ST MICHAEL’S BEES

Our ‘heritage’ is something we have received (in-herited) from the past, and which we seek to preserve as its custodians for future generations. Although St Michael’s church building and grounds is vitally important for us to preserve, we are but a small part of a much bigger picture. The canvas of Creation itself. In the same way that we have a duty of care for our beautiful historic buildings, we are also duty-bound to care for the environs in which they are situated.

At St Michael’s we have recently partnered with Liverpool apiarist Andrea Ku of B4Biodiversity to install three beehives in our churchyard. As a Church we are committed to the Diocese of Liverpool EcoDiocese initiative, which seeks to fulfil the Anglican Church’s Fifth Mark of Mission, that is to ‘strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of the earth’.

Here in the UK, and globally, bees are facing many threats. These include habitat loss, climate change, toxic pesticides and disease. The interaction between these makes an unpredictable future for bees and many other pollinators. These threats have led to nearly 1 in 10 of Europe’s wild bee species facing extinction. (Friends of the Earth)

Hence, keeping bees in our churchyard is one important step in working towards safeguarding our natural inheritance.