Eco Church Mission
Our churches of St Peter’s and St Francis’ are committed to our vision to care for God’s Creation through our Eco Church work. We make a faithful pledge to encourage change in our lifestyles and our local communities to care for our world.
Our Quarterly Eco Church Newsletter & Facebook Page
Keep up to date with all our activities ...
Find copies of our latest newsletter here
Visit our Facebook page here
Eco Church Award
The Parish of Frimley is proud to have achieved both BRONZE & SILVER Eco Church Awards and are now working towards the GOLD award.
The awards are presented by A Rocha which is a Christian charity working to protect and restore the natural world and committed to equipping Christians and churches in the UK to care for the environment. The survey to achieve award status asks us to look at the following areas:
Worship and teaching
Buildings and energy
Land and nature
Community and global engagement
Lifestyle
Community Garden
Our community garden is located just outside St Peter's Hall
and is looked after by volunteers and the staff team. We launched the garden in
2021 with a visit from the Surrey Heath Mayor. We grow a small selection of
fruit and vegetables during the summer months and add to this with flowers as
much of the year as possible. Children's and youth groups help out with various activities within the garden. We think we also have other visitors too like the local fox!
Count on Nature & Cherishing Churchyards
Every year in June we focus on our large churchyard which is
historically interesting and is a large green space for the community and
nature. The maintenance is respectfully and carefully arranged with contractors
and volunteers.
During our cherishing churchyards week we focus on the importance of certain graves with local history connections, the wildlife and nature that live in the churchyard. On our Count On Nature days we aim to record the nature that we find in our churchyard and this is registered on a national database along with lots of other churches. We engage with this alongside the charity Caring for Gods acre.
Creationtide
Creationtide runs from 1st September till 4th
October each year. It’s a time we may hold special services in church and renew our
commitment to caring for our planet. It is also time for our Harvest Festival.
We sometimes hold family activities like a trail through our churchyard. 4th
October is St. Francis of Assisi Feast Day; it is a day dedicated to the life
and virtues of St. Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of animals and the
environment. We often celebrate this with activities based around this theme.
Forest Church
We hold Forest Church at St Francis' Church quarterly.
Weather permitting these special services are held outside in our woodland area
and open to everyone. They are quite different from our regular services with
activities based around nature and caring for our planet. They offer a time for
reflection, meeting like-minded people outside of the church walls.
Litter Pick
We aim to take our Eco Church mission out into the community. From March till October we hold a monthly Litter Pick on the second Monday of the month at 10.30am meeting at St Peter's Church. We collect litter through our churchyard and local roads then meet back in church for refreshments. Like all of our activities it’s open for all in the community to join us.
Fairtrade
We are a Fairtrade church. This means that wherever possible
we use Fairtrade products and share Fairtrade information with our
congregation. We also engage with Fairtrade campaigns and have integrated
Fairtrade into the life out our church. We have held Fairtrade services, held
Fairtrade coffee mornings and raised funds for charities like Transform Trade
and the Fairtrade Foundation. We raise awareness of how trade can exploit the
world’s producers and destroys the planet.
Recycling
In our churches we take part in recycling wherever we can
and encourage others in our community to recycle as well. We support schemes such as a Bra Collection Bin for the charity 'Against Cancer', you can find our collection bin in the ladies toilets at St Peter's Hall. We have also undertaken battery recycling and signpost to other
local recycling schemes.
Our Work Towards Net Zero
We have a Net Zero champion in our church, and we have in 2025 installed our first solar panels for use in our St Peter's Hall. We are starting to change many lights to LED. We have had energy audits on our church buildings. In future we will be working to reduce our Carbon Footprint and encourage others to join us. Our energy is on renewal energy tariffs. We have committed to reducing our gas usage throughout our buildings wherever possible.
Toilet Twinning
We have committed to the global issues where climate and
nature crises are profoundly and unjustly affect the poor and vulnerable the
most. We have twinned our toilets throughout our buildings. This helps fund a
project in a community that helps families to build their own basic toilet,
access clean water and learn about hygiene.
Creation Care
Creation Care is a survey that we can take as individuals to
see how green we are in our homes and lives. A questionnaire will help you
understand how well you are doing and offer ideas of ways to improve. Like the
parish has achieved, your household can achieve Bronze, Silver or Gold awards.
When you register, if you say you are associated with St Peter’s and St
Francis’ Churches, Frimley we can arrange for you to receive your certificates
in church. You can find this scheme at: https://creationcare.org.uk/