The church section in your dashboard lists the churches you belong to. If you haven’t yet joined or registered a church, this section will be blank.
Before looking to register your church, please check that it isn't already registered by performing a search using its postcode. If you find it is already registered, please follow the instructions below for 'Joining a church if your church is already registered' to avoid duplicate records.
Registering a church
Press the Register/join a church button on the right side of your dashboard.
This will lead you to a search page where you can enter your church’s postcode. If you are searching for a church in the Diocese of Europe, please type in your city or town rather than the postcode.
If your church is registered, you will be able to select it from the subsequent list (see below). If your church isn’t on that list, scroll down to the bottom of the page and press the Can’t find my church button.
You will then need to complete an online form to register your church. You need to provide the following information about the church:
- full church name;
- full postal address;
- denomination;
- the number of worshippers;
- whether it’s urban or rural;
- year the physical church was built
- if the church owns the building, and
- whether it is a listed building.
After completing all the fields, click the Add church button.
If your church doesn’t have a building, please put in the address of the location where you usually meet, for example, in a school hall or another community building.
After completing all the fields, click the Add church button.
You will then be returned to your dashboard - your church will now be listed in the ‘Your churches’ section. You can click on the name of your church to see all the information you have registered it with, and to see the names of other team members as they join your church team in due course.
Joining a church if your church is already registered
Press the Register/join a church button on the right side of your dashboard.
This will lead you to a search page where you can enter your church’s postcode. A list of churches local to that postcode will be produced - if your church is already registered, it will be on this list. If you are searching for a church in the Diocese of Europe, please type in your city or town rather than the postcode.
Click the Select this church button under the correct church address.
This will lead to a confirmation page. Please check the details to make sure you’re joining the right church. If it is your church, click on the Join this church button.
You will then be returned to your dashboard - your church will now be listed in the ‘Your church’ section. You can click on the name of your church to see all the information you have registered it with and the names of any other team members who have joined the team for your church.
Leaving a church team
Click on the name of your church in the ‘Your church’ section on the right side of your dashboard.
This will lead you to your church’s information page. Scroll down and click the Leave this church button to remove yourself from the church team. Your individual account will then be removed from the listed members of the church’s team. The church profile will not be affected in any way if you leave the team.
Once you have confirmed you want to leave the church, you’ll return to your dashboard, where the church name will no longer appear in the ‘Your church’ section.
Multiple individuals can be part of the same church team
Multiple people can be part of the same team for a church on the Eco Church platform and work on the survey together. You can see who is currently listed as a team member for your church by clicking on your church name on the dashboard, which is under the 'Your Church' section. This will take you to your church's information page.
Each individual needs to register their own account on the Eco Church platform and join the team for their church. Please see the ‘Joining a church if your church is already registered’ section of the help guide for how to do this.
Anyone who is a member of the church team can make edits to the surveys for your church and will receive email updates in relation to your submitted Eco Church award applications.
Please note: It is not possible to ‘replace’ one person’s account details with another person’s when someone leaves a church. Each person has their own individual account with their email address and password.
You can also see our tutorial video for help creating an account and joining your church team here. You can skip to the appropriate sections of the video.
0:36 - how to find the Eco Church platform
1:30 - registering a new account
5:51 - joining your church team if your church is already registered
A team member has left your church (or stopped being part of the Eco Church work)
If somebody has left your church and they are still listed as part of your church team on the Eco Church platform, please contact the Eco Church team via our contact form. Select the ‘ A team member has left my church’ option under the ‘Area you need help with’ field and let us know the person’s name.
We will not remove their account from the Eco Church platform so they will still be able to use their account for a future church, but they will no longer be a member of your church team. If they would like us to remove their account, they will need to get in touch with us directly.
Likewise, please follow the same process if a team member has stepped down from the Eco Church work in your church and will no longer be using the Eco Church platform. If they would like us to remove their account, they will need to get in touch with us directly.
If somebody from your church team has sadly passed away, please complete our contact form to let us know, as appropriate.
Updating your church details
It is not possible for you to update your church details. You can find your church details by clicking on your church name under the 'Your Church' section on the Eco Church dashboard. Please contact the Eco Church team via our contact form. Select the ‘updating my church details’ option under the ‘area you need help with’ field, and let us know the details that need updating. The Eco Church team will email you to confirm these changes have been made.
Your church is merging or closing
If your church is merging with another church/es or is sadly closing, please contact the Eco Church team via our contact form. Select the ‘Our church is merging or closing’ option under the ‘Area you need help with’ field, and let us know the appropriate scenario for your church by typing in the available text box.
Registering and applying for an award as a group of churches
The Eco Church platform is designed to be used by individual churches, so benefices, parishes, and multi-church sites need to register individually.
Groups of churches that have previously applied and gained an award collectively will need to ensure all churches involved in the joint application are registered separately, and apply for awards as individual churches going forward.
We appreciate it may take more time for churches to complete individual surveys for their next level of award, but this will better reflect the progress of the individual churches. We appreciate that churches may work collectively and therefore some aspects of the survey may be similar across the group of churches, but by completing individual surveys they will be able to reflect the buildings, land and other unique aspects of each church. Please use the additional comments space to explain further as needed.
Therefore, please contact the Eco Church team via our contact form if you need to amend the name of your contact on the Eco Church platform to ONE of the churches from your group. The other churches will need to create new registrations.
Very occasionally there is a worshipping community with two or more church buildings. Please note this means truly merged in name, congregation/membership, leadership, bank account, worship programme etc. In this instance, they will proceed as one registration and respond to the questions considering ALL their buildings. This is the same for any church with more than one building (e.g. manse, hall, etc). When responding to all questions in the buildings section, consider ALL your buildings and take the lowest common denominator. For example, for the question 'Our building(s)’ walls, roof(s) and floor spaces are insulated', if the main church is insulated, but the hall is not insulated, the response will be ‘partially’.