St Mary’s Church Embsay with Eastby held a Climate Sunday service in the church grounds on Sunday 27 June, attended by members of the local parish council and wider community.  This was the local launch of the ‘Towards Carbon Neutral Churches in Craven’ project.

The project also includes the churches of Burton in Lonsdale, Carleton, Draughton and Holy Trinity Skipton.  The group were awarded a grant from the Rural Communities Energy Fund* in March this year to pay for a Feasibility Study into appropriate systems for renewable energy generation, alongside energy saving measures and recommendations on funding.  They plan to make the findings of the study widely available.

This work is in line with the Church of England’s target to become net carbon zero by 2030.

The Feasibility Study is due to be completed by the end of 2021.  After that, each of the churches in the group will decide whether and how to implement the renewable energy generation systems recommended. 

Those present at the service decorated a hand with a message for the ‘Wave of Hope’ campaign which is being organised by the ‘Crack the Crisis’ Coalition and is linked with the Climate Summit COP26 to be held in Glasgow in November this year.

The Vicar of Embsay with Eastby, Revd Canon Marion Russell said: ‘There were some good conversations arising out of people finding it thought-provoking and challenging, recognising that none of this is easy, and it makes us think about how we need to respond and think about our own actions. The hands of hope helped us to voice our inner desires, some of which folks hadn’t thought much about how they could put it into words, and it was good to realise that God is willing to be involved in these hopes and desires too, because the world is God’s idea!’

The service also included an ‘Act of Commitment’ by those present to live sustainably and to reduce dependence on carbon-based fuels.  More information about the project can be found at an exhibition in the church and on the project webpage:

https://www.stmaryembsay.org.uk/churches-in-craven-carbon-neutral/

Diana Linford, co-ordinator of the project, thanked everyone for coming and for their support for the work of the project. 

The project is supported by the BEIS funded Rural Community Energy Fund which is managed by the North East Yorkshire and Humber Energy Hub and administered by Tees Valley Combined Authority