A church in west Dorset is celebrating after being awarded an EcoChurch honour.

St Mary’s Church in Beaminster has achieved a bronze EcoChurch award and is one of a number of churches in the Diocese of Salisbury to be recognised.

Eco Church is an award’s scheme for churches in England and Wales who want to demonstrate that the gospel is good news for God’s earth. The award’s scheme is spearheaded by A Rocha UK, which is an international network of environmental organisations with a Christian ethos.

Gillian Perrott took the lead for the church’s EcoChurch project and said: “I’ve had a long-standing interest in the environment and conservation, being a supporter of A Rocha for many years.

“Last summer our Rector, David, asked me if I would like to take on the task of registering our church in the A Rocha Eco Survey. With a bit of trepidation, I agreed and that’s where our journey began!

“It seemed a little daunting at first and I thought the best way to start was to submit articles for our Team News magazine. So, my monthly contribution began last July. Then the business of working through the survey and gradually bringing some small changes.

“In the autumn I was joined by five others to form an Eco Team. This was excellent as it helped share the load and provided new ideas.

“As to the survey the section on Land was already very high scoring. We have a keen church gardening group who achieved the Living Churchyard Gold Award 2017. The most difficult section was that of the buildings as our church is listed and church office is rented. However, the recently revised survey, which addresses the Listed Buildings issue helped us with that.

“About a month ago, to raise the profile of Eco Church and inform our congregations we set up a board at the back of church. At about the same time I was able to submit our signed application form for the Bronze Award and we are now the proud owners of one!”