Creation Season 2021

This year we are following the official Season of Creation more closely - just the Sundays from 1st September until the Feast of St Francis on 4th October - and using resources from the ecumenical website. The first Sunday was the last of our open air services which we've held monthly over the summer, so we could enjoy the beautiful flowers in the courtyard this year.

Yesterday, the third Sunday in the season, Jeremy encouraged us all in his sermon to read the latest IPCC report, or at least one of the summaries of it. He included a few of their graphs of the range of possibilities we now face, emphasising the crucial importance decisions to be made at COP26.

Various congregation members were involved last month in supporting the YCCN pilgrimage residency at Reading, either joining the pilgrims on the routes into and out of Reading or taking part in events including a climate workshop with Reading University scientists and services of welcome and departure. Below are some of the photos Richard McKenzie took for us at the Minster Climate Service with which the residency ended (the weather soon cleared up and the walk to Twyford afterwards was gorgeous).

Meanwhile, over the summer exciting developments have been happening in the courtyard we share with the school:

Registering the Climate Emergency

Six months on from our first Climate Sunday service on 6 September 2020, we held another one in Lent - 7 March 2021 - and this time we read together a statement recognising the Climate Emergency and commiting ourselves to act accordingly. We included three reflections in the service - the first inviting people to think about why the climate and ecological emergency matters to them; the second outlining recent actions we've done as a church, including investing in Reading Hydro and donations to the World Land Trust as well as practical carbon reductions and parliamentary lobbying. The third was a call to action by the congregation - it's in the new page "Climate Sunday reflection" on this blog.

Following encouragement at a seminar from the Climate Emergency Toolkit, I've just registered that acknowledgement for inclusion on their map. We've also signed up more locally with the Reading CAN pledge. to join with the town's commitment to reach net zero by 2030.

What are we doing about it ourselves? Most recently - we're trying to make it as easy as possible for everyone in the congregation and parish to change to a green electricity tariff, using the resources of the Fair Energy Campaign.; we've checked on the environmental credentials of all our investments and ensured they're as green as can be; and we've applied for a faculty for the cavity wall insulation.

On the church's behalf, Rosemary has been attending monthly meetings with Make COP26 Count, reporting back on the heartbreaking news of climate impact around the world.  Our top campaigning priority at the moment is the CEE Bill - Christian Climate Action are running seminars to help churches understand and support this, starting this Saturday.