Loo paper rolls out eco agenda

Selling loo rolls has helped boost the flow of environmental action at one Hampshire church.

It’s among a stream of activities as part of the Anglican parish of Nursling and Rownhams – sometimes known as ‘Twinspires’ – becomes engaged with Eco Church.

TOWARDS SILVER

Youth and their leaders at St John’s, Rownhams, have been selling toilet paper after church at a fiver per roll. Cash raised enables them to twin the church’s WCs with toilets in Africa and Asia.

‘We reached gold award level straightaway in one section, but didn’t even have a bronze in the community and global engagement part,’ said parish administrator Claire Thompson. ‘We’ve now done enough to apply for bronze – and we’re working towards silver.’

Their eco-journey started about ten years ago when a group from St John’s spent a weekend at Christian retreat centre Lee Abbey. Guest speaker just happened to be A Rocha UK founder Dave Bookless, now A Rocha International’s Director of Theology.

‘We hadn’t been particularly aware of carbon footprints and climate change,’ said Claire. ‘That changed over the weekend. We agreed as a church we needed to work on caring for the environment.’

They passed through all levels of the Winchester Diocesan Environmental Award, then discovered A Rocha UK’s new Eco Church initiative. That helped them continue the work they’d already started.

LITTER PICK

Parishioners rose to the occasion. A group carried out conservation work with Hampshire and Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust at Testwood Lakes. ‘We’ve also started a monthly litter pick in the village,’ said Claire.

Campaigning is on the agenda, too. ‘We set up an email list of people willing to be involved in global and national environmental e-petitions,’ said Claire, ‘and have begun to circulate relevant emails that come along.’ (Pictured – children at St John’s promote their church’s toilet twinning scheme with loo rolls)