Pinjarra Uniting Church

Press Release:

Pinjarra Uniting Church wins Environmental Award

Pinjarra Uniting Church was recognised for its environmental efforts on Sunday in a special service.

The church received the Five Leaf Eco-Awards Basic Certificate and Eco Worship Awards for their solar panels, energy efficiency measures, work on recycling, compost, saving paper, holding events, and assisting their congregation to be greener at home, participating in Sustainable September (a month of services around environmental themes) each year and regularly integrating environmental themes into their worship.

Five Leaf Eco-Awards founder Jessica Morthorpe visited Pinjarra Uniting Church to present the awards to the leadership team of the congregation and to congratulate the congregation on their achievements. This presentation makes Pinjarra UC the 10^th church in Western Australia to achieve Five Leaf Eco-Awards and the 28^th in Australia, with many more churches currently working towards completing the criteria.

The Five Leaf Eco-Awards are a national ecumenical environmental change initiative that assists, inspires and rewards churches and religious organisations for environmental action. There are currently six awards of varying difficulty available.

Ms Morthorpe said “Founded in 2008, the Five Leaf Eco-Awards are non- competitive, with churches completing tasks from a list of flexible criteria to earn each certificate. The program is designed to encourage churches to embrace the important role they are called to play within the environmental movement.

“In recent decades Christians have been rediscovering this call in what the Bible, our tradition, and the early saints all have to say about caring for God’s creation, and exploring how to live this out in today’s context of ecological destruction and climate change.

“With the release of Pope Francis’ encyclical on the environment (Laudato Si’), the profile of this movement grew, and suddenly we realised just how much work was already going on in grassroots movements and individual churches everywhere. As well as huge eco-church movements in the UK, the US and Europe, things were happening around Africa, in Latin America, and in every part of the globe. And everywhere churches are finding new life and purpose for their communities by responding to God’s call to care for creation. In Australia too, actions continue to grow as we connect with the depths of our ecological and spiritual heritage” she said.

Ms Morthorpe encourages other churches to apply for the awards, saying “many churches have already done enough to earn Five Leaf Eco-Awards, they just don’t realize it. Even if you have only done a little please fill out the survey on our website and let us know. We can’t give you an award if we don’t know what you’ve done!”

For more information or to sign up your church to pursue an award, please see: https://fiveleafecoawards.org/