Ramsden Street
United Reformed Church

Ramsden Street United Reformed Church is now a Silver Eco Church

At Ramsden Street we gained our bronze eco award in May 2023. We added planters and hanging baskets to our courtyard, along with a bird house, bird feeder and bug hotel. We try to encourage the little wildlife in our area. We bought Fairtrade tea, coffee and sugar and recycled and used some eco-friendly products. Our electricity supplier confirmed we received 100% green energy. We worshipped and prayed for our environment and were conscious of the impact of climate change on our poorer neighbours. But what else could we do?

We continued on our eco journey, purchasing more eco-friendly cleaning products. We regularly litter pick - our courtyard seems to attract litter, especially when it is windy! We took part in the national butterfly count and regularly put green tips in our Around Church news. We have twinned all our toilets through Tearfund, supporting improved sanitation in South Sudan, Uganda and Mozambique. We continue to encourage everyone to reuse and recycle and think about energy use. Our light fittings in church needed replacing and have been changed to LED light fittings to reduce our energy use.

We took part in the area Green Fair, held at Dalton Community Church, to share ideas and encourage those who attended to be more eco aware. We encourage the use of LOAF products - using Local, Organic, Animal Friendly and Fairtrade produce. We support Christian Aid projects to improve environments and gain justice for our global neighbours. We continue to worship and pray for our world and the issues we face due to climate change and to celebrate the wonder of nature. This has gained us our silver award in November 2024. Due to our very urban environment it is unlikely that we will ever meet the standard for a gold award but we will work to maintain our silver status if possible. There is now a new survey and this may be a greater challenge going forward, but we will certainly try our best!