St Mary's.

We have also changed over the majority of bulbs at CHS. 

At St Mary's we are being consious of the cleaning supplies we purchase. We have switched to using Faith in Nature handwash in our loo and kitchen. We are also using vegan antibacterial sprays. 

Ocean Saver pods can be diluted in warm water and fill old spray bottles! They come with a sticky label so everyone knows what's inside! Let's be kinder to our environment by re-using plastic when we can!

In our loo, we also use eco-friendly cleaning products:

The St Mary's loo is twinned with a toilet in Cambodia! 

Without proper toilets, people get trapped in a vicious cycle.

They’re likely to become sick through sanitation-related diseases. Illness keeps people from working, children miss school, parents have to pay for medicines or food and fall into debt.

Toilet Twinning funds hygiene education via community-led workshops and sourcing local materials for families and communities to build their own toilets.

We have also switched to using toilet paper made from recycled paper!

(not recycled toilet paper!!)

We use a food waste bin in our kitchens at both churches, and also separate paper and plastics for recycling. 

We have installed a bat box for our nocternal neighbours in the St Mary's churchyard:

And two homemade bird boxes:

We have also installed a bird box in the CHS grounds..

And a bike rack to encourage cycling to church:

We have begun work on clearing a section of wasteland adjacent to St Marys to create a memorial garden for people to come and sit, enjoy nature and remember lost loved ones. We plan to plant bee and butterfly friendly flowers and plants.

We have changed our washing up liquid to Ecover and twinned our kitchen tap!

Some of the youth Group visited the Gaia exhibition at Chelmsford Cathedral:

 In October 2022, we registered as a Fairtrade church, commiting to buy and serve Fairtrade tea, coffee (and sugar)

Widford Parish is now registered with the charity Fareshare, which works to reduce food waste. We collect left over food from three local supermarkets/outlets which we distribute to people, this food would otherwise end up in landfill!

One of our tithe charities for 2024, is South Essex Wildflife hospital. We are working to support the wildlife that lives in and around our churches. We have taken an injured bat and also a sick rabbit, and injured starling fledgling to the 24/7 wildlife hospital in Orsett. 

We have a compost bin at St Mary's, in which we put any food waste/teabags generated from our activities. We picked up this compost bin, FREE from the Olio App, which encourages reusing and recycling household items that you no longer need.