Bishop supports Great British Spring Clean

The Great British Spring Clean on the 22nd March – 23rd April has already got backing by The Daily Mail and Chris Evans. 

Run by Keep Britain Tidy, it aims for 500,000 people to all join in with a street-cleaning initiative for the sake of environment and wildlife. 

Bishop Graham told Premier he picks up litter as he walks his dog but that it was also something churches could easily adopt: “I’m also encouraging, during this period of time, that churches might encourage their communties to take part in a litter pick,

“During Lent this year the Church of England is particularly focusing on the theme of pilgrim journeys…so what about a parish doing a litter pilgrimage, collecting litter as they pray their way round their community?”

When asked why he thought this was something the church should get on board with, he replied: “Because it links very much to the sum of the hearts of our belief in terms of God who, in Jesus, has entered into the world and delights in the richness of creation and in Genesis we’re demanded to care for God’s world, to look after it, to take a great sense of awe and wonder about creation – and any obstruction of that, any adding to the messiness of it through litter, has an impact on the whole sense of creation”.

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The Bishop of Dudley, Rt Rev Graham Usher, says churches should get behind a nationwide street cleaning campaign.