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The Five Marks of Mission
The five marks of mission were developed by the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) and have been widely adopted as an understanding of what contemporary mission is about. The marks were adopted by the General Synod of the Church of England in 1996 and many dioceses and other denominations use them as the basis of action plans and creative mission ideas. In 2012, the ACC added wording to the fourth mark, to include the need for Christians to challenge violence and work for peace. The five marks are: To proclaim the Good News of the Kingdom To teach, baptise and nurture new believers To respond to human need by loving service To seek to transform unjust structures of society, to challenge violence of every kind and to pursue peace and reconciliation To strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of the earth. It is with the fifth mark of mission that Eco Church is engaged:
To strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of the earth. We believe that as a church community it is essential that we play a full and clear part in this and in countering climate change. Eco Church
Eco Church is a project of A Rocha UK - a charity committed to mobilising Christians to care for nature. The Church of England fully subscribes to the project and our Diocese of Bristol is a registered Eco Diocese. The Diocese is committed to addressing the environmental challenges that our community faces and in November 2019 declared a climate emergency. As part of this, it working towards achieving a net zero carbon position by 2030. The Parish of Colerne has committed to the Eco Church project and seeks to express our care for God’s world:
How can we do more in our personal lifestyles? Changing our personal lifestyles is essential if we’re to worship God with heart, soul, mind and strength – and love our neighbours as ourselves. ‘We all need to make a complete, radical and honest audit of our lifestyles, their impact on the poor and on the planet,’ said A Rocha UK co-founder Dave Bookless, ‘and to ask God to pinpoint where we should start making changes.’ Where do we start? It’s not always easy to know where to start, or how to get buy-in from other members of the family! A personal lifestyle audit helps you identify where you are doing well and where you could improve. There are many available measuring slightly different things. Focus on your personal decisions at home rather than corporate decisions of the church body, by using the Creation Care website. The seven categories of questions are in the same areas as the Eco Church survey so the resources we have provided will help you at home as well as at church:
St John the Baptist is registered with Creation Care. Households may take the survey alone or they may link their results to our church, so that we may see the collective impact of individual choices. Please do participate at: https://creationcare.org. uk/ 
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Useful Environmental and Eco Church Links
Church of England Eco Church web page Diocese of Bristol Environment, Climate Justice and Reaching Net Zero Diocese of Bristol Eco Diocese web page Diocese of Bristol Eco Church web page A Rocha Website Eco Church Resources Wild Colerne The children from SHINE have made their very own
bug hotel in the churchyard! 
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