The Church of St Michael and All Angels lies in the village of Flax Bourton, on the outskirts of Bristol. From the outside, it looks unremarkable – small, Saxon-built, neatly mown grass bordering the entrance – but behind the scenes, a quiet transformation is taking place.

Four years ago, the small churchyard was closely mown into a uniform lawn — tidy, carefully maintained, but offering little space for wildlife to flourish. Now, it bursts with native wildflowers, French beans, herb planters, crab-apple trees, willow fences and night-scented climbers. A moth survey in 2023 found 35 species; a year later, thanks to the church’s rewilding efforts, that number had doubled.

How did this small village church with around 15 regular worshippers achieve this transformation? And what does it say about the role of the Church in creation care?

Adrienne Hughes was brought up in Flax Bourton, where she attended the village primary school, sang in the church choir, was confirmed, and served at the altar. After leaving for college she pursued a successful teaching career, eventually becoming a headteacher, and only returned to church at Christmas when visiting her mother. Following her mother's death in 2009, Adrienne returned to Flax Bourton and took early retirement to focus on her art. At this point she became actively involved in the church, going on to pioneer its environmental work.

The impetus was, as she laughingly tells it, reading a “rather dry vision document” the church had put together. One highlight that stood out, though, was a mention of the Church of England’s Five Marks of Mission, specifically ‘Treasure - to strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of the earth.’ Adrienne was impressed and slightly surprised to find that the church was interested in nature and the environment. She started planning an art exhibition – something the church had done regularly – but with an environmental theme. 

“Nature is very important to me, and I knew that this was a way that we could get a message out to the wider community,” she explains.

The group’s art exhibition was called ‘Our Creation, Our Future?’. It ran for five days, and featured artwork, poetry, and Bible quotes on an environmental theme.

“It really set out our stall and said that the environment was something we were serious about.”

Adrienne assembled a group of people to continue exploring environmental activities, and soon came across A Rocha UK’s Eco Church programme, in which churches can journey through bronze, silver, and gold awards to improve their environmental sustainability. 

“As a headteacher I was used to working with different award schemes, and knew the importance of identifying quick wins to motivate people – one of the first things we ticked off was putting a recycling bin next to the normal bin in the kitchen. People started to realise that an award was achievable, and got excited about it.”

But the success of the churchyard rewilding scheme wasn’t always a given.

“When I first tried to start a discussion about No Mow May it fell absolutely flat. The churchyard was pristine, completely mowed, very neat and tidy. Some people felt it should stay bare, as a mark of respect. So that was a very difficult first conversation. But gradually we have got to where we are now.”

Next came biodiversity surveys, which the church runs annually on Earth Day, and which has seen dozens of new plant and insect species make the churchyard their home. Adrienne speaks of seeing goldcrests in the churchyard for the first time, and “fantastic” elephant hawk moths. Given that biodiversity in the UK is on a downward trend (see the 2023 State of Nature report), even modest increases in wildflower distribution can provide much-needed habitats for pollinators and animals which feed on them. 

The church's environmental work extends beyond the churchyard. The group has installed swift boxes in the tower, switched from an “ancient” gas boiler to an infrared heating system, and holds regular eco talks. The congregation celebrated achieving its Eco Church Gold award, the highest possible, late last year with a ‘Golden Wassail’. They are now welcoming other churches to come and see the changes they have made.

“It’s an important part of our evangelism,” says Adrienne. “If you believe that you've been given stewardship of God's Earth then you need to play your part in that.”

She sees environmental action as inseparable from wider questions of justice.

“Climate change and the biodiversity crisis are some of the biggest challenges facing our Earth and they impact on so many other things as well. The environment, social justice, and poverty are all tied up together.

“This experience has helped me grow in faith, because it’s made me question a lot of things. The more I study nature, the more amazing it is. It’s so complex, yet there are patterns in nature that are repeated. To me, it points to the possibility of a creator God.” 

St Michael and All Angels is not alone in its efforts to care for God’s creation. There are over 9,400 churches in the UK registered with Eco Church, and over 120 which have achieved their Gold award. 

We live at a point in time when climate denialism is still prevalent, new technologies risk undermining hard-won reductions in energy and water use, and the environment is used as a pawn in political battles. But in ordinary, unassuming churches up and down the country, led by volunteers fuelled by faith in a better world, nature is being given a helping hand – one swift box, one recycling bin, one wild churchyard at a time.