Catholic project helped by ARC wins award for podcast

	Clifton cathedral was one of the pioneers in Catholic environmental action in the UK

A podcast about the Catholic response in southwest England to the environmental crisis has won an award, beating the BBC in the process.

The Clifton Diocese took silver at the Christian Broadcasting Council Awards with ‘Journey - The Sound of Many Waters Podcast’ - a reflection on the diocese's year of acting and thinking ecologically, which was conceived and planned with ARC's help.

‘Journey - The Sound of Many Waters Podcast’ is available at the Sound of Many Waters website.

It is presented by BBC West’s popular presenter Trevor Fry, and covers the build-up to the launch of ‘Sound of Many of Waters’ - Clifton Cathedral’s year-long exploration of our need to care for our environment.

The podcast was produced by ARC's Catholic advisor, Mary Colwell, a parishioner at Clifton Cathedral, and former BBC Nature producer.

	Sound of Many Waters initiatives have included linking Catholic schools to discuss environmental ideas. Pictured All Hallows primary school, during an Earth Day.

It begins by asking the question of passersby in Bristol when they last heard a religious leader talking about the environment. Three years ago nobody had heard such a thing: but today, perhaps, things are changing. And in southwest England one of the places where it was changing was in the Catholic community.

During that year the community - with the support of ARC and of the Cathedral - explored different aspects of our spiritual relationship with the environment. And that included going out into nature, with owl prowls and dawn choruses - as well as talks about Saints and Sustainability, newly commissioned music, special masses, exhibitions, and an initiative to link Catholic schools who want to discuss, among themselves, what they should do to teach children about the environment through lessons, example, and fun. Link here to learn more about the Catholic Schools Eco Newsletters.

"Sound of Many Waters was an important start to defining a better future that is more in balance with the world around us,” Colwell said.

“Excellent wide range of interesting voices - lay people and clergy. Good to hear the Catholic Church challenged on something like the environment and for the criticism to be positively received,” was among the many positive comments by the judges

‘Let Us Pod’ can be heard on cliftondiocese.com where hundreds of other audio programmes produced by the Catholic Church in the West of England are also available.

‘Journey - The Sound of Many Waters Podcast’ is available at the Sound of Many Waters website.

The Diocese also won gold for its podcast about bereavement, also produced by Colwell, and written and narrated by parishioner Peter Hobbs, whose wife Caroline died of breast cancer in October 2004.

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