A Curate who worked for 14 years in nature conservation has become Eco Church Officer for the North of England with Christian conservation charity, A Rocha UK.
Eco Church is a grassroots programme helping to grow and inspire local churches and their communities; the key milestone of 5,000 church registrations across England and Wales has just been reached.
The Revd Lucy Foster’s newly-created regional role is supported by a three-year grant from the Benefact Trust (formerly AllChurches Trust). Lucy is a self-supporting minister in the Church of England and curate to the ecumenical Helm Mission Community in Cumbria.
Lucy will be helping churches use the Eco Church award programme as a tool to tackle climate change. The damage from the Cumbrian floods in 2009 and 2015 is just one example of the vulnerability of the communities in northern England.
As Eco Church officer for Northern England - home to churches in post industrial towns and small, rural parishes - Lucy will be encouraging many more churches to become Eco Churches.
"Individual churches - especially those with small congregations, limited resources and old buildings to care for need additional support to meet them – Eco Church programme and my role can help. There is the hope that more churches will take up the cause of Eco Church," she says.
Over the next five years, A Rocha UK expects to transform local churches and denominations in the UK into a significant force in environmental care and restoration. Lucy's post will play a key role in delivering A Rocha's strategic goal of seeing 15% of churches in the UK committed to caring for creation by 2025.