With all blessings for the rest of Lent, and for Easter when it comes, 

Rosalind

Rosalind Cooper

Net Zero Carbon Programme Manager

The Church of England has released a helpful video walk-through for the Energy Footprint Tool (EFT). All churches are encouraged to complete the tool, which helps churches, parishes and dioceses alike to understand opportunities and challenges churches face in decarbonisation, as well as painting a better picture of potential energy and cost savings. The EFT closes on Tuesday, June 30. Many thanks to those churches who have already submitted their EFT.

Churches will also need to have submitted their EFT (and have registered as an Eco Church) to access the next round of Quick Wins funding, which will open in April 2026. If you require any support once you’ve watched the walk-through video, please contact Rosalind.

There are plenty of opportunities to get involved in the environmental work of the Church, at parish, deanery or episcopal area level. Parish Environment Officers act as an ‘eco-voice’ within the PCC and can support their parish in creative ways – encouraging the church to submit the Energy Footprint Tool, enrol in Eco Church, or think about how to adapt to a changing climate. There are also opportunities to represent your Deanery or Episcopal Area as an Environmental Champion. Do contact Rosalind for more information. A good first step for all of these roles is taking the Saving Creation Bronze course, available on the new ‘Pathways’ webpage.  

A reminder that there is plenty of support on offer from various teams within the Diocese of Leeds. Alasdair Hicks is the Diocesan Net Zero Carbon Church Buildings Officer, and can support your church with advice on how to approach decarbonisation in a way that protects your building’s fabric and supports the communities who use the space. Alasdair can be contacted at

alasdair.hicks@leeds.anglican.org.

If you’re looking for support with fundraising, the Stewardship Team offers 1:1 calls with churches on this subject – contact Beth Vickers-Smith to arrange a time at

resourcingparishes@leeds.anglican.org.

We’re gathering feedback from church goers on the benefits of the Buildings for Mission and Net Zero Carbon Quick Wins grant schemes and would love to hear from you. Your feedback will help us to understand how these changes have affected the experience of you and others, who use or visit the church. It will also help us to demonstrate to the national church and wider funders the benefits of investing in church buildings. Please complete this e-survey, which will be open to responses until Monday, April 20. 

Your answers will be anonymous. We will not ask you for your name or any other personal details. It will take between 5 and 10 minutes to complete. We will use your responses for research purposes only, to understand how repairs and improvements have benefited our church community. Thank you in advance for taking the time to help us understand the impact of the changes that we’ve made. 

Climate Stewards are running drop in-sessions on how to use their free 360° carbon footprint tool. The sessions will run on Thursday, March 19, 12pm-1pm; and

Tuesday, March 24, 8pm-9pm.  

The Church Urban Fund has released a new Look Up tool, designed to ‘shine a light’ on the differences in living circumstances in people within your parish. The information from this tool can help to direct your church’s mission and support funding applications.

You may know your own personal carbon footprint, or even your church’s – but there is now a tool to estimate a community’s carbon footprint. Churches are very often catalysts for change within communities, so this tool - which can ‘give you a better idea of where to target your efforts for the greatest impact in tackling the climate emergency’- could help churches take their advocacy for creation care even further.

Green Journey is a scheme which supports churches reduce their environmental impact through renewable energy procurement, energy audits, and sustainability advice and support. The scheme held an informative webinar in 2024, which is still available on the diocesan website here. The Diocese and Green Journey are currently organising another set of webinars, currently scheduled for the week commencing Monday, April 27, which will be recorded – so watch this space! For more information about Green Journey, contact Craig Hogg, Ecclesiastical Account Manager, at craig@greenjourney.org.  

The British Pilgrimage Trust are offering £250 grants to help parishes bring Rogation Sunday festivities to life. Rogation Sunday, which this year takes place on Sunday 10 May, ‘invites a community to step outside to pray for, and bless, fields and footpaths, crops and gardens, wildlife and neighbours, and to welcome the wider community into a shared celebration of place’ and is as such deeply aligned with messages of creation care and environmental justice. N.B., a quick turnaround on this – applications must be in by Sunday, March 22.

The National Churches Trust have released the ‘House of Good: Local calculator’, a tool churches can use to demonstrate their vital importance in the community, which in turn can support fundraising campaigns. The tool takes approx. 30 minutes to complete, and instructions can be found here. Find updated IMD statistics for 2025 here.

Is your church part of a community energy group? Great British Energy have opened a form for community energy projects to submit ‘specific project proposals for initial, nonbinding consideration’ for potential funding streams. The proposal form can be found here.

There are currently 265 grants listed under ‘net-zero’ and almost 290 grants under ‘environment and sustainability’ on the Cornerstone grants platform. The Stewardship team are holding webinars through March, April and May to introduce parishes to Cornerstone. Find out more and register here.

Does your church want to replace its existing lighting with more energy-efficient LEDs? ‘Donate a Light’ might be able to help; the volunteer-led community interest scheme redirects unused surplus LED lighting to non-profit organisations, including churches. Contact Rosalind for the eligibility criteria.

Green Christian are running sessions on responding to feelings of climate grief and anxiety from a Christian perspective. Their projects ‘Deep Waters’ and ‘Cloud and Fire’ support lay and clergy communities to reach a ‘level ground to live and act with courage, love and equanimity’. 

Although we’re only in March, it’s never too early to start preparing for the next Great Big Green Week, which will run from Saturday, June 6 to Sunday, June 14. Described as the ‘only mass moment for nature and climate in the UK’, you can find out more about the Week here and get inspired by last year’s stories here.

Did you know that the Diocese of Leeds is also helping schools work towards net zero carbon? There is a page on the diocesan website devoted to the Saving Creation Toolkit, which has been specifically designed for schools and academies, and which is designed around ‘Action Sheets’ which list and explain practical ideas for actions that can be taken to make a real difference. The webpage also features environmental worship resources for schools.  

The Church of England have released a brand-new series of videos where experts in environmental sustainability explain a fascinating range of topics - including heat pumps, building fabric, and how decarbonisation and church insurance interact. These supplement Historic England’s excellent series of decarbonisation webinars.

The UK held the first-of-its-kind National Emergency Briefing on climate and nature in November 2025. A film from the briefing will be released on Tuesday, April 7 and will be available for community screenings across the UK. “Screenings in village halls, cinemas, faith spaces and workplaces will bring constituents, civic leaders and MPs together to hear the evidence - and consider what an emergency response should look like”. If your church or hall is interested in hosting a showing, please register your interest by filling in the form here.

Holy Trinity Skipton recently secured funding from the Church of England to become a pioneering ‘demonstrator project’. Holy Trinity plans to decarbonise by replacing its failed heating system with new heat pipes, heat pumps and an electric boiler. “This award gives us the opportunity to take a leading role, as Christians, in securing the gift of God's creation for future generations,” Revd Doug Rice-Bowen, Rector of Holy Trinity Skipton. Read more about the project here.

As well as churches and schools, the Diocese of Leeds is committed to investing in decarbonising its portfolio of clergy properties. Recently the pilot net zero vicarage at Harlow Oval received national recognition with a story on the Church of England’s website. Read more about the vicarage here.

General Synod recently backed a motion encouraging churches and cathedrals to explore ways of arranging flowers that are both beautiful and environmentally responsible as part of the Sustainable Church Flowers movement. This includes making sure that all materials used are compostable and biodegradable; that churches use seasonal flowers and foliage available in their natural season and, as far as possible, that are grown in the UK not flown; and that we eliminate the use of all types of floral-foam, a microplastic held together by a mixture of chemicals known to cause environmental and biological damage, and other single-use plastics. More here.

Rosalind visited Ripon Cathedral last week to hear Jo Chamberlain give an encouraging talk on ‘Why Do Christians Care About Creation’? The talk highlighted the urgency of addressing climate change in a just and merciful way, and encouraged attendees to ‘Tell, Teach, Tend, Transform, Treasure’ when engaging with intertwined issues of climate change and environmental degradation in a Christian context. It was also lovely to see some Environment Champions and Parish Environment Officers in the audience. Whilst in that neck of the woods, Rosalind visited St Mary’s in Nun Monkton – on the eastern edge of the diocese – which is the church in which she grew up, and which features a marvellous stained glass window with beautiful scenes of creation, by Edward Burne-Jones.  

Read about A Rocha’s tree planting efforts across the UK – and their usage of the visionary ‘Miyawaki’ tree planting technique.

Advocating for climate mitigation, adaptation and justice can feel isolating and tiring. But research suggests that “between 80 and 89% of the world’s people want their governments to be doing more to address climate change” – which is surely cause for hope! Read more about the 89 Percent Project here.

Send us your sustainability success stories for the next edition of God’s Green Fingers. The deadline is Friday, May 8.  

Switching On Community Energy - Tuesday, March 24

6.30pm at West Park United Reform Church, Harrogate. Join Zero Carbon Harrogate to talk about how we can spark up local energy projects to make our community shine brighter! Tickets are free and can be reserved here.

Creation Care as the Fifth Mark Of Mission - Wednesday, April 1

7pm, online. Green Christian workshop looking at how to ‘Strive to safeguard the integrity of creation, and sustain and renew the life of the earth’. Details here. Green Christian is working on creating a climate resilience toolkit for churches and is seeking input from the worshipping community. If you would like to contribute to this project, fill out the Google Form here.

Ground Nest Fest - Saturday, April 18

2pm - 4pm. Friends Meeting House, Settle. Celebrating ground nesting birds and their upland habitats. Details here.

Extreme Weather - How do we Build Communities' Readiness? - Monday, April 27

5pm - 7.30pm, Nexus University of Leeds. Climate Action Leeds event bringing together local residents, community groups, practitioners, students, and academic colleagues to discuss practical tools designed to help’, and church communities are encouraged to attend. Details here.

RSPB Fairburn Ings - Various

Spring has sprung, and Fairburn Ings are holding lots of events to welcome the return of species we haven’t seen for a few months, including free family-drop ins. Details here.

Village Green Project - Various

Running community-led climate events in North Yorkshire from Spring 2026. Details here.

Thank you to those churches who have registered for Eco Church since the last issue of God’s Green Fingers. You can find out more about the Eco Church scheme here or by speaking with our Eco Mission Enablers. Any churches wanting to apply for Quick Wins funding later this year will need to have registered as an Eco Church.

‘Extinct moss is being reintroduced across Yorkshire's moors in the fight against climate change’.

Loving God, Our Creator  

In this Season, as we follow Christ in the way of the cross,  

we hear and hold creation as it groans for all our redemption.  

Remind us we are each beloved and vital  

For all whom this planet is home. 

May the breath of your Spirit inspire us 

And help us grow together, rooted in love, 

for the sake of all you have made.  

And during Lent as days lengthen, roots deepen and buds awaken,  

May we go out in joy, renewed in hope, joining in praise with all creation to your Glory and the growth of your Kingdom.  

Amen. 

Bishop Anna Eltringham  

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