Creation-care at North Elmham church Eco-Fair

The Heart of Norfolk benefice welcomed over 125 people to its very first Eco Fair and Creation Care Sunday service at St Mary’s Church in North Elmham.

The Eco-Fair ran throughout an extremely hot weekend in mid-June, and there was a creation-care themed service on the Sunday morning, also at St Mary’s, with Bishop Graham as lead bishop for the environment.
 
Rector, the Revd Sally Kimmis reflects on the journey to this point and some of the lessons learned along the way.
 
“At the end of June last year, we had a group service for the Heart of Norfolk benefice, focusing on care of creation,” Sally recalls. “At the service, Dave Appleton, from North Elmham, spoke movingly about the ‘Towards net Zero’ conference he had recently attended, where the keynote speaker was Bishop Graham. Dave said, ‘Why are we interested in this as Christians? Really, it’s because it’s about God’s world. It’s God’s creation, which he has entrusted to us as stewards of creation.‘
 
“Susan Moore, churchwarden of Stibbard, also spoke at the service about Stibbard’s Eco Church bronze award, and the journey the PCC took towards achieving it.
 
“This is where the germ of the idea for holding an Eco-Fair began. We wanted a platform to engage the wider community; to demonstrate that the Church takes the climate crisis seriously. We invited a wide range of environmental groups, wildlife groups and other organisations protecting the land and our rivers. We also had exhibitors whose passion is about recycling and upcycling, re-using materials that would otherwise go to waste, or offering a repair service for products to extend their useful life.”
 
The two Church of England primary schools in the benefice – North Elmham and Stibbard (federated as The Flourish Foundation) - created models out of recycled materials which impressed those who attended with their creativity and imagination.
 
The event attracted positive feedback from the exhibitors and visitors on the day and it is hoped there may be another Eco-related event in the future.
 
The Heart of Norfolk Benefice includes churches at Bawdeswell, Bilingford, Bintree, Foulsham, Foxley, Guestwick, Guist, North Elmham, Stibbard, Themelthorpe, Twyford, Wood Norton and Worthing.
 
For more on this story, along with several photos and details of how your church can register as an Eco-church, visit  dioceseofnorwich.org
 
The photo above is courtesy of Diocese of Norwich.

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