Kettering church earns gold eco award status

The eco church scheme praised All Saints Church for its "incredible" William Street Community Garden, which is headed up by Mandy McQueenie (left)

A church has been recognised for its efforts to improve its environmental impact with a special eco award.

All Saints Church on William Street in Kettering, Northamptonshire, has been named an Eco Church after working with groups, including wildlife trusts, to care for its local landscape and engage in clean-up projects.

It is one of only 54 churches in England and Wales to achieve gold status - and the first in the Peterborough Diocese.

The charity behind the award commended "the team’s sense of fun, enthusiasm and can-do attitude".

Eco Church status is an award scheme run by the Christian charity A Rocha UK, encouraging churches to be more environmentally conscious.

All Saints Church was praised for its team's "sense of fun" and positive attitude towards environmental challenges

It said All Saints "came across as an active church embedded in the life of the local community.

"There was also a sense of continuing to strive for improvement and learning how to do more. All Saints are aware of the complexity of making ethical choices."

Helen Stephens, church relations manager, added that All Saints' William Street community garden was a "fantastic example of collaboration to create an incredible space at the heart of the community".

Angela Brett, churchwarden at All Saints Church, said: "The Bishop of Peterborough, Debbie Sellin, gave a quote from St Francis a few weeks ago saying 'start by doing what is necessary, then do what is possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible'.

"This is exactly what we have achieved with the Gold Eco Church award."