Earlier this afternoon there was a small fire at St John's. Thankfully, the fire was mostly restricted to the parish offices. While there is significant damage to the offices, there is only the odour of smoke in the church proper.

Some significant cleaning will be done through the night and we believe that we will be in shape for services tomorrow morning.

We hope to see you then but that you will excuse any mess tomorrow and as restoration to the offices proceeds over the next few weeks. We should all be thankful as the damage from this fire could have been so much worse.

Earlier this afternoon there was a small fire at St John's. Thankfully, the fire was mostly restricted to the parish offices. While there is significant damage to the offices, there is only the odour of smoke in the church proper.

Some significant cleaning will be done through the night and we believe that we will be in shape for services tomorrow morning.

We hope to see you then but that you will excuse any mess tomorrow and as restoration to the offices proceeds over the next few weeks. We should all be thankful as the damage from this fire could have been so much worse.

Fiona Anderson, Kiri Denew, Patrick Denew, Ben Ehlert, Jason Ehlert, Eric Jackson, Xavier Jackson, David Loukidelis are the youth members of our team. They were accompanied by Willem de Ruijter, Emily Hill and David Anderson.

At an Earth Sunday service yesterday afternoon, the rector of the parish, David Anderson, speaking for the parish Green Team, announced that St John's had completed all of the necessary steps in order to qualify for accreditation at the Bronse Level in the Diocese of Niagara Green Parish program.

At the annual general meeting or "Vestry" of the parish in February, it had been decided that the parish would begin the work of working towards this level of accreditation on Earth Sunday with the goal of completing the Bronze level by the end of the year. So in fact, on the day of the official beginning the parish was able to announce completion.

Some of the early wins for St John's in the program included:

• the introduction of the Niagara home challenge to members of the parish, suggesting 10 areas where everyone can improve the impact that their own homes have upon the enviroment;
• the appointment of a Green Faciliator, Brian Henley, who has also been appointed as a member of Parish Council;
• clear signs on garbage and blue boxes in the kitchen and blue boxes available in a number of places in the building;
• car pooling is encouraged (we have been doing this for years by providing no parking lot, although street parking is available);
• Earth Hour, Earth Sunday and St Francis Day are observed on the liturgical calendar of the parish;
• programmable thermostats control the temperature;
• fair trade coffee is served at all parish events, fair trade awareness is promoted in the parish;
• no pesticides are used on the parish property;
• wherever possible paper is used on both sides and action is being taken to reduce the amount of paper used; and,
• current supplies of styrofoam are being used up and no more will be purchased and the dishwasher is used when it is full.

It is expected that with the early acheivement of the Bronze level that the Green Team will now consider a recommendation to set a new goal for moving towards Silver accreditatino in the diocesan program.