The United Reformed Church (URC) North-Western Synod has been awarded its first Eco-Synod award. It is now the URC’s second synod to have reached A Rocha UK’s Bronze Eco-Synod Award status, West Midlands being the first in March 2021.

To apply for the award, the Revd Daleen Ten Cate, North Western Synod’s Missional Discipleship Mentor and Green Apostle, collated information from the past five years. “As I did so,” Daleen explains, “all I could visualise was the wholeness of the body of Christ where everyone plays a part and shares their God-given gifts.”

“What makes me most proud of this achievement is the teamwork that we showed throughout this journey. The encouragement of our Synod Clerk, Tim Hopley, and the support of the whole of the Synod were phenomenal.”

Support also came from Mike Hart, the Synod’s Transformation Director and Treasurer, who ensured that all the Synod’s investments divested from fossil fuel. The Revd Mike Aspinall, Property Consultant, concentrated on buildings. Claire MacIntyre, Synod Deputy Clerk, and Kerry Later, Office Manager, coloured the Synod office green and helped with the eco newsletter.

To celebrate this milestone, each of the 25 churches registered as an eco-church within the Synod were given a packet of seeds from Commitment for Life as an encouragement to keep growing on their eco journey.

Since 2016, the URC has worked with A Rocha UK to develop Eco Synod, a tool by which Synods can encourage local churches to engage in wider creation care. The URC has a target of being net zero in its carbon emissions by 2030, and Eco Church (Eco-Congregation in Scotland) and Eco Synod are a vital part of its strategy to reach this.