Making bird feeders (and hospitality for a heron)

The snow has all but gone and happily all the bike racks were full again this sunny morning.

This term at Exclaimers we're looking at some very different Christian figures from the past. I'd volunteered to do St Columba this week. Looking through his story I was struck by the tale in which he prophesied the arrival of a 'guest': a storm tossed heron which would need care and feeding for three days. Among today's other activities, consequently, we made bird feeders - not that herons will be interested in these, but we've been encouraged on Radio 4 to help the birds through the cold and at the end of the month it will be the RSPB's Big Garden Birdwatch.

I've usually read that the lard in bird cakes needs to be heated but actually mashing with your hands works fine and avoids all the health and safety concerns of heating it. We stirred in a seed mix with meal worms plus some raisins and filled old yoghurt and cream cheese pots (we put plasticine under them and then pierced a hole through so we could poke in string to hang them from). These will need to go in the fridge for a while to set. Then we made strings of monkey nuts too. With my own, younger, kids later we made some more and found for them it made sense to pierce holes through the shells and then let them use plastic tapestry needles to pull the string through. We also made feeders with pine cones - squashing lard in and then rolling them in the seed (in the past I've done a veggie version of this with peanut butter but it isn't easy to track down unsalted peanut butter at short notice).

Since I stopped going to Oasis during the week I've been lousy at keeping an eye on the bird feeder at church. It appeared to be in the office one week and I don't know where it is now - an instance where I need to get round to delegating. The recycling seems to be happening most of the time which is great. I've stopped taking coffee grounds home due to spillages and disorganisation but these are now going into the green cone (although I think I need to put up some guidance on using the green cone as many people do not realise that the waste should only fill the sunken basket, not the cone itself).

Copenhagen consequences

Outside the snow lies too deep for school for a third day, making it hard to contemplate rising global temperatures. As the dust settled after the Copenhagen Climate Change summit last month so life became rather busy with pre-Christmas events and I didn't get round to blogging. The mood at church on the Sunday after the Copenhagen Accord was announced was 'better no deal than a stitch up'. By the time the conference happened I think we were all resigned to not expecting great things, but still feeling we needed to stand up for what we believe in, for the integrity of our relationship with God and our neighbours.

Now the development agencies are focussing on what can be achieved in 2010. At first I found my heart sinking - I can't keep thinking 'everything hangs on . . .' every year, in the way we initially did about Copenhagen. The way campaigning works is to have short term goals to work for, but the response to the threat of climate change is going to be 'an issue' for the rest of my life and beyond. While still engaging in the short term campaigning as much as possible; for sanity's sake, we need to find a framework for acting and thinking that isn't 'we have x months to save the planet'. I've been wrestling with Alistair McIntosh's concept of 'living in a dying time' (Hell and High Water: Climate Change, Hope and the Human Condition) which is very persuasive but isn't a space I can think in yet. I do want to hang onto something our vicar mentioned in a sermon just before Christmas - apparently Martin Luther said that even if he knew Christ would come tomorrow he would still plant an apple tree.

Meanwhile, the robin pictured above is giving me accusing looks from the bird table because we've run out of bird food, so it's time for an expedition through the snow to the greengrocer's for more seed.

Bishop dedicates Eco-congregation plaque

Last Thursday the Bishop of Reading, the Right Reverend Stephen Cottrell, visited the church to dedicate our Eco-congregation plaque. He also got to see the beautiful sacramental furniture which local craftsmen and congregation members Mark Ripley and Andrew Boddington have designed and made for the church.

Many of those present had been at the Thursday morning communion and the cafe. I was delighted that our Eco-congregation assessors Rob White and John Madeley were both able to be there too. Proceedings began in the main church when the bishop congratulated us on the award, appropriately in the week that the Copenhagen Climate Change summit began. The St John's school Eco-team were present too and he talked with them. We showed the Pathfinders' Christian Aid video about climate change and then I talked briefly about some of the things we've done at church. Afterwards most of us managed to squeeze into the foyer where bishop Stephen encouraged us to keep up the work (the award only lasts into 2011) and led us in prayer.

After photos with the school children and an opportunity to look at the sacramental furniture it was time for lunch. Ali and the cafe members had made fresh bread and a gorgeous soup. We talked over lunch about the Wave (at which many of the congregation had met bishop Stephen) and then he got some tougher questions on theology.

The photo above shows the Eco-congregation plaque in situ (with the vicar, Rev Vincent Gardner, plus Rosemary and I).

Advent - Why We Are Waiting

Some months back I signed up to receive the Church of England's Advent e-mails at www.whywearewaiting.com. With my typical lack of organisation I've just sat down to go through a week's worth - they're really worth seeing. Dec 4 is about solar power on a church roof, many are similarly about 'green issues' or about the importance of taking Sabbath moments, reconnecting with God's earth - all very Eco-congregation.