While the national Churches in Wales and Scotland own less land than the Church of England, they play an important role in sharing how church land supports nature and climate action. Last month, our campaign manager Sharon Hall was pleased to deliver a webinar for the Scottish Episcopal Church, building on a similar event with the Church of Scotland in November 2025.
This latest session explores how churches can care for creation while working towards Net Zero Carbon, and is now available to watch online:
Eco Congregation Scotland Annual Gathering – St Matthew’s Church, Perth
Sharon was honoured to be the keynote speaker at the Eco Congregation Scotland Annual Gathering in Perth on Saturday 28 March. The event marked 25 years of Eco Congregation Scotland and involved a range of speakers and workshops as well as images and stories from 25 years along with a celebratory cake.
There’s a full write up of the event on their newly relaunched website here.
Eco Church Wales Celebration – Llandaff Cathedral
Operation Noah was delighted to join the Eco Church Celebration at Llandaff Cathedral in Wales in late February. Our Campaign Manager, Sharon Hall, enjoyed meeting Eco Church volunteers from across South Wales, as well as hearing inspiring speakers and encouraging examples of environmental action in churches.
The Revd Canon Dr Mark Clavier offered rich theology in his talk, ‘Honouring Creation: A Distinctively Christian Vision’. He reflected on how both Jewish and early Christian traditions viewed earth and heaven as essentially good, rather than holding a major divide between the distracting earth and the divine heavens. He also described the huge influence of consumerism on our society and on the Church, and what a challenge this is to environmental action.
Andy Atkins, CEO of A Rocha UK, shared encouraging updates on the growth of the Eco Church movement, While acknowledging the difficult realities of the climate and nature crises, he pointed to the power of local Christians, both in practical change and national campaigning. He highlighted the power of prayer and the potential for breakthrough.
We also heard some very practical case studies of churches making demonstrable progress, often despite significant challenges:
- At St Cadoc’s in Caerleon, a long and complex journey to install net zero heating has resulted in a transformed church building which is warm and welcoming. This has enabled a flourishing programme of community events, drawing new people into the church.
- The Team Curate from the Priory Church of St Mary’s Usk – which recently received a Gold Eco Church Award – shared creative approaches to the Worship and Land sections of Eco Church. Despite small congregations in their area, they are using churchyards and garden spaces for the benefit of nature and local people.
- At Beulah URC, passionate campaigners are engaging with global issues, including Operation Noah’s campaigns as well as the Fossil Fuel Treaty. The URC National Synod of Wales divested from fossil fuels in October 2019, following a resolution brought forward by members of the Beulah congregation. Beulah URC has also recently been awarded the Gold eco church award.
Throughout the day, there were valuable opportunities to share Operation Noah’s resources with an engaged audience, many of whom were learning about Operation Noah’s work for the first time. It was encouraging to welcome new supporters, and explore ways for people to get involved with our campaigns.
The afternoon concluded with small-group discussions, giving attendees space to connect locally, share ideas, and build Eco Church across denominations. There was a clear openness to deeper collaboration, before the day closed with a final reflection and prayer.
