Eco-congregation

St Chad's Church			St Chad's Church
St Chad's Church		Giving & Caring Charities...Eco-congregation...Gifting ...Stewardship

The Eco-congregation

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We were fortunate to receive a request from Deloittes to bring a work party for St Chad's Churchyard and School for a second year. It is an enormous help to have a group of enthusiastic young people to clear the main paths, rake mown grass, trim back self-sown shrubs in the graves and gather hedge clippings from around the churchyard. The school benefited with weeding in the school garden and preparatory work for replacing the surface in the all-weather activity area.

We are extremely grateful to the St Chad's Green Team and helpers, who not only worked hard alongside the Deloittes party and provided refreshments, but also put in many hours of hedge-cutting in preparation. A big thank you to all concerned.

You may have noticed small holes appearing on the cricket ground, the field near the Parish Centre, and more recently in the churchyard itself. This is the work of someone or some people using a metal detector. It is extremely upsetting that this wilful damage is taking place and the churchyard is being deliberately desecrated. The damage will also affect a rare fungus species in the churchyard, which is used as a UK biodiversity indicator of unimproved grassland. At this time of the year, the fungus is ready to produce its fruiting body (the “toadstool”) and disturbing the ground will have serious implications for the survival of the species. If you see anything suspicious, please contact Barry or the church Wardens IMMEDIATELY or failing that, ‘phone the police.

Suzanne Dalton

St Chad's Churchyard .....Ways to be Green

What is the Eco-Congregation ?

As a Churches Together initaitive this programme is supported by all denominations, encouraging Christians to take practical steps to care for our planet. Ideas are offered under various headings for ways of minimising our impact on the environment both personally and as an organisation. Find out more from the Eco-Congregation website

Achievements within the last twelve months include :

Churchyard :
. Winner of the Church Times Award for Biodiversity November 2007

Community Activities :
. Recycling now extended to include Hearing Aids and batteries
. Christmas card recycling collected 30Kg of cards for the Woodland Trust
. Traidcraft stall continues on a regular basis
.Magazine exchange approx. once a month

Publicity for environmental work :
. Gained Green Apple (bronze) November 2007
. Article in the Church Times
. Environment Leeds has featured St Chad 's in several issues
. The Dalesman featured St Chad 's churchyard in June 2008
. The Parish Pump highlighted the beautiful "east" window with its wildlife.

Interpretative Boards in the Churchyard
We hope that the two new interpretative boards in the churchyard will enable passers-by to appreciate some of the wildlife, history and geology of the church and churchyard. One board focuses on the church building and wildlife associated with the grassland, the second on the geology of the churchyard memorials and the wildlife of the hedgerows and woodland. These boards have been financed by Leeds City Council from Section 106 funding, which is for environmental improvement, associated with the Filter Bed development. The beautiful art-work is by Stephen Huxley of Figurehead Designs in Harrogate .

The creation of these boards has involved Green Team members in many hours of work, liaising with Leeds City Council and the designer. The subject matter for each board was chosen, and then the text written and re-written and the illustrations scrutinised until everyone was satisfied with the pictures, photographs and accompanying script.

I would like to thank all the Green Team for their patience and persistence. It has been a real team effort, but if any one person is singled out, it has to be John Varker for his fascinating and informative descriptions of the geology of the church and memorials.

Suzanne Dalton