Bethesda achieve GOLD status!

Bethesda, Cheltenham have achieved the Gold Eco-Church award from A Rocha following an onsite inspection at the end of May. Most of the church eco team met with two assessors from Stratford and Worcester who spent time inspecting the building and then questioning the group on their efforts and ongoing plans.

For Bethesda it has been a long process, starting in 2002 with Gold Eco-Congregation in 2011 which in 2018 was discovered to translate to silver in the new Eco-Church survey. Achieving Gold Eco-Church status has proved to be much more of a challenge for individuals as well as the church and an application was finally submitted for gold in April.

Being a listed building in a conservation area with no garden space, the 'Land' category proved a challenge and further evidence was submitted on how they encouraged a love of the birds, the bees, and community gardens.

All the hard work paid off and shortly afterwards, confirmation arrived that Gold Status had been achieved!