

Eco Church
St Mark's Church has recently been awarded the Bronze Eco Church Award as a sign of our commitment to to take practical action on caring for God’s earth, through five key areas of church life:
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Worship and teaching
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Buildings and energy
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Land and nature
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Community and global engagement
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Lifestyle​​
For more information about Eco Church Awards visit the ECO CHURCH website by A Rocha UK



Eco Church Day Conference and Information Fair
Saturday 4th October at St Mark’s Church, Newby.
We have been working on the Eco Church scheme for over six months and have now achieved the Bronze award. There are information boards about the project at the back of church, plus a file of more detailed information taken from the Eco Church online resource library.
In order to raise awareness of the project amongst members of the church and the wider community it has been decided to hold an Eco Church Day Conference during Creationtide. It won’t just talk about getting Eco Church awards, but it will stress our responsibilities as Christians to care for God's creation and to try to live more sustainably. We hope it will appeal to a wide range of people, congregation members and the general public, as well as church leaders. It will be focussed on 'why and how' in practical terms, not academic ones.
We have secured three keynote speakers:
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Prof Colin Beale, Chair of Trustees of A Rocha and Professor of Ecology and Conservation at York University.
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Revd Johannes Noble, Green Ambassador for York Diocese.
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Dr Martin Hodson, Principal Tutor in Christian Rural and Environmental Studies. He is a plant scientist and environmental biologist, and a former Principal Lecturer, and now Visiting Researcher at Oxford Brookes University.
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To book on this conference please follow the link
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The draft conference programme is as follows:​
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9.30 Registration
10.00 Why Christians should care for creation Catherine Fish from Green Christian
10.30 What is Eco Church? Prof Colin Beale
10.45 A Gold Award Church St Margaret's, Aislaby, Whitby
11.00 Coffee At the back of church and in hall
11.45 Buildings and Energy Angie Creswick
12.30 Lifestyle Emma Teasdale
1.15 Lunch At the back of church and in hall
2.00 (Topic to be confirmed) Dr Martin Hodson
2.45 Land & Nature Rev Jan Noble
3.30 Community Engagement Climate Outreach (Zoom)
3.45 Tea At the back of church and in hall
4.30 Worship & Teaching Rev Jan Noble
5.00 Plenary & close All
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Running at the same time in the church hall there will be an Information Marketplace. A wide range of local interest groups, wildlife charities, recycling projects, and so on will be invited to have a stand.
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The Scarborough Camera Club is also going to have an exhibition of photos relating to wildlife, the environment and climate change.
We intend to charge £10 per person for the day and advertise it widely, via Scarborough Deanery, Churches Together in Scarborough, social media and the local press.
Trevor King, Church Warden. 16/06/2025