Wednesday, November 4, 2015

Updating, and glimpsing the Kingdom

We've put our action plan for EcoCongregation on hold for the moment, awaiting the launch of Eco Church next year. But we've still been doing Eco stuff. For September's Godly Play I brought in piles of leaves, conkers, pine cones, twigs etc for the children to use for their craft session and especially encouraged them to make musical items with them (some coffee tins and re-used plastic cups helped here).
As usual Creation Season lasted through September and October and was marked chiefly by the use of liturgy that draws on Creation-related images (our Creation Season service booklets have appropriate images inside and at the back is St Francis's Canticle of the Sun). We're now into Kingdom Season but are using a new Eucharistic Prayer this year which again draws heavily on Creation imagery.

On All Saints Day Dominic and Miriam cooked everyone a fabulous vegan lunch - I glanced in on the cooking part way through the service in case they needed help: there was something incredibly beautiful about the calm production of all that wonderful smelling food and Miriam was cooking with her gorgeous three-month-old strapped to her back, smiling and watching.

The meal was a mixed bean chilli with cashew cream, rice, corn bread and salad. Before we started Miriam explained the three reasons for a vegan lunch
1. At the climate conference in Warsaw in November 2013, Philippine delegate Yeb Sano fasted throughout the conference following a pledge not to eat unless progress was made to stop climate madness. Since then across the world climate campaigners have been fasting on the first day of each month in solidarity and prayer.
2. Meat and dairy products are an inefficient use of resources and farming them is a major cause of greenhouse gas emissions
3. Very often farm animals are not well-treated, their capacity for suffering ignored.

The money left over after donations to cover ingredients will be going to Operation Noah.

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