A Rocha UK | Ian McKay
If you were in church last Sunday, you will have heard Esther Way preaching on Mark chapter 4, which starts with the parable of the sower. If you missed it, I’d recommend listening to the recording which is on the St Luke’s website. During her talk, Esther mentioned the Eco Church scheme, which is run by our partner mission A Rocha UK.
St Luke’s has a Bronze award from the Eco Church scheme, which means that we do many of the right things. In our services we regularly pray for the whole creation, and sing songs of worship to the God of creation. We take measures to reduce the negative impact of our use of the buildings and our grounds. We manage our land for nature. We support fair trade, and give to A Rocha UK.
As Esther said, for us to move ahead to Silver we need to normalise creation care in everything we do (much as we seek to normalise safeguarding in everything we do). And to be eligible for Gold our care for creation needs to spill out into our community, and into our lifestyles as individuals as well as corporately.
A Rocha UK is a Christian charity working for the protection and restoration of the natural world and committed to mobilising Christians and churches in the UK to care for the environment, as part of a global network of organisations working in over 20 countries across the world. Up until Covid hit us, we seemed to be making some progress. But the social, economic and political situation has undoubtedly got worse, not better, since then. This means that organisations like A Rocha who work for justice for people and planet are under considerable stress. Please pray for them.
As we support and partner with A Rocha UK, I believe that this is an expression of our worship of God the creator, of hope in His promises, and of a desire to care for, and live in balance with, all of the creation of which we are a part (and not “apart”). This is reflected in this Lent prayer from A Rocha UK:
As we start this Lent season, we reflect on what it means to live within godly limits of what is enough. We ask for forgiveness for when humanity has not respected the limits of creation and has depleted the resources God has given us. Pray that we would be transformed by the renewing of our minds (Romans 12:2) and gain a fresh vision of living well in God’s world.
Explore A Rocha’s work around the world at https://arocha.org/en/about/
Find out more about Eco Church at https://ecochurch.arocha.org.uk/eco-church-survey/
Pray with A Rocha UK at https://arocha.org.uk/get-involved/pray/
Download A Rocha UK’s 2026 Eco Tips Calendar at https://arocha.org.uk/easy-eco-tips-2026-calendar/