First Sunday in Lent

Despite being the first Sunday of Lent, today's All Age Communion felt a particularly joyous service. It was a beautiful morning to walk in, with daffodils greeting us at the edge of the forecourt. Hamish singing 100 billion times, a gorgeous Creation song, was certainly one of its highlights.
Our shared lunch was vegetarian and mostly vegan - soups and no puddings because it is Lent, but delicious and satisfying nonetheless. The proceeds from the collection for that are going to Yeldall Manor.

Christians Together on Climate - the event

Over 60 people turned up on a rainy evening to St Laurence's church for Reading Area Green Christians' event to help empower churches to act on climate change. Highlights included our school striker, Francesca, who inspired everyone with her story and her commitment; University of Reading doctoral researcher Lydia Messling whose workshop on finding the right words to communicate about climate change clearly taught people a lot; and a final act of worship/lament before we took our ideas home to act on. 

We were especially grateful to those who came with information stalls - notably https://readingenergy.coop/ who are still looking for public buildings with high daytime usage to put solar panels on as well as offering opportunities for green investment; and https://readingcan.org.uk/ whose strategic plan for Reading's response to climate change will be out for consultation early next year. 

One of the key reasons for holding the event was to advertise the energy audits available to churches - Oxford diocese are providing financial incentives for CofE churches doing this, but the company will work with any churches - more information here: https://www.oxford.anglican.org/mission-ministry/environment/resources/church-energy-audits/

There's more information/resources on the extra blog page here for Christians Together on Climate, including some of the information sheet I produced to report back on the event at the Diocesan Synod last week. For just five days you can also still catch Paul Coia interviewing me on BBC Radio Berkshire's Faith programme the Sunday before the event!

Creation Time

Last Sunday we opened Creation Time with a worship together service inspired by an organisation we encountered at Greenbelt: Test of Faith. We had some reservations about the theology expressed but they do have a very useful service plan on their website encouraging people to think about science and religion and the astonishing immensity of the cosmos. We adapted these, including an interview with one of our congregation's many scientists, Rachel. She said that her work made her realise how much 'bigger' and beyond our comprehension God is and for her awe in Creation often came from the very tiny things. The Test of Faith website has videos accompanying scripture readings which had my children transfixed. It was a service which engaged all ages and provoked plenty of discussion afterwards.

We also handed out Cafod's Live Simply prayer cards.

Greenbelt 2011

As usual a large group from St John and St Stephen's attended Greenbelt this year, many camping with members of our vicar's former church.

Last year I was disappointed by the sudden disappearance of the climate change issue. This year, as a CEL speaker noted, it was still scarcely on the speaker agenda. Nonetheless, perhaps still rubbing bruises after Copenhagen, it was very much an issue in the G-Source tent and similar spaces: Cafod are getting us to sign postcards to George Osborne, urging him 'Don't drop the ball on climate change' ahead of the talks in Durban later this year. Unicef are asking us to persuade the Chancellor and Climate Change Secretary to 'Get Children Climate Ready' by using a Robin Hood Tax and a tax on shipping and aviation fuels to provide the money that has been promised to help poor countries deal with the effects of climate change. The Salvation Army had a very family-friendly tent where they explained some of the actions their international development organisation are taking to help the most vulnerable to make responsible use of their resources and to adapt to climate change as well as urging people to make changes in their own lives and support Stop Climate Chaos. The Christian Aid tent was a fantastic rainforest venue with lots for the children to do and very much more high-tec cafe than the one I used to volunteer in! The picture of Richard and Rosemary above is taken from Christian Aid's website. There was a display (with accompanying excellent harvest festival materials) highlighting the development of saline resistant rice and crab farming that was being introduced to help Bangladeshi farmers cope with flooded fields and my seven-year-old was very enthusiastic to join in the photo petition to David Cameron asking for more action on climate change.

There were of course lots of specifically environmental groups in the G-Source tent too. Christian Ecology Link's session there was well attended and entertaining as well as inspiring. They suggested that our response to the catastrophe facing the planet might be charted according to the traditional graph of the grieving process - awareness, reaction, denial, frustration, letting go, testing, search for meaning, integration - and that a lot of us were at the lowest morale point 'letting go', needing to move forward. As well as being persuaded to take the plunge and look properly at their EcoCell scheme, the principal message I took home was the importance of working with others. There was also a useful workshop on Transition Towns which was attended by about a hundred people.

Preparing for Creation Time

As usual at St John and St Stephen's we plan to celebrate Creation Time from 1st September right through October too (rather than stopping at 4th October) so that it leads into Kingdom Season. The night before last we had a rather small planning meeting to make sure the theme is woven into some of our preaching, prayers, meals and actions. There are some really useful resources at the ctbi website but we'll probably also be drawing on CAFOD's Live Simply material.

We were also planning a meeting to be held on 17th November which will be an opportunity to introduce Reading's EcoCongregations to our new bishop, Andrew Proud, to hear his thoughts on the issues and to encourage people from other congregations to become part of the movement. It'll be at 7.30 pm at St John and St Stephen's church and will include prayer, talks and an opportunity for questions and talking with those on the EcoCongregation journey over fairtrade refreshments. If you'd like know more or book a place, please e-mail greeningstjohns@gmail.com. Reading Christian Ecology Link are also involved in this event which is open to members of all denominations.

1st May - Outdoor Communion and cycle ride

For this year's 'green team' Worship Together service we decided to hold a traditional communion service but go outdoors. It must have been about the seventh gloriously sunny Sunday in a row and I couldn't quite believe we could be so lucky with the weather. We don't have a churchyard, just a courtyard at the front between the small garden and the church but this has low walls part way round mirroring the shape of the church itself and it worked really well with benches and a few chairs inside. We couldn't get the microphone system working but since we were much closer together than usual (and the double bank holiday had reduced numbers) it was fine. In fact it was rather nice to have a service not dependent upon technology (aside from the computer that prepared the service sheets initially).

We followed the usual Eastertide communion service with a couple of additions to keep the children's attention -
at the confession we asked the children to write 'sorry' in chalk on the ground and after the absolution we washed it away again, explaining that God had washed away our sins (many of the adults said they found that very powerful to witness)

while Richard was preaching - on the gardens that were the sites of fall and Resurrection - Emma painted a large picture of the garden with the tomb in (assisted by Ben the human easel). This kept my youngest son rapt, just as good as TV it turned out (for those more restless, chalk drawing kept them quiet still).

during the intercessions we gave them small flags to paint/draw what they wanted to pray for on and later stapled them to a string for waving at the end

during the offertory hymn (Thine be the Glory) I handed out bottles of bubbles - in my imagination these would be finished during the song but actually the bubbles kept coming right through the Communion prayer but this was fine

After coffee fifteen of us set out to cycle along the canal (including a couple of passengers). It was quite beautiful, all the leaves lush with the brightness of spring despite the very summery heat, damselflies flittering across the still waters etc. We arrived at the lock near 'The Cunning Man' just as the first of those who'd chosen to drive and walk did so - Dino on his crutches! Eventually our number was doubled and it was a lovely way to spend the afternoon, especially the sharing of homemade breads and cakes (plus homemade wine from Reading-grown grapes, albeit rather warm), while watching the orange-tip butterflies and the five-year-olds darting across the lock.

Environment Sunday

Today we marked Environment Sunday with a service celebrating biodiversity. The service began with an explanation of biodiversity. The theme was chosen because this is the UN International Year of Biodiversity – a crucial issue at a time when it is estimated that every six hours another species of plant, animal or micro-organism becomes extinct.

The first part of Adam and Eve’s story was read out from a beautifully illustrated children’s book by Jane Ray: The Garden of Eden. There followed reference to the valuable role of our own gardens in preserving biodiversity as well as bringing us closer to God. The congregation divided into groups to look at exhibits borrowed from Reading Museum – each was a case containing an animal that lives in an oak tree, ranging from squirrels and a jay to a stag beetle and many moths. The groups were invited to think about where their specimen belonged in the web of biodiversity and what it might reflect about its Creator.

At the confession the taking of forbidden fruit was compared with taking too much of the earth’s fruits today. Finally it was remembered that God has a habit of choosing those seemingly least fitted for God’s tasks, giving us hope that despite past form we humans can care for our planet: a meditation on Psalm 104 concluded with references to recent conservation successes. Meanwhile many of the children present had been fashioning wonderful creatures out of ‘magic maize’.

Only when I wrote out that summary did I realise I'd perhaps tried to cram a little too much in! The 'stuffed animals' caused concern among some of the adults, although they were happy to have moth boxes. The feedback afterwards was great as several had taken the accompanying museum notes to their groups and wanted to share some of the amazing facts they'd learnt. The children all sat around the storyteller as she read from Jane Ray's book (and images appeared on the screens for the adults), but otherwise most were very industriously colouring and making their own dragonflies, moths etc (I assume from the number of stag beetles that they were listening in with at least half an ear to the rest of the service), but we'd brought them right into the middle of the half circle in which we worship, beside the worship leader to make them feel more part of the service.

In case anyone would like to adapt prayers we used I'm copying the confession and intercessions at the foot of this post.

After coffee seventeen of the congregation set off on a gentle and sociable cycle ride concluding with a picnic beside the canal. A similar number joined them in shared cars for the picnic. I couldn't make this myself, hence the photo above is only of the departure, but apparently it was a 'really happy time' with two or three participants who hadn't cycled in years now considering more cycling. Below are a couple of photos taken after the service: people had a chance to look at the objects not shared in their group and these are a very small sample of the children's creativity.

Creator God we have not tended your garden as we should

We have let the rainforests be burnt down

We have used oil so fast that we are overheating our planet

Your poorest people and many of your creatures are suffering and will suffer more because we choose what is easy, what seems cheap, what we are told is fashionable

For all this we are sorry

Help us to find ways to live lightly

Teach us to look after your world

Amen

Creator God, we give thanks for your beautiful world. We thank you for the red kites flying in our skies where they did not fly thirty years ago. We thank you for the otters that have returned to the Thames and for the small blue butterflies returning to Warwickshire.

We lift up to you the wildlife trusts, Kew Gardens, the Natural History Museum and all those here and abroad who are working to protect the biodiversity of your planet, grant them inspiration, courage and strength.

We ask you to guide the leaders of our nation and of the world in all their responsibilities.

We lift into your loving arms all those who are weary and heavy laden – all those who need to feel the wind in their hair and the grass beneath their feet – lead them beside still waters metaphorical and real, we pray.

Living Hope

We were blessed with gorgeous spring weather for the Living Hope conference at Great Missenden on Saturday, enabling us to enjoy the stroll between church and school for the various events of the day. The proceedings began with questions to Richard Weaver of Tearfund on the consequences of the disappointing results at Copenhagen. He encouraged us all to keep campaigning, especially in the run up to the general election and the UN climate talks this year.

There were then speeches on the theme of Living Hope from a panel: Paula Clifford (Christian Aid), Chris Sunderland (Earth Abbey) and Dave Bookless (A Rocha).

Paula Clifford argued that Living Hope begins with being thoroughly informed in the face of increasing climate change denial, living a low carbon lifestyle is not enough because we must also be prophetic. 'Climate change kills' - committing ourselves to act is to give hope to people in the global south. In the run up to the general election she reminded us 'politicians are a renewable resource'. She suggested three ways to live hope:
1. Re-establishing the importance of community. Church, as the body of Christ described by Paul, is the community par excellence but it is also an elusive ideal. Locally, nationally and internationally we need to re-establish community.
2. Recognising interdependence, which enables us to relate to those outside our community.
3. Seeking new ways of doing mission: what does mission look like in a carbon neutral world?

Chris Sunderland argued that climate change is a symptom of a wider malaise that cannot be cured with technical fixes. With half of the easily available oil having been used in his lifetime and the world population having grown from 2.5 billion to 6.7 billion in that time, we need to re-imagine human culture in a radical way, a way that is inevitably spiritual. He pointed out that the Biblical narratives come out of an agrarian community and that only 200 years ago most of our ancestors were agricultural labourers, whereas now 80% of the UK population live in towns and cities, as do 50% of the world's population. Without romanticising the harshness of rural life in past centuries, we need to recognise that something about humanity resonates with the land. Professor Edward Wilson has used the term biophilia to describe the human propensity to love the natural world. Chris pointed out that there exists a radical lifestyle movement today in which people are opting to work fewer days in order to be active in their community but that much of this is outside church community. Earth Abbey sees itself as part of this radical lifestyle movement. Working together is hugely important because it rejects the enlightenment idealisation of the individual.

Dave Bookless began by saying that the context of hope has never looked worse, in the light of the failure at Copenhagen, concern about climate change slipping down the political agenda and the huge missed opportunity of the financial crisis when the world community could have radically rethought the system. He too sees climate change as a symptom of the real crisis: a crisis of consumption and population 'we are the virus species on planet earth . . . the environment has a human problem'. He referred to Lord May's suggestion that we need to call on the fear of a divine punisher to make people act on climate change - a suggestion he recoils from. Rather Dave argued that, like St Francis, we need to undergo a triple conversion, to
1. God
2. Earth
3. Other
1. In conversion to God we recognise our fallenness in our idolatrous attitude to possessions (and remember that Jesus said more about money than anything else). The first great commission in scripture was to look after the earth and its creatures.
2. We need a Copernican revolution in understanding that the earth does not revolve around us - the earth was made for and by Christ. We need to reconnect with the earth, take up Rowan Williams' challenge to go for a walk, get wet, dig the earth.
3. As climate change causes millions of would-be migrants to our shores we need to put ourselves in their shoes and work out how to respond.

In the questions afterwards people queried the practicality of such radical vision and suggested that we needed to be 'green without being mean', to which both Dave and Chris were able to assure them that their greener lifestyle was much more fulfilling and stress-free than their previous habits.

Then Paul Chandler of Traidcraft officially opened the Big Brew with very heartening statistics on the rate at which fair trade is still growing: up 12% to £800 million in sales this year despite the ecomonic climate. He pointed out that Cadbury and Nestle in changing their flagship bars to fair trade are responding to consumer demand, we need to keep at it.

After our fairtrade tea and coffees the first workshops took place in the school.

I was leading one on how to become an Eco-congregation - thank you to everyone who turned up! As part of this I used items from our Sacred Space service back in November 07 - some of the resources can be found on that posting (click on the 'worship resources' tab if it's easier), others I'll put in at the bottom of this post. I mentioned our fairtrade communion wine but couldn't remember the source - it is Poterion.

Through the window into the next classroom I could see what looked to be a really interesting presentation from St George's Wash Common about their wonderful plans to become carbon neutral.

Lunch was an opportunity to catch up with friends in the sunshine and browse the various stalls (we had one for Reading Christian Ecology Link). Then there was another round of workshops at which I learnt a great deal about eco-schools. Back in the church the local MP emphasised the value of personal handwritten letters and face to face contact for lobbying, describing petitions as a devalued currency. The day ended with an act of worship prepared in one of the morning workshops - the creation story was humorously and imaginatively presented, as was the subsequent mess. Unfortunately technology let them down at the prayers (inevitably prompting comments on bearing that in mind on the larger scale) but it was a positive end to the event, including an invitation to decorate a tree in the chancel with a leaf (while praying) and a blossom (to indicate a commitment to act on something more).

Resources:
alongside the bar of chocolate I put poems from the Divine website (which also has lots of useful info including teachers' resources), information on child slavery and cocoa farmers.

'And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labour or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendour was dressed like one of these . . .' What strings are attached to the clothes we wear today?

Labels on strings pegged to clothing read:

Conventional cotton production accounts for 25% of global pesticide use. Some pesticides contribute to global warming and depletion of the ozone layer.

20,000 litres of water are required to produce one T-shirt

Uzbekistan's $1 billion government controlled cotton industry has taken so much water from the Aral Sea that onl 15% of it now remains and its 24 native species of fish are now extinct. Tens of thousands of children are taken out of school and forced to pick cotton during the harvest months. Some of these kids go temporarily blind due to the harsh pesticides used on the crop.
If any UK shopper bought cotton items from ten different shops or market stalls, chances are several would be from Uzbekistani cotton.

About 50% of all emissions of the greenhouse gas nitrous oxide are derived from nylon production.

Only 10-20% of cast offs in clothes banks make it to UK charity shops. The rest are sold off in the developing world, undercutting local textile manufacturers: in 1991 there were 140 textile manufacturers in Zambia, by 2002 there were only eight.

Some of these statistics came from Leo Hickman's A Good Life, a very useful resource!

Operation Noah Service

This Sunday we had our 'Environment Sunday' a month early. The theme was Operation Noah. I'd ordered their church pack, which includes quite a lot of lovely liturgical resources. The aim of our service was to move beyond the focus on shrinking our own carbon footprints, which we've tended to have in earlier services, and emphasise the importance of more pressure on government.

We began with the Creation song, God Said. Then we gathered all the children at the front to sit down so that I could read to them the first few pages of Nicola Davies's Ice Bear. This was a present to my youngest on his recent third birthday. It's a wonderful 'story', beautifully illustrated, in which every word is true. The combination of amazing facts and poetic language seemed a wonderful introduction. I ended with the line 'Nothing stops polar bear'. Then I gave every child a bag (old party bags and Riverford fruit bags actually) in which there was an animal mask and some crayons. Finding suitable masks to download and print out for this was probably the most time consuming part of preparing for the service. While they went back to their seats to to start colouring in, I addressed the adults:

Nothing stops polar bear? Nothing except us. By the end of Matthew's fifteenth summer many scientists believe there will be no summer sea ice at the Arctic ice cap. To remove an ice cap is a very dramatic thing to do to our planet.

It was only a few weeks ago that I learnt that – it was at a conference Jan organised at the warehouse. The speaker was Ian James – a professor of meteorology and the diocesan environment adviser. There is now more carbon dioxide in our atmosphere than there has ever been in human history. To quote Professor James ‘there is not the slightest doubt that this is the direct result of human activity: the burning of fossil fuels.’ Every year we are emitting the equivalent of a million years of photosynthesis into the atmosphere. He also said that despite all the talk of reducing emissions they are still accelerating. I won’t give you the whole scientific info as I’m sure most of you are very familiar with it. He concluded by saying ‘climate change is real, it’s happening now. At the moment it is relatively slight but there is no sign of it slowing down. By the time the problems are large and serious it will be irreversible’.
Of course, for many individuals in the poorest countries the problems are already large and serious – according to the UN, climate change is now a major reason for the number of displaced persons and refugees. Either their land can no longer feed them or stressed resources are leading to conflicts. And on top of all the human suffering – can I ask how often you think scientists believe another of God’s creatures or plants becomes extinct – one a month, one a week – any suggestions?
It’s one every six hours – that’s something like 1,000 times the natural average. 25% of all mammals are considered at risk of extinction – not just the polar bears. Both Old and New Testaments tell us that we look to God’s Creation to understand God – but we are erasing God’s fingerprints around us. How should Christian’s respond? We’re going to look at Christian Ecology Link’s suggestion on this, but first we’ll have another song,

(Most of that information came either from Ian James's talk at the Greening Faiths conference recorded earlier in this blog, A Rocha's Hope for Planet Earth presentation or Christian Aid's Countdown to Copenhagen DVD).

We then sang I the Lord of Sea and Sky.

Then the children with their masks were encouraged into a side room as Jeremy began a slightly edited reading of the Noah story. Pete was being the voice of God, cunningly hidden with his microphone so most people couldn't work out where he was. Steve mimed Noah's part and at the appropriate juncture young people and children began bringing in large cardboard pieces (constructed by Jeremy's daughters at home) which he assembled as the ark. Then the children came in again with their masks down, not quite two by two, to sit around the ark, and more toy animals went into the ark itself.

I stepped back in to link this story to the next part: skipping over the historical and theological complexities of the story, I focussed on the thought, to quote Operation Noah's website, that in a time of climate crisis Noah was a just man, a man who walked with God, who acted on the knowledge God gave him and protected Creation by those actions.

The first step to walking with God must be prayer, so we had five minutes to pray as people wished. Hamish played music, on the screens were some photos my son James took last summer (when he was four), there were post it notes for people to stick prayers to the ark and paper and crayons in the gallery.

We concluded this time of prayer by singing When I needed a neighbour.

Then I asked everyone 'who are our neighbours' - we had a variety of responses, from next door neighbours to all people. I then mentioned Ian James's argument (and my own at a previous service) that it is time to understand all created life as our neighbours because we are all interdependent.

The second question 'in a time of climate crisis, how do we love our neighbours' produced the succinct response 'watch our carbon footprints'. This was my cue to say:

In changing our own lifestyles we begin to reduce the problem and to restore the integrity of our relationship with our Creator God. But we need to spread that change – we need to tell our neighbours and our colleagues and we need to make our government take radical action. The industrial revolution began here in Britain – appropriately last year our government instituted the world’s first legally binding long term framework to tackle climate change, but we have to build on this and we can. More than a quarter of the world’s CO2 emissions come from our power supplies. That’s why this church has changed its electricity supplier to Ecotricity. Operation Noah want us to petition the government to take a lead at the climate summit in Copenhagen this December. As a first step we need global power station emissions cut by a third by 2020. The government say they don’t have enough of a mandate from the people to take the environmental actions needed – we have to take that excuse away. So, as a start, we have some origami arks to make with a petition on them for Gordon Brown.

Eveyone had been given the A4 sheet from Operation Noah's website as they came in. Instructions for folding appeared on the screens. The folding process took a good deal longer than I'd expected but people were helping each other. Part way through I realised that if people wanted to add a personal message this needed to be done before the Ark was complete, but I don't think this mattered.

Photographs were taken: unfortunately I'd failed to arrange for someone with a decent camera to attend so the picture up the top was the best I could manage. Half the children were mysteriously absent from it too. Notices were read, including encouragement to write our pledges for reducing our carbon footprint onto a poster for Reading Borough Council in preparation for their environment day: Forbury Fever on 6 June. We were also encouraged to sign Fairtrade Foundation postcards to Baronness Ashton, the new EU trade commissioner, asking for fairer relations with Africa, Asia and Latin America.

We concluded with the Rainbow prayer used at the launch of Operation Noah:
Creator God, how deep are your designs!
You made a living earth, cloud, rain and wind,
And charged us with their care.
We confess that the way we live today
is changing the climate,
the seas and the balance of life
dispossessing the poor and future generations.
Build our lives into an Ark for all creation,
and, as you promised Noah never to repeat the Flood,
so make us heralds of a new rainbow covenant:
choosing life for all that is at risk –
for creation,
for neighbours near and far,
for our children and ourselves.

This was followed by Sent by the Lord am I and a blessing.

Over coffee we showed the Christian Aid Countdown to Copenhagen DVD. I had to leave early but there was then a meal - these are meant to be free, but donations are encouraged to cover costs and any extra after costs goes to a charity so this week's will be for Operation Noah. I took 36 signed arks away with me but since not all were finished I hope to collect a few more before they're posted off.

Prophets of credit crunch and climate crisis

For the past few weeks in the notices we've been advertising a conference in Oxford, held today, on Food and Faith: Making the Connections. I know Ali planned to be there and hoped to bring back inspiration for church services. For last night we had invited some friends round to dinner and they asked to bring along an additional guest, Elizabeth Perry, who was staying over - it turned out that one of our friends, Maranda, and Elizabeth were both leading workshops at today's conference.

Inevitably we got to discussing global matters - Elizabeth asked how prepared we felt churches are for 5th December, to which most of replied 'what's happening then?'. The answer is a demonstration on climate change organised by the stop climate chaos coalition in the run up to the Copenhagen summit. Since most of us were unaware of this I commented on the similar sense I had felt that Operation Noah's 'ark campaign' doesn't seem to be getting much coverage.

Someone commented that nonetheless ON's Ann Pettifor and Mark Dowd are particularly good campaigners. Moreover, while commentators on the radio may be exclaiming that no one had predicted a credit crisis as bad as this, actually Ann Pettifor did exactly that in the clearly titled The Coming First World Debt Crisis in 2006 (having searched a bit on the internet since I find that she first predicted it in The Real World Economic Outlook: The Legacy of Globalization - Debt and Deflation, back in 2003 - also she has an interesting blog on the subject). I find myself thinking of other prophets ignored in our heritage.

[Coincidentally four days later I have been bombarded with e-mails about Operation Noah's four minte U-tube video - do take a look.]

More interesting information emerging in the evening is that Elizabeth runs a wonderfully useful looking online resource for Sunday teaching - Development matters: linked lectionary - which has ways of linking in the lectionary readings to development issues for every week including up to date facts and figures on the issues at stake. I've got files full of development literature I'm never sure about using because I don't know how accurate it is any more, so when we finally get round to linking Exclaimers lessons to the lectionary I'm sure I'll be using this for them too.

Sacred Space - Bread

Ten days ago Ali organised a bread themed Sacred Space - this is an evening Fresh Expressions service that happens once a month. It was very popular, including many children and young people. Ali writes:

Sacred Space Feb 2009
Jesus described himself as the Bread of Life (John 6:35) we wanted to explore this metaphor.
We began by hearing about the life of Brother Lawrence and how he learnt to be aware of God all through the day as he did the most menial tasks in the monastery kitchen, so we were invited to meet God as we made white bread rolls. Much flour and kneading later the rolls were left to prove and we moved into the church to visit various prayer stations to help us think and pray about bread:

A map of the world was accompanied by bread from around the world, rye bread, pittas, nans, chapattis etc so we could think of areas of the world where many people do not have enough to eat and could pray for them. We thought about issues of food justice and why some people are hungry and some governments unable to provide their people with basic food stuffs. About big corporations that keep seed prices high and use genetically modified seeds ad fertilisers that many subsistence farmers cannot afford.

At another station we watched yeast working, frothing up up in sugar water and thought of waiting time. We used Psalm 13 and remembered our own apparently unanswered prayers and God's promise that those who hunger and thirst after righteousness will be satisfied

At another we examined the labels from some bought bread and looked to see what is added. Our own bread had required only flour, yeast, water, milk and a little sugar and salt. Bought bread had a load of other stuff but we also discovered that there are things added to bread commercially which do not have to be declared on the label because the substances themselves do their work on the flour and other molecules and are then destroyed in the process of cooking....chemical oxidants and chemical improvers, lots of enzymes from genetically modified organisms.

Finally we all came together for a feast, the commonest image Jesus uses of heaven, we ate our delicious rolls with butter and fairtrade jam and honey and remembered some of the many stories about bread in the Bible.

A prayer from Christian Aid
Loving God, take our hands
take our lives
ordinary as wheat or cornmeal,
daily as bread-
our stumbling generosity
our simple actions,
and find them good enough
to help prepare the feast
for all your people

I would happily give all the information to anyone who wanted to try and copy it in their own church.
The main link I used was
http://www.sustainweb.org/realbread/index.php?id=448 and Andrew Whitley's lecture, all associated with the real bread campaign
http://sfbread.com/ the San Francisco Bread review site has stuff about the additives in bread.
Plus a lot of poems and information in Joy Mead's book The One Loaf ISBN 1-901557-38-3 published by Wild Goose Publications The Iona Community

Harvest Festival - how to feed 6 billion

On a strangely warm, very rainy morning we had a smaller congregation than usual for Worship Together (a number were at the priesting of a former congregation member) but we did have the cubs and plenty of children. About forty people stayed afterwards for our vegetarian meal (with salads from my Riverford veg box) - we'd been preparing for 60+ so everyone ate very well indeed and salads and bread were taken back for a student lunch tomorrow.

The theme of the service was the world food crisis, using materials from Christian Aid and Tearfund to explain this as well as inspiration from John Bell's talk on miracles at Greenbelt, specifically the feeding of the 5,000, to prompt thoughts about our response. But we began with lots of wonder and thanksgiving and a reminder that this is Animal Welfare Sunday. As people came in, lines from Psalm 148 were on the screen to set the tone:

Leader 1:
This is a time to celebrate God’s abundant gifts to us. Let us begin by saying together the prayer on the screen

God of ripe plums and meadowsweet, thank you for summer.
Thank you for warmth and beauty and wonder and rain.
Thank you for life (slightly adapted to suit this year's wet summer from Ruth Burgess's Bare Feet and Buttercups)

Song: Our God is a Great Big God

Leader 1:
Some of this service has been inspired by the weekend many of us spent at the Greenbelt Christian Arts festival in August – its theme was Rising Sun
cubs threw a soft earth around a bright sun
The earth orbits the sun astonishingly at just the perfect distance to sustain life. The earth’s circling forms the seasons whose cycle produces our glorious harvest.
Throughout history Christians have played on the word sun – meaning both the star of our solar system and the son of God, Jesus. This flaming ball gives us light and life, our physical energy, our food; spiritually it is Jesus who gives us light and life.
The cycle of death and rebirth in the sun’s seasons also echoes Christ’s story: death and rebirth to give us life
I’d like to share with you a song on this theme which is one of James’s favourites – and for this please can I invite children (especially small ones) to come to the front and lie down, as if you’re playing sleeping lions – there will be a time to leap up and jump for joy – you’ll know when. Those not lying down, please join in from your seats with the words on the screen.

Song: Sad, sad day (from Julia Plaut, Jumping for God - this was even more popular than I'd imagined)

Invite cubs to help Rosemary and encourage other children to sit close

Leader 2:
Children were given large cut outs AOKTNYHU - the congregation had to guess what they were supposed to spell and then tell children to move left or right accordingly until it read THANKYOU. Each child was asked their favourite something - colour, food, flower, fruit etc The congregation were given small cards and pens to make 'thank you' cards for God.

Song: Cauliflowers Fluffy (the cubs' choice)

Harvest gifts, cards and collection were brought up as music played.

Hymn: We plough the fields and scatter

Leader 1
God’s Creation is so plentiful, over abundant. Even with six billion people on this planet, this year enough food was grown to feed all of them according to the UN. But not all were fed. For millions of people in the developing world food has become unaffordable.

Leader 3
Two 'families' were given shopping bags of food to lay out on a picnic blanket before them - one a typical day's food for an ordinary family in England, the other the equivalent for Bangladesh (based on the most recent issue of Christian Aid's magazine)
Leader 1
Every day 25,000 people die of hunger and hunger related diseases
Asked the congregation for suggestions as to why there is such a food shortage and answers were typed up to appear on the screen
A picture of WALL-e was shown on the screen - the children were asked who he was and what he did . . .
human overconsumption has made the earth uninhabitable. 700 years after humans abandon the planet a robot probe discovers that photosynthesis has begun again – (plant in boot lifted up from behind lectern) a tiny plant in an old boot becomes the emblem of hope for life on earth: for the restarting of seasons and harvest. I place that here now as we say sorry to God for what we are doing to our planet and our neighbours. Let us say together the words on the screen.

God we are sorry for the way we use your gifts to us so carelessly
We are sorry that our actions are spoiling the precious balance between the earth and the sun so that our world is becoming too hot
We are sorry for wasting food while others go hungry
We are sorry for wasting water when some children spend four hours each day collecting it
We are sorry for buying things we do not need
We are sorry for throwing away things just because they are old or unfashionable
We are ashamed that the world is such an unfair place
We are sorry when we choose to bury our heads in the sand rather than seek fair solutions.
Lord forgive us and disturb us until we change to make your world a better place

Song: Beauty for Brokenness

'Reading' Mark 6:30-44 (memorised and delivered with some drama and an unplanned crowd of playing children)

Leader 1
One of the speakers at Greenbelt was the Iona community’s John Bell who spoke about the challenge of Jesus’ miracles. He spoke of the feeding of the 5,000 and a popular theory that the offering of loaves and fishes prompted others in the crowd to share their food too. This he suggested would have been a miracle of moving from possessiveness to generosity that has yet to be achieved in our world. But then he asked, is it harder to believe that Jesus could feed 5,000 people, or that the people of Britain could throw away 40% of their food while the people of Haiti eat mud cakes?
Is it more astonishing that Jesus could multiply those loaves and fishes or that a quarter of British children are overweight and obese while half of Indian children are undernourished?
This of course is a tragedy for Britain too. We have lost our sense of the value of true food because we are bombarded with apparently cheap food produced at high cost to animal welfare, to the environment, to its producers, to the migrant workers packing it and often to our own health. And it is our poorest who suffer most too
The miracle of the feeding of the 5,000 challenges us to ask, ‘how can we fairly feed 6 billion?’

We have some visual aids:

Children then wheeled in a series of wheelbarrows with props to prompt suggestions:

A veg box – [On the screen]: Locally grown food means less fuel has to be burnt to transport it. Anything that reduces greenhouse gas emissions is crucial to stop the floods and droughts that are destroying food crops. Organic food like this does not use nitrogen fertilizers which contribute to climate change and damage eco-systems.

Fairtrade food - Fairtrade food means children do not have to work in the fields. A fair wage for farmers means people can afford a better diet, as well as medicine and schooling for their children. Often it means wells can be dug so women and children do not have to spend hours each day walking to fetch unhealthy water.

Campaign cards - Poorer countries are trapped by world laws made by rich countries to benefit rich people. Organisations like Tearfund, ChristianAid and Traidcraft have lots of campaigns to change this horribly unfair system. After the service, please take a card or two from this barrow and act on them.

Vegetarian food and recipes - meat requires far more land and water to produce the same amount of protein as grain or beans. Much of the ‘greenhouse gas’ methane is produced by cattle. Moreover, most of the recent destruction of the Amazon rainforest has been caused by cattle ranching.
Apples from people's gardens to share - Sharing our harvests, as Hugh and Judy shared their apples, and sharing our possessions builds community, avoids waste and leads to lower greenhouse gas emissions

Empty barrow - We simply need to consume less. Everything we buy new causes more carbon emissions. What we throw away causes methane emissions or other poisons in the land. We can also buy more frugally – Reading market is often selling supermarket rejects and the Scouts will be having a jumble sale next month

Barrow of money and giving leaflets - on screen with images and read out
None of us have barrows full of money but the poorest of the poor need help from Tearfund and Christian Aid who depend upon us
At Greenbelt we saw how they are helping the people of Burkina Faso, where climate change has brought a 30 year drought and turned fertile land to desert
£62 pounds pays for a day’s training for a whole community in drought resistant farming techniques like building rock belts to hold in water . . .
£7.50 provides a farmer with enough drought-resistant millet seed to harvest a year’s food for four people - from the desert.

One more thing we can do – we didn’t put a barrow for this because I thought it was becoming a health and safety hazard, but it is just as important, it is to pray.
Let us offer God our hopes and our fears in prayer now

Creator God, please give us the strength and the imagination to help feed all the people on your planet

We pray for Britain’s farmers, we pray for the poor in Britain, and we pray for everyone affected by the current financial crisis.

We pray for those across the world who are hungry, and those who hunger for justice..Bring them peace, we pray, bring them food.

We pray for your beautiful planet and all its creatures

We pray for politicians all around the world – guide their decisions

We pray for Alison Wilkinson in Nepal , for Rowan and Matt in Bosnia; for Eddie Orme being priested today and for all those from this congregation working to build a fairer world.

We pray for all people we know are ill, or sad, confused, or lonely

Creator God, this earth and everything in it are miraculous and beautiful. Throughout history you have moved people to do amazing things for the sake of their neighbours. Inspire us now to stop climate change and to build a fair world for people and animals, a world where your will is done as it is in heaven. Amen.


The feeding of the 5,000 is a miracle of hope. Faced with all those tired and hungry people the disciples shared what little they felt they could spare, for an apparently impossible task. In the end it was more than enough. Through small steps with God miracles occur.

Song: Jubilate

The blessing of the God of life be ours
The blessing of the loving Christ be ours
The blessing of the Holy Spirit be ours,
To cherish us, to help us, to make us holy. Amen

************************************************

Over coffee we showed a Tearfund DVD

Creation Time 2

What happened about changing our electricity? Unfortunately few of the green team PCC members could attend the crucial meeting so this debate has been postponed. As for the bank - in the current climate I don't suppose the campaign about dirty development is top of their agenda of concerns but hopefully we will pick this up soon. On the positive side the vicar's choice of 97% natural, petrochemical free Naked soaps (not tested on animals and in bottles of recycled plastic) have been greeted with enthusiasm in the toilets! I've given bottles of several Ecover and Bio-D cleaning products to the cleaner and arranged to replace them as this becomes necessary, but she has a rather large stock of more toxic products to work through first.

The Creation Time leaflets with green tips and encouragements to celebrate Creation have gone out each week, although I think most of the congregation are unsure what they're doing in the notice sheet - something to rethink for next year. The talk on green electricity was well attended and followed by many questions. Leaflets from Christian Aid about changing to Ecotricity were available to take away, although I don't think a great many went.

This Sunday, although officially just after Creation Time, is really the climax of this season since it is our harvest festival. On a theme of feeding 6 billion we've used Christian Aid and Tearfund materials in preparing this. Afterwards there will be a shared lunch, the savoury part will be vegetarian and hopefully as much as possible will follow the LOAF principles.

In his wonderfully translated/adapted Love Poems from God Daniel Ladinsky includes the following words from St Francis that sum up the theme of the service:

There are beautiful wild forces within us.

Let them turn the mills inside
and fill
sacks

that feed even
heaven.

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'

Epiphany - journeying to Jesus

We had an informal Worship Together service for Epiphany including the following sketch about the wise men's journey:

We’re going to eves-drop on their journey, as told by David, Josh and Zach
Three figures in cloaks (one with bike, one with scooter)
Magi 1 (the littlest): Are we nearly there yet?
Magi 2: I have no idea. We are going to be SO late – it’s embarrassing. We should have just booked those Easy Jet tickets like I said.
Magi 3: Maybe we would have been on time, but I just couldn’t face kneeling before the King of all Creation knowing he knew I’d just sent a couple of tonnes of CO2 into his upper atmosphere. I don’t think he’d appreciate me helping flood Bangladesh just to get to see him a bit quicker.
Magi 1: Well I reckon motorbikes would have been much more sensible – we’d still have been on time and little boys love motorbikes.
Magi 2: I’m not sure this one’s quite like other little boys. Anyway, you’d have had to leave me behind – I get so travel sick. (make retching noise)
Magi 3: I still think that guy in the bazaar with the magic carpets was worth listening to.
1 and 2 look at 3 in disbelief.
Magi 2: Well this isn’t getting us any closer is it? Come on, let’s keep going.
Magi leave.

We subsequently approached our confession in the light of the wise men's mistake in discussing their journey with Herod:
The wise men had assumed that they should look for a king in the big city of Jerusalem. They had expected to find wisdom in the king’s palace. They were simply acting according to the logic of the world they lived in. But their detour to Jerusalem meant that Bethlehem’s baby boys were killed.
Living our lives according to what appears to make sense in this world can similarly lead to tragedy. The impending catastrophe for our climate is an obvious example, the apparent logic of free trade which nonetheless keeps the poorest poor is another.

Towards the end of the service we discussed what we need to pack for our own spiritual journeys. In considering both aids to prayer and things that bring us closer to God more generally, it was decided that opportunities to be outside in the natural world were valued by many of us (a pair of walking shoes was duly included in the suitcase).

Green Sunday

On 1st July 2007 we properly introduced the morning congregation to our Eco-congregation plans with a Worship Together service - the order of service used Iona Community Wild Goose Worship Group and Christian Aid materials (some significantly adapted like the confession to include confessing to younger people what we've done to our world), a sketch taken from a link to the Eco-congregation website, a Creation drama I had written and a powerpoint presentation on the crisis in the environment and our response.

We started horribly late because we couldn't get the loop system working but that gave time for everyone to arrive and for us to organise the children who were doing the drama. One member of the congregation said she was almost in tears during the powerpoint, despite the unintended comedy moment when an image of a mountain gorilla appeared on the screen just as I said 'As Christians'. For others the highlight was the Creation drama - the pantomime dinosaur was a hit and it took everyone by surprise when the two dads who'd carried on closed cardboard boxes so nonchalantly lifted their toddler son and daughter from inside. Stuart had spent hours adapting the powerpoint presentation specifically ensuring that the rotating image of the earth was how our planet had looked earlier that very morning (luckily he noticed it was rotating the wrong way before we started).

Order of Service 1 July 2007

On screen at the front as people come in – image of the Earth with ‘The Earth is the Lord’s and Everything in it’ - Becoming an Eco-Congregation written below it

Light a candle on the altar

O God, who called all life into being
The earth, sea and sky are yours
Your presence is all around us
Every atom is full of your energy
Your Spirit enlivens all who walk the earth
With her we yearn for justice to be done
For creation to be freed from bondage
For the hungry to be fed
For captives to be released
For your Kingdom of Peace to come on Earth

Please sit. This morning’s service is a part of our commitment to becoming an Eco-congregation. Becoming an Eco-congregation is about bringing care for creation into three areas of our church life – the spiritual, the practical and our relationship with the wider community. At the end of this service we would like to invite everyone to help develop an action plan for this process.

As an all age worship I’m hoping all you children will find the whole service interesting, but just in case there’s the odd brief boring bit, we have prepared an activity sheet for under twelves – if you don’t have one please pick one up from the tables at the back of the church. These sheets tell the story of Joseph great grandson of Abraham whose story we’ve been looking at in Exclaimers. Joseph was sold as a slave to passing camel traders by his jealous brothers and ended up in Egypt – on the activity sheets you’ll find the story of how God warned that there would be no harvests but that Joseph and Pharoah were careful with the earth’s resources so that the people of Egypt did not starve. It seems a good story to bear in mind as we think about the threat of global warming.

This service is about our relationship with the natural world and the implications of that for our relationships with God and with all of God’s children. Inevitably we’re going to be thinking about the threat of climate change to our planet and its people. But we want to begin with a celebration of the goodness of God’s Creation.

We begin with a hymn that celebrates that goodness and what it tells us of God
Hymn – How Great Thou Art

Please sit. Jonathan and Naomi will read a story of the Creation

Voice 1. In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, there was nothing. And God said
Voice 2. Y’he cymbals crash Let there be
Voice 1. Through the Word all things came into being and the Spirit of God swept over the face of the void. In the first minute of time, the universe stretched a million billion miles across. Two minutes more and God had made 98 per cent of all the matter there is or ever will be.
Perhaps about 9 billion years passed.
And God caught up a swirl of gas and dust 24 billion kilometres wide and from almost all that gas and dust God made our sun. But around it still spun the dust grains that became its planets. God spent two million years fashioning this planet earth.
Throw the planet ball back and forth across the central space.
And God saw that it was good. There was evening and there was morning. The first day.


Voice 1. About 500 million years later, God said
Voice 2. Let there be life
Voice 1. And beneath sulphurous vapours in boiling seas bacteria swarmed. And some became blue-greens who could photosynthesize. And God saw that it was good.
Two children walk on covered with blue and green crepe strips and blowing bubbles.
The blue greens sent up bubbles of oxygen - like beads of silver on the surface of the deep - and over millennia these transformed the atmosphere and built the ozone layer.
And there was evening and there was morning. The second day.
Children sit to the side

Voice 1. And God said
Voice 2. Let the waters bring forth swarms of living creatures.
Voice 1. Plants grew in the seas. Corals and sponges formed.
Children with white crepe jelly fish outfit or worms on sticks walk on wiggling them
Worms and jellyfish swam, then trilobites and ammonites.
God made fish about 160 million years after the ammonites.
And there was evening and there was morning. The third day.
Children sit to the side

Voice 1.And God said
Voice 2. Let the earth put forth vegetation: plants yielding seed and trees of every kind.
Voice 1. And it was so.
Child wheels in wheelbarrow of plants to set around the bottom of the altar
God planted mosses and liverworts along the shoreline. And sowed the horsetail and club-mosses that would become our coal.
God planted the ferns that waved among them and the pine trees and the cedar that towered above.
Child walks off with wheelbarrow
And God saw that it was good. And God said
Voice 2. Let the earth bring forth creeping things and insects that fly
Voice 1. And it was so.
Children bring in insect mobiles (made previous week at Exclaimers)
Millipedes crept through the mosses and silverfish slid across the ground. Amphibians, some of them four metres long, dominated the earth for about hundred million years. Grasshoppers chirped and the blue dragonflies hovered over head.
And God saw that it was good.
And there was evening and there was morning. The fourth day.

Voice 1. And then God created the great land monsters that were the dinosaurs and also the tortoise and the snake and then the opposum.
Dinosaur with two Exclaimers under it walks on
And 180 million years ago God said
Voice 2. Let the waters under the sky be split into smaller seas and dry land spread around the globe
Voice 1. And God split the plates of the earth asunder and the continent of Pangea broke up and moved about the earth.
And God saw that it was good. And there was evening and there was morning. The fifth day.

Voice 1.And God said
Voice 2. Let these lands be filled with wild animals of every kind, and let birds fly above the earth across the dome of the sky; let plants bring forth flowers and great whales swim the seas.
Voice 1. And all this was so for God created the wild animals of the earth and the birds of the air, the flowering plants and the giants of the deep.
65 million years ago the climate changed and the earth grew cold and the dinosaurs died. And then God made many more wondrous creatures.
And perhaps just 3 million years ago, or perhaps less than a hundred thousand, God said
Voice 2. Let us make humankind in our own image and likeness, that they too may delight in these works, and create with us, and share in the husbandry of the fish of the sea, and of the birds of the air, and of every living thing that moves upon the earth.
Two dads carry on large boxes marked as if posted and lift their babies out
Voice 1. So God created humankind, male and female, in God’s image. God looked at everything and indeed it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning. The sixth day.

And on the seventh day God rested.

But God’s creating had not stopped nor were the plates of the earth stilled. And in their scriptures people celebrated a God who watches over the calving of the deer and helps the lion hunt its prey, who fathered the rain and gave birth to the ice, who gave the horse its might and by whose wisdom the hawk soars.
And God so loved this world that ‘he became flesh pause and dwelt among us’

This is the world of the Lord


Leader: Thank you.
What do you love most about Creation? Please take a couple of minutes in threes and fours in your pews to share with others the things that are most precious or wonderful to you about the created world.

Let us come together to give thanks to God for Creation and for our place within it in the words of Psalm 8. Please stand.

Psalm 8
ALL: WONDERFUL GOD, CREATOR,
THE WHOLE EARTH DECLARES YOUR GREATNESS
women: Your glory glows in the heavens.
It is babbled by babies and sung by children.
men: You are safe from all your enemies;
Those who oppose you are silenced.
women: When I look at the sky which you have made,
The moon and the stars that you set in place:
men: Where do human beings fit in the pattern?
What are we, that you care for us?
women: You have made us only a little lower than yourself;
And crowned us with glory and honour.
men: You share with us responsibility
To care for sheep and cattle, wild things, birds and fish,
Everything that lives in the sea:
To work with you, within creation
ALL: WONDERFUL GOD, CREATOR,
THE WHOLE EARTH DECLARES YOUR GREATNESS

Please sit. We need a doctor

Richard and Rosemary's Planet doctor sketch

Extinction/climate change powerpoint
Our planet has entered the sixth great extinction event of its history, triggered not by natural phenomena but by human actions.

Ever since the introduction of farming 10,000 years ago we have been changing the balance of life on our planet

But in the last two hundred years things have been changing rapidly. Today tens of thousands of species are under threat because we are destroying their habitats – for our food, for fuel, for tourism, for gold and jewels, for hardwood furniture, for cheap clothes, by accidental pollution, to build roads and so on.

For instance, in the last 150 years 93% of tiger habitat has been destroyed – there are probably only about 6,000 of them left in the wild.

The Wind in the Willows is James’s favourite book – the hero Ratty is of course a water vole

In the course of the 1990s the British water vole population dropped by 88 per cent. Modern farming practice, water pollution and escapee mink from fur farms have made ratty our most endangered mammal

As Christians we are called to prioritise the least. To cherish and protect the vulnerable. In today’s world perhaps that is not just the widow and the orphan. Perhaps it is also the mountain gorillas of whom only 700 now remain.

Now we understand just how interconnected life on earth is. Now we know that the rainforest trees are the lungs of our planet.

Now we know also that plants in these threatened habitats can be crucial to our lives – the Madagascan Rosy Periwinkle can increase the chance of surviving childhood Leukemia from 10% to 95%.
Perhaps it is fair now to understand the rainforests as our neighbours.
And it is not just distant wildlife that is precious. Scientists are now associating some mental health problems, particularly in children, with a nature deficit disorder. Physically, mentally and spiritually we need a better relationship with the rest of God’s Creation.
But now an even greater threat looms – on top of this current extinction event, there is the emerging catastrophe of global warming

Global warming is already happening. This graph shows temperatures suddenly rising up to the year 2000 but the trend is continuing – 2005 was the hottest year on record, but last April was the hottest April on record.

The overwhelming consensus of the scientific community is that increased levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere are directly contributing to higher global temperatures, and that humans are responsible for this increase in carbon dioxide levels. In the past 150 years we have burnt up fossil fuels that took 200 million years to produce.

The consequences of continued warming will be catastrophic for many species. And humans too are already suffering. Higher temperatures mean more extreme weather conditions
In 2003 Europe was hit by a heatwave that killed 39,000 people
In 2004 there were more tornadoes in the US than in any other year in history.

But those hit hardest are the poorest.
Tens of millions of people in low-lying nations such as Bangladesh, Vietnam and Egypt will be threatened by further sea level rises caused by ice sheets melting.

But in countries like Senegal droughts are rendering land infertile.

A staggering 182 million people in sub-Saharan Africa alone could die of disease directly attributable to climate change by the end of the century.
The Red Cross has estimated that already 25 million refugees (58 per cent of the global total) owe their displacement to climate change. Christian Aid fears there will be a billion more.
Climate change threatens to undo all of the progress made by development agencies in recent years – that is why organisations like Tearfund and Christian Aid are urging us passionately to do all we can to stop this catastrophe and why the Church of England is committed to cutting it’s carbon footprint to 40% of its current level.

Again it is a matter of our obligations to the poorest and those already most vulnerable. At the moment the energy hungry lifestyles of those who live in rich nations are condemning the poorest to lose their livelihoods and their lives. While each of us emits almost 10 tons of carbon dioxide every year, those in sub-Saharan Africa emit less than a ton.

To help us address this personally, Christian Aid have produced a carbon calculator so that we can make an estimate of our own CO2 emissions and consider our response. Our home group have already used these and found the results surprising. If you would like a copy please let me know after the service. To avoid catastrophic climate change scientists estimate that each of us should emit no more than 2.5 tonnes. That is a hugely ambitious target.



With all this in mind, we turn to our confession. Please stand. Can I invite Andy and anyone else under 25 who wants to come up to the front at this point to do so – we will need you for the absolution
Let us confess our sins
Creator God
Your fertile earth is being stripped of its riches, your living waters are being poisoned, your clear air is dark with the smoke of burning oil and forests
Open our eyes to see

Creator God
The rich plants and wondrous animals you gave us to care for are under threat – orangutans face extinction so that we can have palm oil, tigers are dying out so that we can have coffee, rainforests are burning so that soya can be grown for chicken feed – a million species will be lost in just fifty years if we cannot stop our climate changing
Open our eyes to see

Creator God
Our sisters and brothers are losing their sources of food and fuel, the poorest in our world are being made poorer, drought and floods threaten to make millions of refugees and to undo all the progress that development agencies and debt cancellations have made. Our sisters and brothers are dying because of the way we live
Open our eyes to see

To all the children and young people we make our confession too. All those over 25 saying together
We confess to you that we have sinned through thoughtlessness, through idleness and greed, by the destruction we have caused and the actions we have failed to take.
We are truly sorry.
We repent of all that we have wasted and the bounty we have squandered, knowing that the world will be poorer for your generation.
Inspire us to turn back the tide and work to heal this broken planet. Challenge our complacency, nag us when we fall short and keep us accountable for your future.
Amen

Children: May God forgive you, Christ renew you and the Holy Spirit guide us all to rebuild this world.

(thank children and send them back) Please remain standing for a hymn from the Iona community –
Hymn: Inspired by Love and Anger

Joanna: Please sit. It is easy to be overwhelmed by the scale of the crisis in Creation which faces us and to feel burdened by humankind’s responsibility. Our homegroup recently watched the film The Matrix which is a futuristic nightmare of a computer dominated world. In one scene the computer generated Agent Smith argues that people are not really mammals because all other mammals regulate their population according to the resources of the land they inhabit, humans, he says, are more like a virus that devastates its host.

Christianity doesn’t see it that way. Humankind is an integral part of a very good Creation. More than that, humankind is made in the Creator’s image. One of Christianity’s most famous ‘green’ heroes is St Francis and I recently came across a poetic translation of some of his words which celebrate the mysteriously beautiful relationship between humans and the rest of God’s Creation.

We bless the earth with each step we take.
And the firmament too needs our touch:
Someday your tenderness will reach it.
Look how the birds climb some invisible staircase
and lay their hands upon Him.
Of course I am jealous, when I too cannot do that.
The seas waited long to sing. Not until we leaped out laughing
Was their birth of us complete.

We have a huge task ahead of us, but St Francis’s words encourage me that we are mentally and spiritually equipped for it, even designed for this task, to be good for the Earth, to work in a positive relationship with life on Earth. And we are not alone – the Holy Spirit who breathed over the waters at Creation is with us, making things possible.

But where do we begin? Clearly it is something to be worked at on so many levels – in prayer and political action and our everyday lives. For different people different aspects will be easier and I think it is crucial to feel ourselves working in community with others and with God because otherwise our efforts can easily appear too small to make any difference.

That is where becoming an Eco-congregation comes in. Those of us who have been meeting up over the last few months have sent off a preliminary action plan to register ourselves with Eco-congregation but would like to use this service to build on that. The idea is that once we feel we’re really quite a green church we apply for the Eco-congregation award, a bit like being registered as a fair-trade church, and our efforts will be assessed by someone associated with Eco-congregation.
Please think about what you would like to change in the life of the church and in your own lives? Wild daydreams are allowed at this stage but we’re especially keen on actions that you are prepared to set in motion!

This is a summary of our action plan so far:

Powerpoint summary

Joanna. In the gallery there are large sheets of paper on the tables – at some point between now and when you leave the church please write your ideas on these sheets – all ideas: crazy and practical, about the spiritual, the practical and the community focussed – and preferably put your name beside your idea. If someone has had the same thought, please add your agreement so that we know which ideas are most popular.
And what about our lives beyond church? It makes sense to start with just one issue and build on that. To start empowering ourselves for that we thought it would be helpful to break into discussion groups on certain themes and for each group to put together a poster of ideas that others can look at over lunch – hopefully there’ll be no more than about 10 people in each group so everyone gets to talk.
We thought the young people would prefer their own discussion groups, so Ann Morrison will co-ordinate under 10s . . . and Alison will co-ordinate the over 10s
For adults we’ve come up with five issues to talk on –
If you’re interested in questions of food and shopping – see Ali, Helen or Josie
For questions of transport see Richard
For energy and water use see Alex or Nigel
For recycling and re-using Rosemary
And for political action – me


Joanna: Please can we return to our seats to offer up all that we have been discussing in our prayers.

Let us pray
Creator God, take our feet off the path of destruction. Help us to treasure and conserve the resources of the Earth. Help us to share your bounty fairly. Teach us to find joy in living more simply and to love your world.
Amen

Please stand for our final hymn
Hymn: The Servant King


Let us remain standing to bless one another in the words of a Celtic blessing
Blessing
Deep peace of the running wave to you
Deep peace of the flowing air to you
Deep peace of the quiet earth to you
Deep peace of the shining stars to you
Deep peace of the Son of Peace to you
Amen