Norwich community helps safeguard creation 

Eco Church enthusiast Peter Nicholls, a recent churchwarden at All Saints Church, Hethel, is involved with an innovative co-housing “intentional community” project in Norwich called Angel Yard. Here he explains the thinking behind it.

A number of mainstream Christian traditions embrace the so-called Five Marks of [God’s] Mission, the fifth of which is to “safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of the earth”. As many will know, the Eco Church movement encourages and rewards churches for implementing a long list of possible actions towards this end.

There are, of course, actions and lifestyles for any individual, including followers of Jesus, which support this agenda. Since late 2019, my wife Cathy and I have been involved with a ‘cohousing’ development in Norwich that promises a highly sustainable way of living on the four ‘axes’ of energy, transport, food and stuff. Called Angel Yard (after the old Norwich ‘Yard’ that was on the site), the 34 flats and houses will be highly insulated and cleverly designed to maximise solar gain while guarding against overheating in summer.

The contractor will be expected to meet low targets for embedded energy in the build. The apartment blocks’ roofs are ideal for PV panels, helping towards zero carbon in the cohousing community. Close to Norwich city centre and bus routes, it ticks the “15-minute city” box. There is generous bike storage and parking just for a pool of 5 bookable EVs.

Those living at Angel Yard are unofficially opting to be part of an ‘intentional community’, having their own high-quality house or apartment and front door, but lots of shared space too: a shared garden with an emphasis on biodiversity, shared indoor space (the ‘common house’ with adjacent kitchen), shared laundry, shared workshop and bookable multi-purpose rooms that can be used for overnight guests. This spirit of sharing addresses the ‘minimising stuff’ agenda and is taken further with the idea of a virtual ‘library of things’ – items owned by or within the community that anyone can borrow and use.

The Angel Yard strapline is “Life is Better Shared” and the mission statement is “Together, we’re creating a diverse, sustainable cohousing community in Norwich, to enrich lives and improve wellbeing through cooperation, respect and kindness to people and the planet.” Although a secular development, this is an ethos in prospect which Christians can readily support. When we move in in late 2026, living in a cohousing development will make it easy to live sustainably, be neighbourly and to share facilities and activities. Eating once- or twice-weekly meals together prospers relationships and is also an opportunity to exemplify low-carbon cooking.

If you’d like to know more, have a look at www.angelyard.org.uk.

What might be useful for church communities to consider, whether signed up to Eco Church or not? Ensure that the BREEAM (sustainable building certification) box is ticked for any building work? Promote walking and biking? Bikes to borrow from church, especially in places beyond the reach of Beryl? Occasional repair workshops to keep them on the road? Weekly low-carbon LOAF* meals in the church hall if you have one? A database of artefacts (from paper shredders to ladders to food processors to jet washers) that church members have and are ready to lend? Some way of sharing tips within the fellowship? Think about your land and how it can work for nature? And how can you influence the wider community with what you do?

This is God’s earth, He loves it and so should we.

* Local, Organic, Animal-friendly, Fairtrade

Peter Nicholls is an Authorised Worship Assistant in the Mulbarton Benefice and has just stepped down as churchwarden at All Saints Church, Hethel, which he led to Eco Church Silver in 2019.