St John's Church Egham

Experience Hope

Physical Activity

Clean Up Egham

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Clean Up Egham

Sat 25th to Friday 31st July 2020

Genesis 2:15
15 The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it

As part of the St John’s Eco-Festival, we are excited that Egham Residents’ Association (ERA) is co-ordinating a Litter Pick Week and is inviting you, as  households, families or groups of neighbours to get together to Litter Pick on your  road – or part of your  road.

How to Start

  1. Form your “group”, and choose a time during the week for your Litter Pick.
  2. Email ERA to register your interest on residentsegham@gmail.com
  3. ERA will draw up a timetable of litter picking, and post  it on their Facebook Page: “Egham Residents’ Association (ERA)” https://www.facebook.com/EghamRA/
  4. ERA will arrange for litter pickers and heavy duty gloves to be delivered to you in time for your litter pick. All Litter Pick Groups are encouraged to advertise that they are joining in by creating a poster and putting it in their window(s) – like the COVID19 Rainbows
  5. Email a picture of your poster to ERA residentsegham@gmail.com and to St John’s Eco-Church* stjohnseghamecochurch@gmail.com and your poster will be published on both our Facebook pages as well as on St John’s Instagram.
  6. On the day of the Litter Pick if possible please take Before and After photos. ERA will put these in an Album to celebrate your achievement – and encourage others to join in.
  7. It doesn’t matter how big or small your Litter Pick patch is. Every piece of litter picked up is one less to pollute and endanger the environment.

*St John’s is running a small competition: see St John’s Poster Competition

After this Litter Pick week, ERA will be organising an Egham-wide litter pick as part of the Great British September Clean 2020 on World Clean Up Day, on 19th September. 

Hope that individual, families and groups will enjoy taking part and please do check the government guidelines for groups outside your household that can gather as this is changing depending on outbreaks. Do also remember to maintain social distancing.

To connect with us:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/StJohnsEghamEcoChurch

@StJohnsEcoChurch https://www.facebook.com/StJohnsEcoChurch

https://www.instagram.com/stjohnsecochurch/

@StJohnsEcoChurch https://www.instagram.com/stjohnsecochurch/

Email: StJohnsEghamEcoChurch@gmail.com

To return to the main schedule – click here

Eco-Brick Collection

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Be Part of the Eco-Brick Making Team

Throughout 2020

St John’s would like to create more seating areas, a well being garden with raised beds and potentially a shed.

As part of our commitment to reducing general waste, we would like to create these items with eco-bricks. An Eco-brick is a bottle stuffed completely with plastic so that the bottle is turgid and cannot be deformed. This locks away the plastic until a time when our technology is good enough for it to be recovered back as a resource. Currently our waste plastic will be incinerated.

Stuff the bottom with a single colour and ensure bottle is completely packed with plastic rubbish

Some of the ideas we have seen on the web to recreate within the church grounds:

To Make an Eco-Brick

If you would like to help us, then please read this resource here: https://www.ecobricks.org/how/

Alternatively you can watch this video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQYsXxHKgMk&feature=emb_logo

We will work with all sizes and all eco-bricks can be left for us at St John’s with the hope messages. One of our eco-team members will pick up your eco-bricks. Do notify us as well in our Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/StJohnsEghamEcoChurch/ and/or via email StJohnsEghamEcoChurch@gmail.com

Image may contain: outdoor

To connect with us:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/StJohnsEghamEcoChurch

@StJohnsEcoChurch https://www.facebook.com/StJohnsEcoChurch

https://www.instagram.com/stjohnsecochurch/

@StJohnsEcoChurch https://www.instagram.com/stjohnsecochurch/

Email: StJohnsEghamEcoChurch@gmail.com

To return to the main schedule – click here

Poster Competition: Litter Litter, Why So Much Litter?

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Poster Competition:
Litter Litter, Why So Much Litter?

Competition throughout July

Genesis 2:15
15 The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it

We need your help to raise the awareness of litter in our environment by drawing a picture of the litter you see and its effect on our planet.

During our restrictive lockdown, many noted how little litter was around in our environment. With the relaxation of our lockdown, parts of our societies resumed “Normal” enjoying the good weather and participating in picnics + the re-opening of take-aways with the associated disposables often left behind.

Local councillors and others have been hard at work taking part in adhoc clean ups and using social media to encourage the public to take home their litter.

Cigarette butts, though small, are the most toxic litter. It only needs a few in a pond to kill our aquatic life, or a slightly larger amount stubbed out in a plant to kill the plant. Larger pieces of rubbish becomes junk food to marine life, birds and even cows and sheep. (There are diary farms in the area. For an extra point tell us where one is when you submit your entry) With plastic bits in their bellies, animal die from hunger or become infertile. Degrading plastic attracts toxins as well as releasing toxins. See Plastic Rivers by EarthWatch to find out the top 10 plastic pollutants in our rivers: https://earthwatch.org.uk/get-involved/plastic-rivers

Finally plastic disintegrates into micro-plastic and nano-plastic which we are now breathing, drinking and eating. Can you design a poster to encourage our society, people/everyone to become more responsible for their litter, to take it home with them to be reused or recycled; or to encourage businesses to reduce their packaging. There are three categories:

  • 21 and over
  • 13-20
  • Below 13

This competition will end on the 6th September 2020. Your poster will be displayed on Instagram & Facebook. We will choose our potential winners by using “Likes” as a measure. Winners will be notified 2 weeks later.

Send your posters to: stjohnseghamecochurch@gmail.com and include:

  • Your name
  • Age range (see above)
  • What inspired you to draw the images in your poster?
  • What do you like about a litter free environment?
  • Of the 10 types of litter identified in the EarthWatch article, which litter do you hate the most?

To connect with us:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/StJohnsEghamEcoChurch

@StJohnsEcoChurch https://www.facebook.com/StJohnsEcoChurch

https://www.instagram.com/stjohnsecochurch/

@StJohnsEcoChurch https://www.instagram.com/stjohnsecochurch/

Email: StJohnsEghamEcoChurch@gmail.com

Nature Adventure Activities

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Explore Nature at St Johns and with Naturehood throughout the Year

Nature Discovery at St John’s

Naturehood with EarthWatch

“A nation that destroys its soils destroys itself. Forests are the lungs of our land, purifying the air and giving fresh strength to our people.”
—Franklin D. Roosevelt
 
Psalm 24:1: “The Earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it, the world, and those who live in it”

The natural world that our God created is a magical world with animals and plants that can do amazing feats. Who better to tell you about this than David Attenborough:

The UK’s biodiversity is in decline and we have an opportunity to change that in St John’s Church grounds, our gardens and in the wider community. We have nature activities that families and children can be part of to regenerate and heal our biodiversity: one is an ongoing project at St John’s which is an on going project as we rewild sections of the grounds. The other is at your home and when you are outside. See below.

Nature Discovery At St John’s

Learn and discover the biodiversity (flora, fauna and wildlife) within the St John’s church grounds (or your local church grounds) by using an App like PictureThis and Picture Insect to identify the plants and potential insects. Once you have discovered a plant and /or insect, then log the information at Caring For God’s Acres: https://www.caringforgodsacre.org.uk/our-beautiful-burial-grounds-project/share-your-records/

You will need to provide:

  • What you saw
  • Where you saw it
  • Date you saw it

Share your St John’s nature adventures in our Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/StJohnsEghamEcoChurch/ and tag us on instagram @StJohnsEcoChurch #StJohnsEghamNature

Church grounds outlined in red

Naturehood with EarthWatch

Naturehood is an initiative organised by EarthWatch for 16+ with tips and tricks and projects that can be undertaken at home or in the community (loads of excellent information for teachers). To find the actions you can take and to join a platform to be inspired and share with people who care, join Naturehood: https://naturehood.uk/ For more information, we will have a live Q&A session with EarthWatch on the 20th July. Join us for a dinner discussion at 6pm. See our listing on the main schedule for more details.

To connect with us:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/StJohnsEghamEcoChurch

@StJohnsEcoChurch https://www.facebook.com/StJohnsEcoChurch

https://www.instagram.com/stjohnsecochurch/

@StJohnsEcoChurch https://www.instagram.com/stjohnsecochurch/

Email: StJohnsEghamEcoChurch@gmail.com

Trail of Hope and Visions

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Trail of Hope and Visions

Activity Throughout July

2020 the year for visions

Covid19 and the global lockdown has required rapid lifestyle changes for many around the world and with that has come a feeling of displacement. To help people reflect positively, we would like our community to generate 5,000 messages / drawings on scrap pieces of wood to collectively demonstrate our personal and community hopes, visions and dreams to build our world back better. With your messages we will create a trail of hope and visions within St John’s Church grounds in Egham to help local people and visitors to our community to reflect, inspire, encourage and to provide a vision for 2020.

If you live in or pass by Egham, please contribute a message/ drawing on a scrap piece of wood with your hopes and visions for:

  • Our Planet and Natural World
  • Our Community
  • Each Other
  • by Simon
  • By Vera

For more examples, see our instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stjohnsecochurch/

Materials Required:

  • Scrap piece of wood: could be on pieces of log slices, plank, etc. We would prefer that you used scraps that you or neighbours might otherwise have thrown away to minimise waste.
  • Scrap house paint or permanent marker as the messages will be outside

Collection Period: Entries will be collected daily up to 1st August 2020. After that we will be organise the messages in the grounds of St Johns. We will announce when we have completed the trail of hope and visions within our Facebook group and Instagram account (see at the end of this post)

Leave your message at St Johns, Egham near the front of the church doors. A sign has been left to indicate where you can leave your piece of wood

Image may contain: outdoor
Enter from Church Road to find the front of the church

To connect with us:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/StJohnsEghamEcoChurch

@StJohnsEcoChurch https://www.facebook.com/StJohnsEcoChurch

https://www.instagram.com/stjohnsecochurch/

@StJohnsEcoChurch https://www.instagram.com/stjohnsecochurch/

Email: StJohnsEghamEcoChurch@gmail.com

If you have a Facebook / Instagram account, connect to us @StJohnsEcoChurch, as well as add the following tags onto your post #StJohnsEcoChurch #HopeMessages #VisionMessages #StJohnsEgham #TrailOfHope

Wishing you many visions for 2020 😀