The second of three “listening workshops” was held in Great Yarmouth Minster earlier this week with the aim of sharing the triumphs and challenges of improving the biodiversity of our churchyards. Fittingly this session fell during the first week of the Season of Creation.
Norfolk is renowned for its stunning churches, and almost all 650 of them feature a churchyard—often the last remaining undisturbed grassland in the parish, making these spaces vital havens for wildlife. Norfolk Wildlife Trust and the Diocese of Norwich have partnered for over 40 years to run the Churchyard Conservation scheme, providing expert advice to communities who manage their churchyards with wildlife in mind.
The event this week continued a conversation (begun in March, hosted by Reepham Parish Church with a final one in King’s Lynn Minster in late October) to better understand the key challenges parishes may face, to enable better support to be offered by both the NWT Conservation Churchyard team and the Diocese.
Over 25 people, from North Walsham to Carlton Colville parishes gathered in the Minster to share their “what three words” to best describe their parish churchyard and then split into discussion groups to look at six different questions (with the roll of a dice!) to chew over. A final plenary session on challenges and hopes rounded off the two-hour workshop. There was a veritable buzz around the tables as folk shared their successes to celebrate and difficulties, seeking possible solutions.
Main points fell under:
Managing expectations – people in the local community wanting a “neat and tidy” churchyard. Education and good communication were the main responses to this – explaining why, what the plan is and having good signage up/articles in parish magazine/ posts on Facebook page/website
Needing more volunteers/funding – working with other local conservation groups. Inviting local community involvement (e.g. “rake and bakes” – offering cakes/ploughman’s lunch!), local uniformed groups, Community Payback scheme, seeking grants and sharing resources
Developing a land management plan & maintaining it – getting a survey done or updated by Norfolk/Suffolk Wildlife Trust, use the advice in Caring for God’s Acre activity pack, audit what you have by running an annual citizen science event such as Churches Count on Nature, share your progress and the WHY/witness of caring for creation in every media you can!
The final workshop on 21 October at King’s Lynn Minster is open to all and can be booked HERE