Hadleigh Temple Planting for the planet

Fast Facts

DIVISION: East of England

CORPS OFFICERS: Majors Marian and Steve Fripp

FIND US ONLINE: facebook.com/hadleightemple

ECO CHURCH? IT’S HOW WE WORK!

Our bandleader, Marion Still, started us on our Eco Church (ecochurch.arocha. org.uk) journey. She registered us and got us thinking about environmental matters. We are working towards bronze award status and it’s become part of the way we think, work and shop. We conscientiously recycle our glass, paper, cardboard and plastics via the council’s doorstep collection. We’re careful to buy suitably resourced tea, coffee and sugar. We try to use recycled and recyclable materials in our parent-and-toddler group, Messy Church and YP worship crafts. Our corps charity shop is a good way of re-using items and interacting with the community too.

In our building we have replaced most of our lighting with LED units and installed new, efficient boilers. Several corps members, and us as the corps officers, drive electric or hybrid cars to

New Beginnings Rooted In Remembrance

Steve and I have been the corps officers here for five years and some of that time was during the Covid-19 pandemic. During the lockdowns, we kept in touch with our corps by sending occasional small gift bags, including one containing sunflower seeds that encouraged people to see whose grew the most.

People were deeply affected by the restrictions on attendance at funerals, so we held a memorial service and planted a tree of remembrance in the corps grounds. We had two further trees planted to celebrate Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee and our Beavers and Cubs have also planted many new trees on Hadleigh Farm Estate.

Linking With Hadleigh Farm

Every year our corps is given a huge outdoor Christmas tree by a local firm. Last year, we disposed of it in ecofriendly ways. The trunk was recycled for use by Captain Wendy Watkins (Hadleigh Farm) and the leafy branches went to the goats in the farm’s rare breeds centre to eat.

Several corps members are employees of Hadleigh Farm Estate and, as a mission team with the estate, we have regular focus meetings to plan, reflect and pray together because we are keen to show the Army serving the local community. During the summer we helped with holiday activities for children and invited Cadet Hannah Stannard, who was on placement at Southend Southchurch.

These overlaps continually provide opportunities to invite people to worship and activities held by each expression.

Planting Future Plans

A group of corps members are developing our grounds to support wildlife, including creating pollinatorfriendly flowerbeds, a bug hotel and nesting boxes and food for birds. We also plan to take part in No Mow May to help provide a friendly habitat for small creatures. In our corps newsletter, there are regular ‘bee bites’ – hints and tips on small changes we can all make to live more sustainably so that everyone can join in.

Building Community Relationships

We are blessed to receive great support from Morrisons community champions in Hadleigh and Canvey Island. We advertise on their community notice boards and support their community projects. They collect fantastic donations for our food bank every week.

It really is an exciting journey in mission, as it involves making many new friends in our community – people of all ages who are making the weekly activities part of their routine and those who enquire with interest about getting involved when they read or hear about us.

Young families especially appreciate having somewhere to help cultivate their children’s attention in environmental interests and we have the privilege and pleasure of pointing them to our loving Creator, who is at the centre of it all.

INTERESTED IN BECOMING AN ECO CHURCH?

Caring for creation is one of the territory’s five mission priorities. Find out more by emailing environment@salvationarmy.org. uk or visiting salvationist.org. uk/environmentaloffice