Track 1: Hope and Nature

VDD: Exploring the World of Bees

July 8, 2020 by Rima

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Exploring the World of Bees

22nd July at 18:30-19:30 – Virtual Q&A Dinner Discussion

Source: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/740982944918213056/

In the ancient times, Exodus 3:8, NIV: God promised the Jews a land flowing with milk and honey. In Matthew 3:4, NIV John the Baptist was nourished with wild honey. Honey is a special food, in fact it is a super food!

Today we hear of bees dying and that our plants are at risks. So what is so special about the bees? What is the difference between bees and wasps? Will they sting me?

Come see bees at the Forestry Estate Community Hub

Richard Emmett is a local resident bee keeper with hives at a pub called The Beehive and at his local church The Journey. Join him for a discussion on bees and ask him any questions you may have to help you demystify the fact about bees. See here as The Journey Church follows his adventures with the bees.

To connect with us:

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

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

Email: StJohnsEghamEcoChurch@gmail.com

VDD: Nature in the Local Hood

July 6, 2020 by Rima

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Nature in the Local Hood

20th July 6-7pm: Free Virtual Discussion – Ticketed Event

With wildlife and species declining globally, EarthWatch, an international environmental charity has created a platform called Naturehood to encourage the world to bring nature back into their local communities and gardens. This platform is an excellent resource for individuals, communities and families who are interested in nature and want to encourage rewilding to improve the life of our wildlife. Ben Williams who is the Programme Director for Naturehood will showcase the platform and answer any questions you might have in a live virtual discussion on Nature in our Local Hood.

Come join us in this live virtual dinner discussion and bring a picnic.

If you want to leave a question for this discussion please submit a question via our question form. Click here to access

To connect with us:

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

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

Email: StJohnsEghamEcoChurch@gmail.com

To return to the main schedule – click here
For an overview of the events – click here

Clean Up Egham

July 2, 2020 by Rima

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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

Form your “group”, and choose a time during the week for your Litter Pick.
Email ERA to register your interest on residentsegham@gmail.com
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/
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
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.
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.
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:

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

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

Email: StJohnsEghamEcoChurch@gmail.com

To return to the main schedule – click here
For an overview of the events – click here

VDD: Green Discussions to Build Back Better?

June 29, 2020 by Rima

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Green Discussions:
How Can We Build Back Better?

31st July 2020 at 6-7pm – Free Ticketed Virtual Discussion + Q&A

In Genesis God gave humans a responsibility: to look after the Earth on God’s behalf, to enjoy it and rule it in the way that God would.
Psalm 24:1: “The Earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it, the world, and those who live in it”

The covid19 lockdown has provided us a glimpse of the benefits of how an improved natural environment affects our own wellbeing. Globally, many comments have been made on social media from societies in lockdown about how much better the environment has been – from the reduction in litter to the birds singing and the clear skies. Below is an example of one of the many posts and comments where our community in Runnymede Borough have recognised our newfound harmonising with nature.

Posted in May on the Neighbourhoods platform

With the improvement in our natural environment, University College London found there was an initial overall improvement in our society’s mental wellbeing. (Ref: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2020/apr/stress-over-covid-19-keeping-fewer-people-night ). How can we ensure this continues to be our new normal as we continue with the shadow of the pandemic plus the economic downturn? (Ref: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/disability-53092833).

In this final session, our agenda is to discuss and find potential solutions for how our economic and environmental sustainability can evolve together without losing our newfound awareness of our natural world. Come join us to discuss:

How can we retain the positives of an improved environment alongside rising demands to return to our disposable society?
How do we enable people to travel via low carbon means when many are concerned about the safety of using public transport?
How can our towns better support our communities in the new ways that we shop, work and interact?
How can businesses evolve so that general waste is reduced and businesses are made to be responsible for own their own single-use / disposable packaging?
(Read up on the current packaging responsibilities: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/packaging-producer-responsibilities)

Runnymede Borough, like some other boroughs in the UK, is upgrading their tired looking towns and cities, and have an opportunity to recreate how our societies interact with each other and how we interact with our natural environment.

Come join our discussion with Runnymede Borough Councillors and an EarthWatch specialist in Climate-Proofing towns and cities to gain ideas and create a collaboration amongst all stakeholders to improve the way we integrate with our environment. We hope to nurture collaboration between all stakeholders in Runnymede Borough and beyond and hope sustainability champions will come forward across different sectors to continue to inspire, encourage and lead to make our borough(s) greener and cleaner.

We are pleased to have attending this event the following RBC councillors:

Cllr Don Whyte
Cllr Isabel Mullens
Cllr Mark Adams
Cllr Michael Brieley
Cllr Robert King
Cllr Sylvia Whyte

And Louise from EarthWatch who’s specialty is in climate-proof cities and nature-based solutions. This is a free virtual ticketed event with a limited number of places available. Please register below if you would like to attend.

If you want to leave a question for this discussion, please submit your question via our question form. Click here to access

To connect with us:

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

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

Email: StJohnsEghamEcoChurch@gmail.com

To return to the main schedule – click here
For an overview of the events – click here

Nature Adventure Activities

June 29, 2020 by Rima

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

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. To register click here.

To connect with us:

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

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

Email: StJohnsEghamEcoChurch@gmail.com

Trail of Hope and Visions

June 25, 2020 by Rima

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For an overview of the events – click here

Trail of Hope and Visions

Activity Throughout July

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

Enter from Church Road to find the front of the church

To connect with us:

@StJohnsEcoChurch https://www.facebook.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 😀

Track 1: Hope and Nature

Exploring the World of Bees

Nature in the Local Hood

Clean Up Egham

Green Discussions:How Can We Build Back Better?

Nature Discovery At St John’s

Naturehood with EarthWatch

Trail of Hope and Visions

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St. John’s Egham

Green Discussions:
How Can We Build Back Better?