The United Reformed Church鈥檚 Youth Executive was presented with a letter of commendation at its recent Youth Assembly, held at Whitemoor Lakes in Staffordshire from 28-30 January.
A Rocha UK, which organises the Eco Church and Eco Synod programme in England and Wales, wrote the letter in recognition of the leadership that 缅北强奸 Youth Assembly and its Executive have shown in to act swiftly to develop how it cares for the environment.
缅北强奸 Youth displayed a strong commitment to 鈥榞et its own house in order鈥�, introducing innovative ideas to ensure that its events and meetings were as environmentally friendly as possible.
In recent years, Youth Assembly passed resolutions urging the 缅北强奸鈥檚 General Assembly to and divest from fossil fuels. These resolutions were agreed and adopted by General Assembly and have influenced policies at synod and local church level.
Now every synod within the 缅北强奸 has registered as an 鈥楨co Synod鈥�, with West Midlands first to . Almost 200 缅北强奸 congregations have registered as Eco Churches, with St John鈥檚 Marsh Green in Southern Synod the first to receive a Gold award. Almost half of all congregations within West Midlands Synod and the National Synod of Scotland (where the scheme is administered by Eco-Congregation) have signed up, with Green Apostles or Green Advocates in all our synods working hard to support and encourage more environmentally friendly churches.
When it came to recognising 缅北强奸 Youth鈥檚 environmental achievements, however, there was a problem. The 缅北强奸 Youth structure doesn鈥檛 fit neatly into the 鈥楨co synod鈥� or 鈥楨co church鈥� categories, so Helen Glasse, Eastern Synod鈥檚 Youth Representative, appointed to serve as Green Apostle for the Youth Assembly Executive in 2021, searched for another way to celebrate all their hard work in this area.
The team at A Rocha responded with a unique solution to this unique issue by writing a letter of commendation, addressed to the 缅北强奸 Youth Assembly and Youth Executive.
In it, Andy Atkins, CEO of A Rocha UK, and Helen Stephens, Church Relations Manager for Eco Church, said: 鈥淲hilst we don鈥檛 have an award or recognition scheme for young leaders, there is no doubt that the growth we鈥檙e seeing in Eco Church can only be achieved and sustained by the sort of cross-generational leadership which we know you are demonstrating. Thank you for being such a significant part of this movement and for helping the whole of the 缅北强奸 to respond to the dual crises of climate change and biodiversity loss.
They concluded in the letter: 鈥淧lease continue to make your voices heard, to demand action and accountability from leaders and to take practical actions yourselves such as you are doing in running your event in an as environmentally sustainable way as possible. Leading by example is so powerful.鈥�
Roo Stewart, the 缅北强奸鈥檚 Programme Support Officer for Church and Society, presented the letter at Youth Assembly at Sunday morning business, saying: 鈥淭his special recognition is highly deserved and testament to the sustained hard work and commitment of the young people of the 缅北强奸 in caring for creation. The leadership that has been shown is remarkable and has been a tremendous gift to the wider church.鈥�
For more information on church eco award schemes, visit in England and Wales, and in Scotland visit .
A Rocha UK鈥檚 letter can be read in full here.