Churches to be environmental advocates

All 582 churches in the Diocese of Lichfield have been asked to become advocates for environmental protection in their local communities.

The call came from members of the Lichfield Diocesan Synod, meeting at Cobridge Community Centre in Stoke-on-Trent, which approved a wide-ranging environmental motion.

The Synod called for all churches in the diocese to "raise the level of awareness and action in their local communities" on environmental matters and said all churches should "work out and implement an environmental strategy for its buildings, its land and its activities".

Church Schools were also asked to keep environmental matters high on their agenda, while diocesan officers have been asked to reduce car travel, maximise the use of paper produced from sustainable resources and recycled materials and to be sensitive to the impact of church activities on the local environment.

The motion was presented to the Synod by the Rt Rev Dr Alan Smith, Bishop of Shrewsbury, who recognised the lack of measurable objectives.

He said: "The difficulty with objectives is that it is almost impossible to take into account the vastly different situations that are faced by our nearly 600 churches, our 400 vicarages, over 200 schools and all the other plant that we have.

"We also have to allow for the fact that we have some parishes with one building and a congregation of 300-plus; which is very different from a medieval village church with a congregation of 12. Both of them are in profoundly different places."