Lenten Challenges - Engaging the Powers

As we arrived at church yesterday we were each given a copy of the St John's and St Stephen's Creation Care Challenge for Lent 2019. Adapted by Richard C from a challenge used at St Aldate's in Oxford, it is a mixture of daily challenges, meditations, prayers and talking points to help us tread more lightly on the earth. This week's tasks are a gentle preparation - I think week three is when I'm going to start really struggling: when we get to avoiding plastic wrappings on our food.

After the service, and before the monthly church lunch (in aid of Bed for the Night this month) Hamish P shared some of his wisdom on another challenging topic - engaging the powers that keep people across our world in poverty. He began with Desmond Tutu's point:

“There comes a point where we need to stop just pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they’re falling in.”

Then he explained the importance of educating ourselves on how the system works that keeps the poor poor and enables a tiny minority to be phenomenally rich, drawing especially on Walter Wink and Joseph Stiglitz. He'd brought a number of briefing papers, summarising key books on topics of globalisation, inequality and the economy. There is lots more to read and inspire action at www.engagingthepowers.org.

Caring for Creation: Greening our Churches

On 28 April 2018 St John and St Stephen’s, hosted an event co-ordinated by CCOW at which Rachel Mash, co-ordinator of the Anglican Communion Environmental Network, came to speak. The following is from Richard B's informal notes on the event:

About 30 people came, 9 from our church, plus others from Wargrave, Tilehurst, Purley, Pangbourne, Ascot, Hungerford, Emmer Green etc.

Rosemary started by reading from Ps 104.and  outlined our story of working for the Eco-Congregation and now the Eco Church award. 

People shared from their experience in groups.

Rachel Mash   from the Anglican Church in South Africa:

Caring for the earth is a core part of our faith.  The first instruction given after the fall is to care for the earth Genesis 2.15.
Issues we face – with special reference to S. Africa:          
                global warming and climate chaos preferred term, as climate change brings disruption and chaos
                loss of bio-diversity
                deforestation and desertification
                waste and littering, including problem of plastic
                population growth and urbanisation
                poverty and inequality.

There was lots of positive conversation from this at church the following Sunday.

Dazzled in Creation Season

This Creation Season began with a wonderful new initiative - Dazzle - a St  John's festival in conversation with the Festival of the Dark. Many elements were very relevant to our EcoChurch journey, including Kate Raworth's inspiring talk on Doughnut Ecomonics, two theatrical pieces (sadly I couldn't make it to these - there'll no doubt be write-ups in Newt), community gardening and many of the talks at the day symposium with which we finished. This was a real variety of information, leaving those of us who stayed all day reeling slightly from the information processing! Gary and Vincent offered us some fascinating theology and striking poetry, Dave Richards inspired us with a call to dig for a different kind of victory, Kester Brewin invited us to rethink attitudes to education, Alison Webster embraced boundary-crossing, Colin Heber-Percy examined what humanity means and Helen Bilton enthused about outdoor learning. There were also information stalls -  the most challenging for many of us to think on were the Vegan society.

Upcoming Creation Care Event

Lent Resolutions

Since Lent started on a 'first Sunday of the month' this year, it was a particularly convenient day for an EcoChurch activity between the service and our Lenten bread and soup lunch. We invited people to write up green lifestyle tips that they are already practising and hang them on this tree. The plan is to draw green tips from the service sheet from these in future. We also put out 'lifestyle audits' for people to complete, with the suggestion that through Lent they might want to use these to make their lifestyle a bit greener.

The following week Jennifer Leach from Ourider Anthems came to talk to us about their Festival of the Dark. It feels a bit strange at first for Christians to talk about joining a festival of the dark, but this is about reconnecting with a sense of the changing seasons of our world, using the festivals that for centuries drew us together as communities. She was particularly advertising today's 'The Night Breathes us In' event - it sounds beautiful although many of us were concerned that the cost of producing such an innovative and adventurous event is reflected in a ticket price that does make it rather exclusive. We are hoping the church might be able to be involved in future more accessible events that would also be open to children.

Greening our Parishes

I've just finished putting together the slides for a talk this evening for the local Catholic Pastoral Area who have been organising Lent talks inspired by Laudato Si'. It's meant scouring back through the blog and finding a lot of happy memories.

As usual I've been somewhat behind with this blog - earlier in the year I was at St Paul's Cathedral (with Liz, the curate from Christ Church) for the launch of EcoChurch. At our last PCC I got agreement for the green group to fill out the EcoChurch questionnaire and find out if we make it to bronze these days. We'll probably do this after a church service so this needs to be planned out now.

In other news we at last have fabulous new bike racks of the type the cyclists asked for.

Cafe Theologique . . .

Last week there was a double dose of green activity for some of us: on Monday quite a few of the congregation were at Zero Degrees for CaféTheologique where Mark was talking on 'Ecotheology: How to talk about 'stuff' as if it mattered. He was looking at a theology based on stewardship which was broadly familiar to many there and at the much less familiar Orthodox attitude to matter and creation.  
Then on Wednesday we had another EcoCongregation planning meeting. We're focusing at present on recycling and on measuring energy use so there were updates and plans to move forward on this. I showed the helpful little graphs that iMeasure provide but those who have tried signing up to it recently have found it requires rather more information about properties and is offputtingly data heavy.

God's World: Why and How to Become an EcoCongregation

With apologies for the very long delay in writing this up; the EcoCongregations event on 17th November was a fantastic evening with a real buzz of enthusiasm for greening our churches among the 80+ attendees. Thank you very much to everyone who came along and/or helped to make it happen!
Bishop Andrew gave a fascinating and moving talk about his experiences in Ethiopia; I tried to squeeze in reference to as many different environmental resources for churches as possible in a rather short space of time; and there followed really useful reports from the Society of Friends, All Saints Wokingham and Earley St Nicholas on their churches' experiences of greening their worship, practice and outreach.
Afterwards we enjoyed some seriously delicious food from Tutu's Ethiopian Table along with fair trade wine.
There were stalls to browse from several other churches including St Barnabas, Emmer Green displaying their beautiful new sensory garden; Park URC with information on pv panels and biomass boilers; St Paul's URC Bracknell; St Mary and St John Finchampstead; and St James Pangbourne/ Pangbourne and Whitchurch Sustainability Group; as well as A Rocha, CEL and Earthing Faith etc. I was especially pleased that Reading Friends of the Earth were able to come along and Transition Town Reading since it is so important for churches to be part of their wider community's response to the environmental crises. Greyfriars bookshop kindly provided a stall of appropriate books and I know John Madeley sold a good number of copies of his Let Live (a bike ride, climate change and the CIA)!

Living Faith

Last Saturday St John's hosted the Oxford diocese Living Faith conference which was a really interesting day with speakers from Oxford's link dioceses and many organisations. I'm told the Christian Aid speaker mentioned in her workshop that it was good to see the notes inside our toilet doors explaining why we have recycled toilet paper! It's lucky the Co-op round the corner sells fairtrade filter coffee as it was so popular that we run out of our own supplies. The overrall message of the day was very much that social justice is an integral part of our mission as Anglicans.

Introduction to EcoCongregation

"God's World": an evening with the Bishop of Reading exploring why and how to become an EcoCongregation.

At St John and St Stephen's Church, 121-147 Orts Road, Reading, RG1 3JN

Thursday 17th November, 7.30 - 9.30 pm.

Free entry, open to all denominations.

Bishop Andrew Proud will be speaking about the church's role in caring for the environment. There will be prayer, resources and stories from Berkshire EcoCongregations shared over fair trade refreshments.

Discover simple ways to help your church address the third and fifth marks of mission:

Responding to human need and safeguarding the integrity of Creation in the face of Climate Change, Peak Oil and a growing world population.

Please e-mail j.laynesmith@gmail.com for further details and to confirm your attendance so that we can provide enough refreshments.

"God on the Box": Peter Owen Jones

Last Wednesday Reading University Chaplaincy's New Year lecture, "God on the Box", was attended by a large number of St John's members, including two home groups who usually meet on Wednesdays. The speaker was Peter Owen Jones, presenter of Around the World in 80 Faiths, Extreme Pilgrim and How to Live a Simple Life. It was an inspirational and challenging evening with a lot that was relevant to the EcoCongregation journey. It will soon be possible to watch the lecture, although not the questions afterwards, on the university's tv website RU:ON.

Many of us were struck by his explanation that most television now is driven by 'jeopardy' - in order to keep viewers hooked they must be persuaded that the subjects they are watching face jeopardy. This means that many interesting and important subjects just don't make it into TV documentaries any more because there is no element of jeopardy. It also means that we have so much jeopardy thrown at us that it is hard to separate what really matters, eg climate change and 'the crime of extinction', from the fabricated jeopardy.

He also talked a lot about anti-consumerism - if you disagree with bankers' bonuses, take your money away from those banks! He said that his three months without money had 'de-toxed' him from the need to buy. He has enough possessions for the rest of his life. He will be talking more about this at the forthcoming Christian Ecology Link conference in London on 5 March which a couple of us plan to attend: End of the Age of Thorns-Surviving Consumerism.

Greening Faiths

Two of us from St John's (Jan and I) have been involved in organising what looks to be a really exciting multi faith day conference. Today was our final meeting so now we just need to wait for more people to sign up. Here are the details:

Reading Faith Forum, supported by Stronger Together, will host the ‘Greening Faiths’ conference on 4th April 9.30am-3pm at The Warehouse, Cumberland Road, Reading to discuss environmental concerns from a faith perspective and promote sustainable living in faith communities.

This unique meeting of local people with many different spiritual beliefs will highlight the scientific facts behind the current environmental crisis and suggest how faith communities can work together to address the issue.

Speakers include: Jagdeesh Singh of the Sikh Environment Network; Muzammal Hussain from the London Islamic Network for the Environment (LINE); Hindu Monastic Swami Ambikananda Ji and Rev Ian James, formerly from Reading University’s Department of Meteorology, who is also the C of E Diocese of Oxford’s Environment Advisor.

This event is free and there will be opportunities for networking over a free lunch. Please book by Friday 27 March 2009 as spaces are limited, so please book now to ensure your place.

To book a place contact:Jan Hearn, Multi-fora Coordinator
Stronger Together
Reading Voluntary Action
35-39 London Street
Reading
RG1 4PS
jan@strongertogether.org.uk
0118 958 4849

Creation Time

At the Third European Ecumenical Assembly (2007) official representatives of Europe's Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican and Protestant churches recommended "That the period from 1 September to 4 October be dedicated to prayer for the protection of Creation and the promotion of sustainable lifestyles that reverse our contribution to climate change". The reason for the dates is that September is traditionally the time for harvest festivals and 4 October is the feast day of St Francis. Churches together in Britain and Ireland are encouraging all churches to be involved in this by providing various resources.

We've decided to celebrate Creation Time at St John's and began this Sunday by handing out the first weekly 'diary' of ways to celebrate and protect Creation. Today's entry included a quotation from Gerard Manley Hopkins's poem God's Grandeur which I have typed out in full below (it's best read aloud). Hopefully over the next few weeks there will be particular mention of environmental matters in the intercessions and elsewhere in the service.

Next Sunday there will be a brief talk on green electricity (covering the themes in my earlier post today on that subject), before our regular shared meal, after which there will be a group joining Reading Faith Forum's Friendship Walk receiving hospitality from various faith groups around the town.

God's Grandeur
The world is charged with the grandeur of God.
It will flame out, like shining from shook foil;
It gathers to a greatness, like the ooze of oil
Crushed. Why do men then now not reck his rod:
Generations have trod, have trod, have trod;
And all is seared with trade; bleared, smeared with toil;
And wears man's smudge and shares man's smell: the soil
Is bare now, nor can foot feel, being shod.

And for all this, nature is never spent;
There lives the dearest freshness deep down things;
And though the last lights off the black West went
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs -
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.

Gerard Manley Hopkins 1877

Nb he doesn't mean tin foil but gold foil which, when shaken 'gives off broad glares like sheet lightning'

LOAF meal and Ethical Investments talk

On 4 November we arranged a LOAF meal to raise funds for Christian Ecology Link and A Rocha. We were hoping an autumn meal would make provision of local food especially easy - perhaps we'll aim for a greater challenge next year. We printed off Christian Ecology Link's LOAF 'tablemats' for each table:
Locally Produced
Organically Grown
Animal Friendly
Fairly Traded

The service happened to be led by our mission partners from Nepal so it was a good time for thinking about global responsibilities. We were able to show A Rocha's 45 second video so people knew where their money would be going. Our meal consisted of fairtrade organic rice from the True Food Co-op with a variety of vegetarian toppings (mushroom stroganoff, veg curry, chilli, roast veg and something beautiful with coconut in that didn't seem to have a name). The ingredients for these came mostly from the True Food Co-op or the Farmers' Market . The latter fortunately took place just the day before - it was lovely bumping into each other there, adding to the friendly atmosphere the market always has. Many people brought puddings made with apples and pears from their own gardens to which we added the richest, most gorgeous Jersey cream and yoghurt from the Farmers' Market. While eating we were able to watch the Pathfinders' fabulous Christian Aid video on climate change.

Before people sat down to eat, Geoff gave a presentation about ethical investment - this took longer than we'd expected due to the animated audience participation. Below is a list of the websites he suggested to help us find out more.

www.ethical-company-organisation.org Good Shopping Guide website
www.gooshing.org The research website referred to in the Good Shopping Guide, good for lots of info
www.ethicalconsumer.co.uk Website for bi-monthly magazine
www.eiris.org Ethical Investment Research Institute – lots of background info and facts
www.uksif.org UK Social Investment Forum – good source of info and fund data
www.ethicalinvestment.org.uk Ethical Investment Association
www.moneyfacts.co.uk/ethical Fund data website with ethical sector for easy finding of information
www.socialfunds.com Useful website for background info and news on Socially Responsible Investments, but it is a US site
www.unbiased.co.uk Find an Independent Financial Adviser (remember to tick the “Ethical” box to narrow down your search).
www.jupiteronline.co.uk/PI/OurProducts/SRIGreen/ - Very useful section on the Jupiter website dedicated to Socially Responsible Investments issues and funds