‘The earth is the Lord’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it; for he founded it on the seas and established it on the waters.’

Psalm 24:1

Last Friday was Earth Day: an annual celebration that honours the achievements of the environmental movement and raises awareness of the need to protect the Earth’s natural resources for future generations.

With the first Earth Shot Prize in October last year and living in an area focused on reducing our carbon footprint with the Envac system and protecting the existing wildlife, discussing climate change and caring for the environment, is becoming more prevalent. Being a relatively new church on a developing estate that is being marketed and seen as a ‘healthy new town’ within London, we take our role as guardians of the Lord’s world very seriously. However, there is more we can do as a community to look after our little patch on God’s green earth. Namely, green recycling, which is something our local authority do not currently allow.

I got the pleasure of interviewing Leo Pollard at the end of last year to write a piece in the local paper about why he’s so keen to get this changed across our borough, which you can read more about here: The RiverView (previously known as the Riverside News). It was great to see the passion that such a young boy has for looking after our area for the local wildlife and the seals in the Thames. We should all have a bit more of Leo’s passion and need for action to make change happen.

Since then, Anna teamed up with the Young Citizen Action Group at Riverside School and with others at Leo’s own school, George Carey Primary School to make that change happen. They facilitated a space for the young people from the two schools, who believe in what Leo was hoping for, and Councillor Achilleos, who is the Green Champion in the Borough to take it further. And since then 2 amazing things have happened:

1. During that meeting with Councillor Achilleos, he has promised on behalf of LBBD that by next year, food recycling will be brought to every home, for free. It is amazing how a group of young people has helped inspire our local councillors into addressing such a high priority issue within a year, and I’m sure we will all help to keep him accountable. You can read the follow up article in The RiverView that has snippets by our young people who were in the room with Councillor Achilleos.
2. Tandem & BRL our master developers and management company, have agreed to sort out garden waste disposal themselves as that is also not currently copvered by the council on part of the estate. After a couple of year of residents complaining about being blessed with great gardens but with no way of disposing of the waste properly, BRL have sprung into action and that waste collection should be up and running in the next month or so.

It might sound small, the little changes we are trying to put into place, but every little helps and if we all do our bit, looking after our individual corners of the world as communities, the world will be in a much better shape as a whole and God will be a lot more pleased with those He put in charge of the world.

If you are interested in how the Church Of England as a whole are doing their part, please check out their page here and the intro video about their Environment Programme is below:

Prayer For The Environment

Heavenly Father,
You have taught us, through your servant St Francis,
That all creation is your handiwork.
Grant us your grace that we may
Exercise wise stewardship of this Earth;
Tread lightly upon it;
And cherish its resources;
That our children may enjoy its riches, throughout all generations,
And your name be glorified through all that you have made.
Amen.