Our theme at Dorking URC since Easter has been Caring for Creation. So, what has been going on? Here is a snapshot:
War has to be just about as far away from caring for creation as you can get and our Sow to Grow garden group took the opportunity presented by the VE Day 80th celebrations to start creating a Dove of Peace in the church garden, inviting people decorate stones with places or situations they would like peace to come to and add them to the Dove. Over 250 people of all ages have done so to date.
Sow to Grow have also conducted a birdwatch and added extra bird feeders, set up compost bins, created a Caring for Creation display bed inviting other church groups to grow sunflowers for it, and refurbished a ‘Remembrance Bed’, filling it with pollinator friendly plants.
TAG helped make trellises for The Meeting Place, our new summerhouse and space for prayer and reflection in the church garden. They will help support scented and sensory plants as part of a wildlife friendly planting scheme around the summerhouse aimed at ‘cocooning it in nature’.
Our lovely Brownies Raised £154 for the Wildlife Trust by having a bring and buy sale. It was partly match funded, so the final total was £286. Great job Brownies.
They also had a talk from a representative from the Wildlife Trust about caring for Nature, re-potted some ‘baby’ Aloe Vera plants and took them home to look after, planted and cared for flowers outside the Follett Hall, and grew sun flowers for the church garden. They also visited Faurefold a few times, went on nature walks, made crafts from leaves, and learnt about bugs.
A cherry tree the Brownies had planted 50 years ago to celebrate their 50th anniversary had sadly died – so they bought another one to celebrate their 100th birthday and replace it in the new Remembrance Garden. They loved seeing bugs and baby stag beetles living in the old one when it was chopped down. The branches from it have been stacked into a woodpile close to the new tree, where it will provide a habitat for all sorts of creatures as it slowly rots down and nourishes the new one. The trunk from the old tree is being made into tealight holders which the Brownies are decorating and selling for Christian Aid.
Some of our Sunday services latched on to the theme too. We dressed a tree with ‘post it note pledges’ of things we would try to do to take better care of creation, and Siobhan our minister got us burying our worries written on rice paper in the new woodpile to compost down and feed the garden around it.
And our toddler group Smallfry have added loads to the Caring for Creation display in the main hall
Youth Group and Young Church have embraced the theme creatively too, and the young carers at Mytime Plus created some fantastic recycled denim artwork and are planning a recycled fashion show soon.
Our Rainbows made peace doves and made ‘kind and helpful’ houses. They potted flowers to give to Mum for mothers’ day and grew sunflowers from seed for the church garden. They visited the Faurefold campsite and explored nature making some lovely mud pies!
Les Mitchell prepared a fantastic Butterfly Survey for people to take from The Meeting Place and complete, and our Charity Coffee Mornings during the school holidays raised lots of money for creation caring charities including the Ikumbya School, MNDA, Dorking Hospital, Age UK, Campaign Against Living Miserably, and Christian Aid
Of course, caring for creation is something we try to do all the time at DURC. We are proud to have won our Bronze Ecochurch award and are working towards silver. Sow to Grow are applying for a grant that will hopefully help us create a wildlife pond and water feature in the area around the Meeting Place that will help us move towards that. We try hard to care for the wonderful creation that God has blessed us with and we hope this theme has helped us try a bit harder and learn a little bit more.
(Article by Chris Currie, Church Community Worker at Dorking URC).
