Bird Boxes!

As part of our plan to 'green' the church building and the spaces around, we have put up the first of hopefully many bird boxes (kindly made by Chris Erskine!)

The first box has been placed high up on the south wall of the rear courtyard. The entrance hole size is aimed towards sparrows or tits, so time will tell who our first residents will be!

We plan to locate some more around the building, particularly in the area around the car park and Chapel House.

On Saturday 12th April, 10 ladies from NCBC spent the afternoon dirtying their fingers to clean up and green up the church courtyards. Various members from the group and wider congregation donated gardening items, and we set up a 'planting' station in the hall. There were pots and compost a plenty, as well as a selection of seeds, cuttings, and some generously donated plants. Both the larger and smaller courtyards are now full of life and exciting things are growing, including flowers and a small selection of vegetables!

Our hope is that the courtyard will be a space used by all of our church community, those who come on a Sunday and all who use the building during the week. There are already plans to buy water-play equipment so that the Mums and Toddlers group who meet at the church two mornings a week can enjoy that space.

If you have any gardening items spare or ideas of how we can continue to develop the outdoor space then please do share them with a member of the Eco-Congregation team.

IPCC Report - Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability

If any of you visited the BBC news home page today, you would have seen the headline "Climate inaction to be 'catastrophe'" (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-26824943).  The headline is quoting John Kerry, who was responding to a report released by the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change).  While I've yet to even read the short form of the report (http://ipcc-wg2.gov/AR5/images/uploads/IPCC_WG2AR5_SPM_Approved.pdf), a brief skim and the summary provided by the BBC make for sobering reading.  

We can read this and despair, or we can read and take action.  We need to ask what Christians should be doing about this and what part we can play.  It might seem like too big a problem, but we can begin to make steps, and we have a powerful God!

Make do and mend

A blog from The Guardian today gives us step by step instructions on how to make practical repairs on some of the everyday problems we face in our homes. Complete with demo videos, this is a great resource to help us patch up rather than throw away.

http://www.theguardian.com/environment/shortcuts/2014/jan/09/how-to-repair-your-broken-goods-from-an-iphone-to-a-washing-machine

'Tis the season to recycle...

This time of year, as houses get slowly fuller and fuller of 'stuff', there's a need to know where you can dispose of everything leftover.

The Norfolk Country Council have provided several links to help us be more sustainable this Christmas....

http://www.recyclefornorfolk.org.uk/content.asp?pid=243

 #christmas  #recyclingnorfolk

Highlighted Campaign - Sowing Pesticide Reaping Sickness

We've added a new section on our notice board at NCBC which is to highlight a campaign cause which we think is particularly relevant to eco-congregation concerns. 

Our current highlighted campaign is concerned with the use of toxic pesticides in Brazil.  Many of the pesticides which are being used in Brazil are deemed ‘Extremely Hazardous’ by the World Health Organisation and have been banned here in the UK.  A petition has been set up which call on the Brazilian government to ban the use of particular pesticides and for an end to 'crop dusting’, which involves dropping pesticides from a plane.  If you would like to sign the petition, you can do this online by clicking on this link: https://secure.avaaz.org/en/petition/Sowing_Pesticides_Reaping_Sickness_1/.  You can find out more about the background to this issue at SPEAK's website - http://www.speak.org.uk/blog/sowing-pesticides-reaping-sickness

Bird boxes

Keep your eye out in the next few weeks and months for some bird boxes on site at NCBC!

We want to provide more living spaces for birds such as Starlings, blue-tits and other small birds!

The bird boxes will be made by Christopher Erskine.