Stone Church, St Mary the Virgin
13th Century parish church of Stone-next-Dartford, Kent
A place of welcome, prayer, healing and peace.
Eco Church is an A Rocha UK project, run in partnership with Christian Aid, The Church of England, The Methodist Church, Tearfund, The United Reformed Church and Allchurches Trust Limited.
A Rocha UK is a charity committed to mobilising Christians to care for nature.
Here at St Mary's a small group from the congregation continues to work on the A Rocha eco church project. It completed the initial questionnaire to get an understanding of where we are now in terms of our current eco status, and is continuing to address those areas where more work needs to be done.
We will share news of our progress and hope that our work will encourage others to work with us both within the church family and across our local and wider community.
Click the logo for more information about A Rocha UK
St Mary's is delighted to have achieved a Silver Eco church award.
The award and commemorative plaque were presented during our morning Eucharist on 30th October 2022 by the Mayor of Dartford, Cllr Paul Cutler, and can be seen on display in the church porch.
We were delighted to have achieved our Bronze award. A plaque was presented to us by the Bishop on Tuesday 15th February 2022.
At St Mary's this month .....
Our focus during Christmas 2024 and into the early part of 2025 ....
A Christmas tree festival in church gave us the idea of including an 'ecotree' as our contribution in 2024. It was constructed using our existing, very large tenebrae hearse (a huge metal candle holder standing over 2 metres tall). We used biodegradable hemp string, ivy and evergreen foliage from our gardens and the churchyard, added paper stars, dried oranges, pine cones and homemade felt decorations. A globe was suspended in the centre (made from a repurposed old plastic ball) with the message on the backboard 'the whole world is in God's hands, but we can look after the part that is in ours'.
January 2025 - our focus is on living a more eco friendly life by each of us making a small change, for example encouraging buying locally grown, seasonal vegetables or by having a regular meat free day. Simple meat free recipes have been provided for people to take away.
We continue to encourage all to check their carbon footprint and anyone can do this through either of these links:
https://carbon-calculator.climatehero.me
Caring for creation
Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.
Did you know ...
You can reduce junk mail by contacting The Mailing Preference Service on 0845 7034 599 or you can visit their website https://www.mpsonline.org.uk
Reduce throw away packaging by buying one big packet rather than lots of small packets.
There is a website called Upcycle That. They provide innovative ideas on how to upcycle items.
Street Bank is a website that connects local people and helps them give things away and share things with local people.
Ecochurch
Planting for pollinators
Our old churchyard, like so many others, has many graves which have not been tended or visited by any family members for many decades.
An 'adopt a grave' scheme is being trialled by a few members of the congregation who have each selected a very old and neglected grave and cleared out old grass and weed roots. Planting of the chosen sites with wildlife friendly plants and spring bulbs has been taking taking place throughout the year and the scheme is already encouraging others to take part.