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‍St Edmund’s in Godalming became a livesimply parish earlier this year, pledging to live simply, in solidarity with all people and sustainably with creation.

To gain the award, championed by the charity CAFOD, the parish implemented many projects including collections for the homeless and the food bank, recycling schemes, a virtual walking pilgrimage, livesimply eco-tips in parish newsletter, fund-raising for CAFOD’s Walk for Water and a weekend plant swap to encourage people to grow their own. Maureen and Stuart, the livesimply award assessors, commended their exceptional efforts over the past year to reduce waste, recycle and improve the environment both close to home and around the world, and said:

“Well done everyone it was very encouraging to read and hear about all the good work happening in your parish in the light of the Gospel.”

Fr Jonathan How, parish priest of St Edmund’s said: “This is valuable recognition for our parish and our desire to live simply, sustainably and in solidarity with people in poverty. Our work in this area makes us more credible in our mission and provides a forum for dialogue with those outside the church. It is the fruit of much hard work and a lot of prayer, but it is also just a beginning. Our thanks go to the team for their drive and leadership and to everyone in the parish for their support.”

“Well done to St Edmund’s for achieving this award especially during the difficulties of the previous year!”  said Jenny Finlayson CAFOD’s representative in Arundel and Brighton Diocese.

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St Edmund’s livesimply group continued their fantastic work, meeting their local South-West Surrey MP Jeremy Hunt last week to express their concerns over the climate crisis and debt cancellation, and to ask for further action at the COP26 talks.

Jeremy Hunt joined the group online for the ‘Parliament in Your Parish’ initiative and commented: “I am very grateful for the invitation to join this meeting and found it useful and very insightful. Recently I have made no secret of my strong belief about the need to maintain our commitment to aid at 0.7% and will continue to press hard for us to live up to our international obligations.”

The group plans to continue the dialogue with Jeremy Hunt over debt cancellation, and to step up the awareness of the climate conference in Glasgow in November, and hope that their example will inspire others to also take up similar action.