At St Stephen’s Church we take seriously our God-given responsibility to care for his creation. We have been appointed stewards of the earth and all its creatures, and as individuals and as a church we seek to fulfil this role. Below you can find information about our work in this area.

Latest news! See some highlights of the work we’ve been doing by clicking this button:

A Prayer for God’s Creation, by Glenda

Father God, Saviour of the world, the world that you made for us in your glory: we ask Father that in your mercy you will look upon the suffering of the animals everywhere, here on earth, in the skies, and in the seas. We thank you Lord that there are kind people, stewards of the earth and all its beauty. They give their time and sometimes their lives in saving your beautiful creatures. Humankind can be cruel, selfish and thoughtless and your world suffers because of this. Teach us to protect your beautiful world. Make us courageous custodians who will do all we can to protect the blessings you have bestowed upon us. We pray for Animals Asia and their great work in saving the moon bears and other animals, and for all those in our country who care for animals and birds, saving, rehabilitating and educating for the future.

Amen

For more information about Animals Asia, please click here.

Monthly Blog Post

 ‘The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it’ (Psalm 24:1)

For this article I wanted to let you know about a couple of surveys carried out on behalf of the church.

“If we are familiar with the plants and animals in our garden and churchyards, we can take better action to help them. Surveying provides us with valuable information about the plants and animals in our area; it is also of enormous help to national conservationists. ‘Citizen science’ (the public participating in scientific research, usually by collecting data) reveals the bigger picture and informs decision-making on a larger scale. Lots of people’s individual contributions can add up to make a big impact. Churchyards and burial grounds can be a haven for rare species, as they are often ancient sites which have had continuous care, and few chemical additives such as fertilizers and herbicides. It’s a great message for us as Christians that land set aside for burial ground provides life to threatened and marginalised species: https://www.caringforgodsacre.org/resources/biodiversity/ “ (extract from Eco-Church – an A Rocha UK Project – Wildlife and Wildflower Surveys document.

Prior to the survey members of a local community group visited the site to ascertain the best area in which to carry out the survey.   The area was selected because it is left and not mown or treated in anyway and is a good example of rewilded land, albeit on a small area of the larger site. Notes were made of the types of wildlife and wildflowers in this area.  The date of the survey was Monday July 7th 2025, the time period was 1pm – 2pm and the weather conditions were sunny and calm.

Insects, butterflies and bees: Common beetle, Red Admiral, Large White x 3, Buff tailed bumble bee x 4, White tailed bumble bee  x 2, Tortoiseshell butterfly x 3, Solitary bee, Solitary wasp, Small white butterfly x 2, Common garden snail, Honey bee

Birds:  House sparrow x 2, Common tern x 2, Wood pigeon, Herring gull x 4, Swallow x 3, Kittiwake, Magpie, Blackbird,

Flowers: Pink mallow, Ragwort, Common yarrow, Field thistle,  Greater bindweed, Buddlia

We will use this data to inform our Eco-Church work and will carry out a similar survey next year.   We would like to thank David and Laura Gilmore from North East Animal Right’s community group who kindly gave up their time to carry out this survey.