This morning we concluded St John's Season of Creation. The sermon came in two parts - our vicar began with the Gospel reading and Jesus' entirely practical response to blind Bartimaeus's need. Then Hamish introduced us to Reading Churches Campaigning Network: fighting against world poverty and economic injustice (formerly the Reading Jubilee Debt Campaign). He explained the great need for Christians to try to get to grips with some of the complexities of the issues that need campaigning on in order to make an effective difference. He and others often hand out campaign postcards that we take away and sign, but more is needed. He invited us to do some 'sacrificial reading' - giving up time to work through a dossier that would help us better understand the economic situation that keeps 800 million people at near starvation level. He observed that these issues are not getting anything like as much attention as they ought to because of the focus on climate change, but really it's part of the same battle for a fair world.
All today's songs and hymns reinforced this 'kingdom building' message, powerfully. Afterwards a number of us collected sample papers from the dossier to explore. Mine is onTNCs, water and mining.
We've decided to keep on using the fairtrade wine which everyone is happy with. The home made communion bread needs a bit of working on - I'd forgotten to specify milk free bread (many bread makers have milk in the recipe) for vegans and dairy intolerant folk, plus too much consecrated bread can be a bit of an embarassment so we need to specify a smaller size or just a few slices. Probably a few of us will fill the freezer up on a regular basis but hopefully others will contribute on a more casual basis.
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