A Lake District church is the third in the Diocese of Carlisle to gain a gold Eco Award.
The congregation of St Michael and All Angels in Hawkshead gained the top environmental honour following a detailed independent assessment by Christian conservation charity A Rocha.
It comes after the church was previously given bronze status in 2017 and silver in 2019 and follows years of hard work focusing on green improvements to the church building and surrounding area.
Joyce Hallam, who has led the church’s nine-strong eco team, said: “I’m a former headteacher of the village school with a background in zoology and conservation.
“So, when I retired it felt that joining the church’s eco team was the perfect way for me to continue to champion these things.
“It’s been a real team effort with different people bringing their own particular skills to the table, all of which has resulted in this success.
“I want to pay particular thanks to Jean Crosbie who originally set up our eco committee. We all recognise that this is God’s creation, and all the team members are passionate about doing all we can to protect and enhance our church building and grounds.”
Hawkshead Church was assessed over five areas: Worship and Teaching, Buildings, Land Management, Global Outreach, and Community and Lifestyle. Inspectors were shown how the church now runs purely on ‘eco-tricity’ (totally renewable energy) as well as seeing evidence of land management.
The eco team was also able to point to a partnership with Cumbria Wildlife Trust, the construction of bat and bird boxes and the introduction of LED lighting in the listed building as well as many other ‘green’ projects including the creation of a series of pilgrimage walks.
To date, St Michael’s is only the third church to be bestowed with a Gold Award in the diocese, the others being Levens Church in the south of the county and St Cuthbert’s Lorton.
The Rev Canon John Dixon, vicar of Hawkshead and Low Wray with Sawrey and Rusland and Satterthwaite (Benefice), said: “As a church family we are thrilled to have had our hard work and efforts to go green recognised by A Rocha.
“The assessment was a rigorous and demanding process, and our success is down to the hard work of all those on our eco team, with particular thanks going to Joyce Hallam and Jean Crosbie who have led so ably around this project.”
