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The magazine of Christian Ecology Link Summer 2013 Issue 75 Price £3.50

Send in the ClownsTransition and Hope

Imagination and Resistance in Action

2 Green Christian – Issue 75 – Summer 2013

CONTENTS

Green ChristianPublished by Christian Ecology Link

EditorChris Walton, Ringsfield EcoCentre,Beccles, Suffolk NR34 8JRT: 07881 941296E: [email protected]

Editorial CommitteeDeborah Tomkins, Deidra Munro, AshleyRalston, Paul Bodenham, Barbara Echlin,Westley Ingram.Book Review Editor Miriam Pepper

SubmissionsContributions should ideally be made bye-mail as attached files. Alternativelyclear typescript is acceptable whennegotiated with the editor. Accompanyingphotos and drawings are encouraged. Anearly phone call to the editor to indicatean intention to write is very helpful.

Editorial PolicyGreen Christian is intended as a forumfor Christians of all traditions to reflecton, and contribute to, current thinkingand action in the Green Movement. Theopinions expressed by guest authors donot necessarily reflect the views of theeditors but are welcome for theirsincerity and insight. Items mailed withGreen Christian reflect the views of theirauthors or publishers and not necessarilythose of Christian Ecology Link.

Paper StockThis issue of Green Christian is printedon Revive 100 Silk, paper made from100% recycled de-inked post consumerwaste silk paper. It is fully biodegradable.Further details from the editor.

Magazine DistributionDuncan Miller, 4 Over Mill Drive,Birmingham, B29 7JL

[email protected]

Printed byEAM Printers, 11 The Sterling Complex,Farthing Road, Ipswich, Suffolk IP11 5AP

Next IssueCopy Deadline 31 August 2013Publication date November 2013

ChairmanPaul Bodenham, CornerCottage, Main Street,Langar, Nottingham NG13 9HET: 01949 861516E: [email protected]

TreasurerEleanor Orr, 35 Kitto Road,London SE14 5TW. T: 020 7732 6550E:[email protected]

Membership SecretaryRichard and Nicky Kierton,Flat 1, 31 St James Terrace,Buxton SK17 6HS

www.greenchristian.org.uk

Christian Ecology Link (CEL)is an interdenominationalUK Christian organisationfor people concerned aboutthe environment. It offersinsights into ecology andthe environment toChristian people andChurches and offersChristian insights to theGreen Movement.

Press office andrequests for speakersJo Abbess, CEL InformationOfficer, 10 Beech Hall Road,London E4 9NX. T: 0845 459 8460E: [email protected]

Resource MaterialsJill Vogler, 40 The Avenue,Roundhay, Leeds, WestYorkshire LS8 1JG

PrivacyMembers have occasionallyasked for the addresses ofother members who livenear them, and we havesent out a county list.

If you do not wish to beincluded, please notify theMembership Secretary.

Basis of FaithWe affirm our belief in Godas Creator of all things andin Jesus Christ as Lord,looking to the Holy Spiritfor guidance through theScriptures, and seeking tohear Him in the challengesof the present time.

PatronsRt Rev James Jones, Fr Sean McDonagh, Sir Jonathon Porritt, Prof Sir Ghillean Prance, Dr Elaine Storkey

ContentsWelcome to Green Christian Issue 75 Summer 2013

FEATURES

4 Transition and Hope – from head, toheart, to handJohn Whitehead reminds us that ‘we are theprophetic presence of the living risen Jesus Christ’

6 Not Screechers but BelieversEdward Echlin and Ruth Jarman reply to SamNorton

8 The Stream of Life rolls onReflections on CEL’s annual conference 2013

9 Democracy needs Prophets too

10 Cosmic JusticeMark Bredin insists that social justice withoutecological justice is no justice at all

13 - 16 Centre pullout A Storm of Hopecall to Non Violent Direct Action

REGULARS

3 EDITORIALSend in the Clowns

12 FINDING THE STILL POINTRoss Ashley continues herseries on directions

17 CEL NEWS

19 LOCAL GROUPS Isobel Murdoch sees the shadesand the shadows

21 RESOURCE REVIEWS

26 MAIL BAG

27 PRAYERSCRIPT PaulBodenham

P19

P1

P14

Cover: This image of the clown was given to me by a young Christian artistback in the 1980s when as minister of The Church of the Redeemer (a radicalBaptist Church in Birmingham) I declared that in order to preach the gospeland live as a disciple we need to become clowns. I was just 30 somethingthen. Now 35 years later, I believe it all the more passionately (for Send in theClowns, see p.20).

www.greenchristian.org.uk 3

EDITORIAL

Why the image of a clown?

Have this mind among yourselves,which is yours in Christ Jesus, whothough he was in the form of God, didnot count equality with God a thing tobe grasped but emptied himself, takingthe form of a servant, being born in thelikeness of humans. And being found inhuman form he humbled himself andbecame obedient unto death, evendeath on a cross.

Philippians 2.5-8

This is the role of the clown: not thecircus clown, more the court jester.Not the slapstick artist, more the fool onthe edge of things, willing to be clownenough to seek the kingdom of Godwithout any expectation of any reward orblessing.

Jesus was made into a clown. Theprophet is a clown. You make yourselfnobody, empty yourself, to be filled bythe earth’s agenda. We are a communityof prophets and clowns, anonymous butnot defeated; in the minority but nothopeless; easily ridiculed but notdestroyed; resilient but not dogmatic;open-minded as a community but notgiving up easily. Prophets and clownsare willing to be vulnerable, layingthemselves open by acting as servantsin a world which despises weakness,lack of ambition and difference.

In the Summer of 2008 Paul Bodenham,Chair of CEL (see GC65) invited us toengage the heart in our eco-praxis. His‘Liberation Cycle’ has sustained us overthe years – See, grieve, hope, act. Wetake another look at this cycle ofintentional vulnerability for clowns andprophets.

SeeWhere are the clowns?*

Many years ago in my early years inpastoral ministry I developed theprocess of working from experience tothe Bible, rather than the other wayround.

Understanding the contemporary contextand offering that up to the story of theBible produced a powerful hermeneutic,which opened up space for members ofmy Churches to imagine-against-the-stream. My preaching did not provide arestful, inner sense of peace, a way ofmoving closer to God’s ‘still waters’(Psalm 23:2), despite what is going on inthe world but rather, an honestassessment of a situation and the poetryto inspire ‘a shared willingness toengage in gestures of resistance andacts of deep hope’.

GrieveWhere are the clowns?*

Prophetic consciousness knows thatthere is no newness without grief. Theappalling plight of the suffering earth,the statistics of death and destruction ofall species can only bring us on ourknees with grief. Acknowledgement ofour own weaknesses and failurescomprehensively results in tears. If wenever shed a tear, it’s like saying there’snothing wrong; we are in denial.‘Weeping is a theologically-grounded actof resistance’.

ActThere ought to be clowns*

Jesus demanded not only that we loveour friends but our enemies too; not onlythat we preach and pray, but that wefeed the hungry, visit those in prison,clothe the naked, care for the wholeearth community. It is in our actionsoffering the poor hospitality, resisting thetide of injustice and poverty which thepowers that rule the earth use to destroythe earth itself that we learn what itreally means to be clowns (fools) forChrist’s sake. Only then will the bruisedand bleeding community of Christ pourout fresh healing and hope in an age ofdevastating despair.

HopeSend in the Clowns*

CEL member, Ross Ashley articulates theStorm of Hope as wild foolishness. As itsees and grieves hope acts as thoughstories can be changed, and it is we whomust change them. It is the living out ofwhat one envisages as though the storyhas changed, believing it can change.Hope will believe in a determined,imaginative way, and can work as apowerful, peaceful underground – aresistance. This will mean action –fighting for change, exposing the areaswhere fear rules quietly, and perhapsmost importantly working on the edge,being prepared to be judged a fool,making sacrifices, making noises,insisting on being heard, regardless ofwhether it is seen to win or be provedright.

Send in the ClownsDon’t bother, they’re here!*

This issue indicates that the CELcommunity’s prophets and clowns areout and about. It does not meanacceptance, the world does notimmediately welcome us as we staggerbelatedly into the arena. Some will askwhere we’ve been all this time, somecastigate us for our ‘politics’. Others willcling to their private God, others stareand laugh at our servanthood, otherssimply ignore us.

We’ll just continue on the journey ofbecoming ordinary clowns, like Jesus, inextraordinary times. n

* see p.20

Send in the Clowns Prophets and Clowns – imagination and resistance in action

Chris Walton and Ross Ashley introduce the clown

Photo: Brian Homer


FEATURE

Introduction

The purpose of this article on Transitionis to set this world’s present daychallenges in the context of a globalcovenant theology. It argues thatTransition Towns, a secular movementconnecting Head, to Heart, to Hand,has a theological dimension whichmakes more incisive and inclusive abelief in God’s Covenant with the whole‘biotic’ community – a concern which isnoticeably muted in Church debates.The underpinning theological ‘given’ isthe ever-urgent call for Christians toproclaim the Gospel ‘to the ends of theearth’, in the conviction that theKingdom proclaimed and the Covenantenacted by Jesus means this-worldlytransformation, ‘on earth as in heaven’.

New Initiatives

Today’s mindset is increasinglycontoured by media pressures, globalcommerce and centralised government.Yet it is also evident that pressingglobal issues have led to movementslike Transition Towns and the LowCarbon Communities Network, whichaim to reverse the damage caused byexploiting the global at the expense ofthe local. In Rural Theology 68 Vol. 5Part 1 (2007) Edward Echlin notes that‘Distant (and eroding) fields that growfood for our supermarkets, and thesprawling estates built on fertile soil,are no substitute for the security ofcarefully nurtured and familialbioregional hinterlands’ (p.4). Followingthe recent head-lined exposure ofunidentified horse meat in beef burgers,many are asking, what precisely is intheir packaged food, and where does itoriginate? – in ‘distant fields’ (andprocessing) certainly!

The Transition movement’sevangelical purpose is to move fromglobal dependence to local resilience.

Since its inception in 2005, inspired bythe young permaculture designer RobHopkins at Kinsale, Ireland, it hasmushroomed into some 400 communitygroups, including ventures in the USAand South America. Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall writes: ‘My first experienceof Transition came in 2008, when Itravelled to Totnes to film a sequenceabout Garden Share, a project thatmatched people who wanted to growfood but had nowhere to do it withpeople who had unused or underusedgardens around the town. It was abrilliantly simple initiative, and above alla practical one that was getting a greatresponse’ – The Transition Companion,Hopkins (2011 p.12 ). There is a clearresonance here with the ministry ofJesus in the Gospels, where hepreached and healed within localsituations, yet also at the same time hereached out beyond family and friends–‘to the one who asks from you, give...’(Luke 6, 30). Thus motivated, thereappeared communities of solidarity andmutual caring in the early church (Acts2, 43,44).

The parallel between Christianity andTransition can be discerned in the word‘biotic’ – a term brought to the writer’sattention by an American correspondentDaniel Deffenbaugh. In Learning theLanguage of the Fields: Tilling andKeeping as a Christian Vocation (2006),Deffenbaugh argues: ‘Christ is neithercosmic nor particular but a mediationof the two: Christ is a biotic communityin which meaningful being becomes

Transition and Hope -from Head, to Heart, to HandJohn Whitehead reminds us that ‘we are the prophetic presence of the living andrisen Jesus Christ’

incarnate as “being with”, that is, as theexperience of having entered intomutually-affirming relationships withothers who share my life-place.’ Thus‘biotic’ refers to the integratedfunctioning of all that lives and movesand has being, inclusive of people aswell as environment. The earth onwhich all living depends is enfolded inthe ‘biotic community’, and is the placewhere Kingdom and Transition are tohappen. The process ‘from head, toheart, to hand’ expresses ‘bioticcommunity’ in practice. Ellen Davis inScripture, Culture, and Agriculture: anAgrarian Reading of the Bible (2009)portrays the divine covenant as a moraleconomy. Referring to the OldTestament Holiness Code she explainsthat ‘its point of orientation is the webof relationships uniting the variousmembers of the land community: earthanimals and humans’ (p.90). Theimplication of the story of Naboth’svineyard is that ‘A healthy economy ispart of an authentic local culture’. Sheprovides a contemporary illustrationfrom Cedar Grove, a small communityin North Carolina. Grieved by rifts in thecommunity:

‘A lifelong member of the community,a woman whose grandfather hadbeen born into slavery, offered fiveacres of land to Cedar Grove UnitedMethodist for the purpose of plantinga community vegetable garden. NowAsians, Mexicans, Hondurans, Africanand European Americans, Christiansand non-Christians, poor andrelatively rich, work that landtogether, and have weekly dinners onthe ground. The older farmerscontribute their local knowledge andtheir manure – things that no one hadseemed to value before. The food


FEATURE

goes to those who need it most ... Acommunity that a few years ago wasriven by fear is now growing in trustand joy’ (p.118).

The Church Dimension

Here Rob Hopkins makes a pointstrongly felt by many: ‘It seems clearthat a great deal of damage andwounding has gone on in the world inthe name of organised religions, and ofspirituality in general, and so somepeople are very wary indeed about thewhole issue’, though he goes on to say‘it is perhaps necessary that no one inany sense “pushes” his or her spiritualapproach, but, equally, this whole areaof human experience is not unwelcome.’(op.cit. p.141). So there is anopportunity here if members ofChurches can set light to ‘”the Church”as structure, ministers, orientation’ ...and remember that ‘we are theprophetic presence of the living andrisen Jesus Christ’ Echlin (2010 p.106).

Transition in Practice

Ashton Hayes, a village of 1,000 peoplenear Chester, where action was startedby the Low Carbon CommunitiesNetwork, gave this information on itswebpage:

The pub has been the meeting placefor many of ourteam meetingsand in recentyears all thelandlords havebeen verysupportive of the project and arekeen to welcome visitors. Initially thebrainchild of local resident GarryCharnock, the project was adopted bythe Parish Council in November 2005,and officially launched at a publicmeeting held in Ashton Hayes PrimarySchool on 26th January 2006. Thelaunch meeting was a huge success,attended by 400 people. Awareness-raising with residents has cut thecarbon footprint of the village’shouseholds by 20% in 12 months.Tree planting is helping to offsetremaining [email protected]

From a theological perspective, theunderlying narrative of the HebraicCovenant with the whole creation, when

allied to Christ’s mission on earth asportrayed in the Gospels, enunciates adeep-rooted sense of divine providence.This still underpins particularly themindset of those who have grown up inthe countryside. The writer remembersa farmer in the parish whom he knewon the school governors committee –not a person who attended Church –saying after a difficult summer: ‘youknow, vicar, seedtime and harvest shallnot fail’. Through imaginative projects,this traditional sense of provision andredeeming can meld with the altruistic,community-orientated purposes seen inTransition projects and Low CarbonCommunities.

Believing and Behaving Hopefully

Transition initiatives are succeedingbecause of their underlying ethic ofcollaboration, persons in relationship,which enables the local outworking ofcarbon footprint reduction to take off.What the Transition movementpromotes is a wellbeing that lies in avibrancy of place, and of life-styles andmethods of local economy which bothrespect the actual environment, andalso epitomise the action which isrequired on a global scale. From thisperspective, supra-local and supra-national agencies have a role asenablers, not as exploiters.

The Transitionmovementdemonstrates atheological vision inanother sense: itscharacter is shaped

by its future vision. The world of the21st century, according to manyrespected observers, has reached acritical juncture, where ‘business asusual’ could end in the partialdestruction of civilisation in manyplaces – and where 2030 will be the‘Age of Stupid’, a catastrophicjudgement on short-term self-seeking,because the warning signs wereresisted. Of course the Transitionprogramme cannot be equated directlywith the inauguration of the Kingdom. Ithas a this-worldly focus without atranscendental salvation. However,more and more people caught up in theTransition movement realise thatmaterial welfare alone ‘is not it’ – as theAlpha Course poster puts it. Suchpeople, while not ignoring the

complexity of the issues, have drivingconvictions, and they are attuned to therealities of the environmental situationboth globally and locally. Theydemonstrate a sensitive and caringlistening to ‘the other’, be that humanor natural, which those of faith wouldsee as spiritual qualities. Manythoughtful Christians are among them,as an identifying of the personnelinvolved in the current Food Banks inurban centres will reveal.

The word covenant, voiced by politicalleaders striving for a Climate Changeconsensus between nation states,implies a theology of hope, whichindicates that this world’s relationshipwith God will in the end not besundered by any catastrophe, human ornatural. Yes, as prophets have alwayswarned, There will be Blood – title ofthe recent film in which Daniel Day-Lewis stars as the American oildeveloper confronted by the localpreacher – but the blood of God’scosmic Covenant, celebrated at everyLord’s Supper, leads from death to life.Theologically-speaking the Transitionmovement shows that in some form‘Kingdom come’ really is hope in theseuncertain times. n

BibliographyAstley, J. 2007. Christ of the Everyday. London: Societyfor Promoting Christian Knowledge.Bauckham, R. 2006. Jesus and the Eyewitnesses.Cambridge: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.Berry, R. J. Ed. 2000. The Care of Creation. Leicester:Inter-Varsity Press.Berry, R. J. 2003. God’s Book of Works. London: T & T Clark.Davis, E. 2009. Scripture, Culture and Agriculture.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Deffenbaugh, D.G. 2006. Learning the Language of theFields. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Cowley Publications.Echlin, E. ‘Jesus and Hinterland’. Rural Theology 5.1.2007. 3-12Echlin, E. 2010. Climate and Christ: A PropheticAlternative. Dublin: The Columba Press.Hopkins, R. 2011. The Transition Companion. Totnes,Devon: Green Books.Marsh, C. 2006. Christ in Practice. London: Darton,Longman & Todd Ltd.

John Whitehead is a freelance retiredparish priest around South Cheshire;formerly vicar of Betley and Keele. Inthe 1990s he chaired the RuralTheology Association and edited RuralTheology; he was joint editor ofSeasonal Worship from theCountryside (SPCK, 2003). He iscurrently secretary of Christian RuralConcern which jointly developed theChristian Rural and EnvironmentalStudies course (CRES) with the JohnRay Initiative.

Yes, prophets have always warned, “There will be Blood”… but the blood of God’s cosmic Covenant leads fromdeath to life


FEATURE

Not Screechers butBelieversEdward Echlin replies to Sam Norton

On the pages of Green ChristianSam Norton plants his newbanner as an anthropogenic

climate change sceptic.1 He nowdistances himself from fellow greenChristians who accept scientific globalwarming consensus. The Green pleafor urgent mitigating of damagingemissions he describes as ‘the climatescreech’2. Norton compares warningsof ‘ecological catastrophe’ to ‘theeschatological prophecies of thehellfire preacher’. Meanwhile, TimFlannery – eminent Australian zoologistand Chief Commissioner of theAustralian Climate Change Commission– warns, ‘Now more than ever we arein a race against time to avoid acatastrophic outcome.’

Norton generously invites other greenChristians, whether sceptics orbelievers, to join him. The greenmovement, he rightly argues, is aninclusive community. Norton’s ownrather complacent position seems to bethat we should leave things to God who‘will sort things out’ in the future. Whilecritical of fundamentalist preachers, hequotes a passage from the exilicprophet Jeremiah, written for a verydifferent, and ancient near-Eastern,context than today’s Osborne-fedgrowth path to climatic nemesis: ‘“For Iknow the plans I have for you,” declaresthe Lord, “plans to prosper you and notto harm you, plans to give you hopeand a future”’ (Jeremiah 29.11). Nortonargues that God will in the future bringgood even out of climate change. HereI cannot fully share Norton’scomplacency. For the kingdom in whichwe hope is mystery. A consistent themein the Jewish Scriptures, Jesus’Scriptures, is that human hubris bringsnemesis. Today’s pervasive hubris isdescribed, in what Norton mightdescribe as a climate screech, by CEL’spatron Jonathon Porritt, ‘the sad truth isthat a disturbingly large percentage ofUK consumers are either too lazy or

too indifferent to lead a moresustainable lifestyle’3.

Since erratic weather is a symptom oflooming climate change, we mayalready experience nemesis, as forexample, in biodiversity loss andburning forests in Tim Flannery’sAustralia, and in UK floods anddroughts with their attendant humanand other animal suffering. While weshare Norton’s hope we recall that hisprophet Jeremiah also warns ofnemesis following idolatrous hubris: ‘Avoice on the bare heights is heard, theweeping and pleading of Israel’s sons,because they have perverted their way,they have forgotten the Lord their God’(Jeremiah 3.21; cf. Deuteronomy11.16). The Bible also abounds withhope, pre-eminently in the life, teachingand reconciling death and resurrectionof Jesus, who as our very nameChristian Ecology Link testifies, is Lordof all CEL supporters. Our hope in thekingdom includes reformed climatechange sceptics and even sinners likemyself. But I must insist that we remainhumbly apophatic, reticent aboutdescribing that ‘new heaven and newearth’ in which we hope.

Norton, dismissing warnings ofpossible catastrophe as ‘the climatescreech’, cites Matthew’s Jesus’parable of the wheat and tares, sayingGod ‘will sort things out’ in the end.

Editor’s NoteIn the last issue of Green Christian(GC74) I made a controversialdecision to include the article, OfWheat and Tares (and CatastrophicAnthropogenic Global WarmingSceptics) by Sam Norton (p.10).I decided that our Editorial policycovered the article, that is: ‘Theopinions expressed by guest authorsdo not necessarily reflect the viewsof the editors but are welcome fortheir sincerity and insight’.I asked for response and here it is.

A NEW SPEAK CAMPAIGNSeeding Change

It's been germinating beneath theground for several years, and nowit's finally here, launching atSoundcheck 2013 – a SPEAKcampaign focusing on the injusticesof agribusiness.

Food and drink are profoundlyhuman. Yet our global food systemis broken; as we see through landgrabs, biofuels, food waste,overconsumption of meat and dairy,supermarket power, farmerssqueezed, banks betting on food,monopolisation of the seed markets,over-reliance on heavy fertilisers andpesticides that ravage theEarth…not to mention global hunger.

Therefore we're doing somethingabout it! Focusing on LAND (whichthe Old Testament prophets oftenfocused upon) and SEEDS (whichJesus used as pictures of life andpower), we want to see an end toland grabs and farming done in amore sustainable way. Essentially,we believe that:

All food should be grown and sharedas though people and planetmattered. n

http://www.speak.org.uk/

Edward gardening with Barbara his wife(Secretary of CEL)

SPEAK call for justice in the globalfood system

Unlike the earlier Mark’s parable ofsowing, growth and harvesting,Matthew abounds with allegory, amethod later associated with the earlyChristian exegete Origen. Matthew’sgolden wheat includes an enemy,weeds/tares, servant workers, and theselection and burning at harvest of theweeds/tares (hopefully for the winterwarmth of the harvesters!) (Matthew13.24-30). Nor do we, as Nortoncharges, prematurely exclude sceptictares. Rather we warn and hope, andpray as did climate scientist JamesHansen at Barack Obama’s recentinauguration: ‘We have a dream – thatour President will understand theintergenerational injustice of humanmade climate change – that he willrecognise our duties to be caretakersof creation, of the land, of the life onour planet – and that he will give thismatter the priority that our youngpeople deserve.’

Norton compares ‘deep greens’ toancient Donatists. Donatism was apurist movement in North Africa whichexcluded fellow Christians who were incommunion with ministers whoseorders could be traced back to‘traditores’ or traitors – those whohanded over the Scriptures to beburned in the time of EmperorDiocletian (died c. 311). The NorthAfrican Augustine rejected Donatist‘holier than thou’ purism. An ecumenicalconference in 411 rejected their ‘holierthan thouism’ and they finallydisappeared in the eighth century NorthAfrican persecutions. I am unaware offellow green Christians excluding fromthe Christian green movement climatechange sceptics. We welcome them inlove and hope. In my own experience,Christian anthropogenic climate changesceptics, even jet-travel-addictedministers of religion, one by one, andsometimes two, come aboard heedingthe wisdom, learning and urgency ofgood scientists. How could they or wedo other than respond with gratitudeand love to the scientifically informedpleas of the charismatic Ruth Jarman,who shines like a red star next? n

References.1. ‘Of wheat and tares (and Catastrophic

Anthropogenic Global Warming Sceptics)’, GreenChristian, November, 2012, pp.10-11.

2. ‘As Australia burns, attitudes are changing. But is ittoo late?’ Guardian, 12 January 2013, p.34.

3. Porritt, J. January 2013, Green Futures, p.48.


FEATURE

I’m Screeching - Wheat and

Tares was irresponsible and dangerous

Ruth Jarman explains how nearly she came toresigning from CEL

When I read Sam Norton’s articlein GC74 my first reaction wasnot to pen this reply. It was to

resign immediately from the board ofCEL and have nothing more to do withan organisation that prints suchdangerous twaddle. I guess I wasexperiencing what Sam Norton refersto as a Climate Screech.

It’s a free world. People are entitledto think what they like about climatechange, to pick the bits of the sciencethat they want to believe and mergethem with their favourite lies from theclimate denial portfolio. We may all dothis to a certain extent – to make lifeliveable. What I object to is that a lotof what Sam said came across as fact,not, as I think was meant, assomething he personally believes in thelight of his theology.

Thus a CEL publication, whichusually so eloquently showers truthand light on the world, was used tocriticise the IPCC and UEA, both ofwhich have been exonerated, andgenerally to shed doubt on thescience of climate change. This isabsolutely against our aim as anorganisation, “to offer insights intoecology”.

Whether Wheat and Tares isirresponsible and dangerous dependson what the problem is. If the problemis the early on-set of deafness due totoo much climate screeching, or thelining of highways with crucified climatedeniers, I would probably think thearticle justified. Our actual problem,however, is that the Earth is headinginexorably towards a climate regimethat will not support much of life,particularly what we see as the bestbits, and on what our civilisationdepends (literate cockroaches will beunperturbed by the item, I expect).

The science is clear. The remedy isalso clear. And why are we notimplementing the remedy? One bigreason is that too many people doubtthe science. The natural inclination ofus humans is to grab and nurtureanything that casts doubt on thescience – we simply don’t want tobelieve it. In 1969, a cigaretteexecutive observed, ‘Doubt is ourproduct, since it is the best means ofcompeting with the 'body of fact' thatexists in the minds of the generalpublic. It is also the means ofestablishing a controversy.’ Everyarticle, speech, TV programme thatallows people to doubt that thingsreally are as bad as the science istelling us negates many-fold the workof organisations such as CEL and allour hard-working and hard-prayingmembers. Instead, every moment,effort, article, chat must becommandeered to help people acceptand act on what the science is tellingus.

I did not resign from the board ofCEL, partly because this is where mymost treasured friends are, and partlyso I can ensure that there is betterscientific scrutiny of futurepublications. n

Ruth. Is she busking or waiting for thedoors to open?


REPORT

The Stream of Life rolls onCEL members reflect on their annual conference 2013

This was an inspirational and deeplyrefreshing day – and I wasn’texpecting it! I had arrived tired and

preoccupied with work and home, andalthough I was expecting to gaininspiration and knowledge and perhapsmaterials to take home with me, I didnot anticipate that I would feel lesstired at the end of the day than at thebeginning. The reason was the themeand the teaching.

I was reminded once again that Godis much more intimately concernedwith His creation than we are – sooften it seems that we must come upwith the answers, that we must savethe planet by our own efforts, and weforget that God has all the answers,and that He has been giving them toHis people from time immemorial, if weonly take time to listen to Him.

And interspersed with this wiseteaching from Philip Roderick wassome worship and new ways – new tomany of us, although very old – ofpraying, ‘body prayer’, together withwonderful meditative music broughtforth by Philip from the hang drum.

Somehow I was able to groundmyself again in the Holy Spirit, to letgo of some of the anxiety and panicthat fills me when I think of thedesperate state of much of our world.Philip reminded us that although wecan think of many many goodenvironmental actions to take, we needto be able to listen to God and followour own particular calling, the callingthat God has given us.

The day followed on with inspirationalworkshops – and, because of mygrounding in the morning, I did not feelexhausted and weary about taking onyet more commitments, but ratherpositive and energised. Things thathave seemed so difficult hitherto maynot be as difficult as I fear – God is onour side, after all.

Deborah Tomkins

Philip Roderick plays the hang

Philip leads a body prayer

The Quiet Garden MovementQuiet Gardens and Quiet spaces

A simply ministry of Hospitality andPrayer

Philip Roderick founded the QuietGarden Trust twenty years ago.CEL and the QGT willingly partner oneanother. Some CEL members hostQuiet Gardens and CEL can helpfurther the ecological message.Further details fromwww.quietgarden.org

Green Christians can be a rather left-brained lot. We’re quite good atcritiques of government policy orcorporate greed, and try to get ahandle on big numbers and a bit ofscience. That’s all important, but CEL’sconference on 16 March was areminder that it’s only the half of it.

80 members gathered in Leeds for amorning with Philip Roderick, Anglicanpriest and spiritual entrepreneur. Philiphas founded several nationwidenetworks – the Quiet Garden Trust,Contemplative Fire, Hidden Houses ofPrayer – all of which in their differentways awaken in people an awarenessof connections between themselves,God and the world about them whichhad previously passed them by. Innearly two hours of shared experiencehe brought the left-brain in from thecold, with music, gentle percussion,the passionate ecotheology of the earlydesert writers Isaac of Nineveh andIsaac of Syria, and prayer involvingbody and mind.

It required a bit of unbuttoning ofBritish reserve, but the effect wasempowering and invigorating. Theafternoon workshops caught themomentum and helped us channel itfor the sake of the world around us.Now I for one feel there is more of mepraying and working for life on earth,and more love in that prayer and work,than I knew was possible before.

Paul Bodenham


REPORT

Democracy needs prophets tooPaul Bodenham reports on CEL’s involvement with the Foundation for Democracy and Sustainable Development

Winston Churchill famously calleddemocracy the worst form ofgovernment ‘apart from all the

others’ – and many environmentalistswould agree. Now it could redeemitself, thanks to a manifesto fordemocracy and sustainability which CELhelped to shape. It’s an initiative whichputs a renewal of democracy at theheart of the green movement, and alsochallenges the Churches to do thesame in their witness for creation.

Democracy hasn’t always been thegreen activist’s best friend. Haven’t youoccasionally caught yourself toying withdreams of a benign green dictatorshipthat would sort it all out? Attractiveisn’t it? You understand, I hope, that itwould need to be me in charge.

Of course there is no such thing as asustainable dictatorship. Theunpalatable truth is that democraticallyelected governments do little better,wedded as they are to economicgrowth, dirty fuel and globalisation, andcraven in their homage to the market.They press ever more growth out of ourexhausted, debt-ridden economy anddegraded planet, in pursuit of thewealth people say they want.

So we have to find a way to makedemocracy deliver sustainability. Thatis what the Foundation for Democracyand Sustainable Development (FDSD)sets out to do. Last year theyconsulted on a draft ‘Manifesto forsustainable development’ with groups in25 countries. CEL had the privilege ofbeing one of these, when 30 members

met at St Mary’s Church in Euston inNovember for a workshop led by HalinaWard and Gabriela Flores from FDSD.Now they and numerous foundersignatories have launched the Manifestoas part of the ‘Democracy andSustainability Platform’ (see box).

But what has it got to do withChristianity? Historically the Church hasnot exactly been a beacon ofdemocracy. Without in any wayintending it, the Manifesto offersChristians an ‘implicit theology’ whichwill help Churches make newconnections between faith, society andthe environment – from grassrootscommunity activism, throughengagement in national affairs, tointernational development. It lays torest the tired dualistic notion ofstewardship, in which creation isregarded as an object distinct fromhumanity to be managed andmanipulated. It offers instead a visionof people reconciled with each otherthrough nature, and with nature througheach other.

Too often environmental campaignsincite people to make enemies. Theculture of blame may be good for theanxious ego, but its effect on societyand the soul is corrosive. In thesustainable democracy which theManifesto maps out there is no roomfor projected blame. To be a citizen isto love, and through love we becomepartners in the reign of God, that all-inclusive network of power which, as itdawned on Jesus, is ‘in our midst’.

Respect for human dignity is part ofour reverence for creation as a whole;neither is complete without the other.The heyday of the Hebrew prophetswas an age of monarchy, butdemocracy needs its prophets too –people who glimpse the full stature ofcitizenship and dare to stretch to it,free from compromise and self-interest,and calling others to the sameliberation.

As Halina Ward, the manifesto’sfacilitator-in-chief, puts it: ‘This isn’t asingle-issue campaign. It’s a way ofseeing the world and our place within it.It’s a call to create the change that’sneeded, together.’ Its vision will not beeasily realised, but with this manifestobefore us, no longer can it be said thatit cannot be done. n

Imagine a world in where democracydrives the economy, not the otherway around. Imagine a world wheresustainability is at the heart of whatgovernments do, from the local tothe global levels. Where grossinequality between people and acrosscountries is consigned to the past.Imagine a world where electedrepresentatives are mandated to takeaccount of future generations, notjust people who elect them today.And imagine a world where we, thepeople, insist that they do so.Imagine a world where, all our lives,the spaces in which we learn andgrow teach us that when our basicneeds are met, we should value whowe are and who we could be, and notwhat we can get.Imagine a world where the onlyvested interests are ours, the people,in all our extraordinary diversity.Where people have time toparticipate in decisions on issues thataffect them; to reflect on their plusesand minuses, knowing that their viewsand their first-hand experience willcount.

Halina Ward, Director, Foundation forDemocracy and SustainableDevelopment http://www.fdsd.org

The six principles of the Manifesto for Democracy and Sustainability:1. Sustainability needs flourishing democracy2. Take the long view3. Sustainability must be a central goal of governments everywhere4. Education must link citizenship and sustainability5. Knowledge must be inclusive6. Nothing about us without us.

For the full text, and to join the Democracy and Sustainability Platform visit:www.democracyandsustainability.org. Make a pledge to try out at least one ofthe action areas in the Manifesto for Democracy and Sustainability. Sharewhat you learn with CEL.


FEATURE

Cosmic JusticeMark Bredin insists that social justice without ecological justice is no justice at all

Society makes it easy for us totake for granted the earth’sresources and to exploit them to

satisfy our every whim. Pause for amoment and consider the madness ofan economic system that makes it soeasy for people to choose to buyplastic bottled water when they haveexpensively purified water running ontap; further, a system that makes itsecond nature to flush 30% of thatexpensively treated drinking water downthe loo while one in ten people in theworld suffer or are dying for lack ofclean water. I think it’s safe to say thatthe market instils careless andpredatory attitudes towards the earth’sresources in us, leading us to care littlefor the poorest on earth or for theearth itself.

I would like to offer some reflectionson the Bible’s teachings about therelationship between social justice andecological justice. My own position issummed up well by eco-theologianEdward Echlin: ‘Social justice withoutecological justice is injustice whichultimately injures people badly.’1 Muchof this article is a reflection onarguments put forward in my book TheEcology of the New Testament in whichI propose that God intends humanity topractise cosmic justice, that is, justicefor people and for all creation.2

Why the Bible?If we claim the Bible is authoritative,then we must recognise thatunrestrained and un-mindful habits ofconsumption are forbidden by God.Israel and the surrounding nations areregularly castigated in the OldTestament for greed, envy, idolatry,murder and so on. Today’s economicprinciples are finely honed to developthe worst aspect of our humanity:greed. In sum, the Bible is about Godresponding to human greed and theexploitation of fellow humans and therest of creation. Our response toecological issues should not only be

based on the arguments put forward byecologists, important as they are, butalso on God’s future saving intentionsfor creation that the Bible reveals. Wedo well to recall the words of thepsalmist:

… you save humans and animalsalike, O LORD. (Psalm 36.6)3

Visions of HopeTo understand what kind of future Jesushad in mind for creation we mustconsider the Old Testament. Certaintexts within the Old Testament wereclearly influential on his vision ofcreation, the future of creation and whathinders the fulfilment of this future.Isaiah provides the following glimpse:

… I will make a way in thewilderness and rivers in the desert.The wild animals will honour me, thejackals and the ostriches; for I givewater in the wilderness, rivers in thedesert, to give drink to my chosenpeople. (Isaiah 43.19-20)

Jewish hopes for the future are far fromdisembodied and human-centred. Onthe contrary, they anticipate a kingdomwhere justice reigns for all creation.Similarly we glimpse the future hope fora non-predatory creation, again inIsaiah:

The wolf shall live with the lamb, theleopard shall lie down with the kid,the calf and the lion and the fatlingtogether, and a little child shall leadthem. The cow and the bear shallgraze, their young shall lie downtogether; and the lion shall eat strawlike the ox. (Isaiah 11.5-7)

The book of Job also looks to such atime:

For you shall be in league with thestones of the field, and the wildanimals shall be at peace with you.(Job 5.23)

The visions we have for the futuredefine our lifestyle choices. It is notaccidental that the Bible ends with avision of a city garden in Revelation21–22 where God’s just reign benefitsall. If we ignore the cosmic-centredvisions such as we read above we willerr in discerning God’s will andmisinterpret Jesus’ teaching. In order toestablish God’s reign we must practisecosmic justice and not just socialjustice. These cosmic visions wereinspirational to Jesus as he retired tothe wilderness to contemplate God andhis creation.

Jesus was also familiar with traditionteaching that human disobedience toGod results in the desolation of allcreation:

How long will the land mourn, andthe grass of every field wither? Forthe wickedness of those who live in itthe animals and the birds are sweptaway, and because people said, ‘Heis blind to our ways.’ (Jeremiah 12.4;compare Romans 8.18-23)

Recreation from the wilderness

He was in the wilderness 40 days,tempted by Satan; and he was withthe wild beasts; and the angelswaited on him. (Mark 1.13)

The first thing Jesus does after hisbaptism is go to the wilderness. Hedoes not go to the metropolis but towhere most humans don’t go. WendellBerry perceptively comments that thewilderness is a place

… where we must go to be reborn –to receive the awareness, at oncehumbling and exhilarating, grievousand joyful, that we are part ofcreation, one with all that we livefrom and all that, in turn, lives fromus.4

Through applying Berry’s insights we

FEATURE


can better perceive Jesus’ time in thewilderness. I suggest it is the placewhere he learns the cosmic virtuesnecessary to establish God’s reign ofpeace for all creation: humility, the joyof being part of something bigger thanhumanity, and a sense of God’sintentions for all creation which humancreation is hell-bent on destroying. It isin the wilderness that Jesus begins toput these virtues into practice. Jesusgoes to the heart of non-humancreation learning that human destiny istied up with all creation, as we see inthe Old Testament texts above.

According to only Mark, Jesus was ‘withthe wild beasts’. As he practisescosmic virtues, the result is a vision ofharmony even between humans andthose that humans most fear: wildbeasts. This detail evokes variousscholarly interpretations. Probably themost common is to see the beasts asSatan’s representatives. My own view,which has strong scholarly support, isthat ‘with the beasts’ means exactlywhat it says: Jesus is with the beasts ina companionable way, perhaps alludingto the non-predatory future visions inthe Old Testament. Jesus would bemore akin to Francis of Assisi who iswell known for his compassion towardsanimals and birds. For Francis, socialjustice was not possible withoutecological justice when he writes:

If you have men who will exclude anyof God’s creatures from the shelterof compassion and pity, you will havemen who deal likewise with theirfellow men.

In Mark’s wilderness scene we glimpseat his future vision of all creation beingnon-predatory and companionable likethe Old Testament texts above. In sum,Jesus enters the wilderness to be re-born as a new being ready to showhumanity what he has learned – thosecosmic virtues God intends humans tolearn and practise so that all life mayflourish.

Visions of hope for todayJust as Jesus needed visions from hisown religious and cultural treasury toinspire and motivate his work, so weneed them, today more than ever, asantidotes to human-centred visions ofgreed that are beamed into our livingrooms day after day. I conclude this

article by encouraging readers toreflect on the vision of the newJerusalem in Revelation 22 and 22,contemplating their own place increation and working out how they canbring about the visions of hope in theBible that were clearly not limited tohumanity. As you do I suggest we beinspired by Barbara Rossing’s summingup of how Revelation 21–22 moves her:

New Jerusalem gives us a vision of abeloved community, a world ofabundance for all. This is God’svision for our whole created world –a world where people of all nationsfind open gates of welcome, wherepoor people find water without price,where all find healing … a world thatwill not be left behind. This is a visionto which we are transported inworship. And this story alsotransports us back home to see andlive God’s vision in our world today.5

The newly-founded King’s Lynn Christian Ecology Link Group invites you to

A Celebrating Creation weekend 5th to 7th July 2013

As Christians we believe God intends humans to worship and celebrate God’sgift of life through serving the whole of creation. Over the weekend we willconsider how we can do this in our local communities in the light of our ownpersonal circumstances. This might mean looking at our consumptionattitudes towards oil, food, and water in the light of God’s commandments tocelebrate life through cultivating habits of restraint. The emphasis will be onpersonal sharing and listening as well as having time to pray, read, cook,sing, knit, swim in river, and garden (and many more).

The weekend will be split between two homes (the Bredin’s in King’s Lynn withlarge town garden and the Burr’s who are living off-grid five miles outside ofKing’s Lynn on a one acre small holding). It is hoped that these differentsettings will provide some food for thought on how we might show better ourlove for God in the mindful ways we celebrate and rejoice in creation. Themaxim for the weekend will be: ‘We can all do something to encourage God’screations to abound and flourish whether that is growing tomatoes on a 8thfloor balcony in Manchester to lifting redundant factory floor slabs inCoventry’.

There will be contributions by a Cambridge Transition member, mature distantlearning student of theology, tutor and writer in biblical studies and ecology,Christian green campaigner, and reflections of a small-holder family living offgrid with two young children.

If you are interested please let me know by email: [email protected] or phoning me on 07746 779984 or 01553 675421.

Mark Bredin

References1. Earth Spirituality: Jesus at the Centre (New

Alresford: Arthur James Publishing, 1999, p.99).2. The Ecology of the New Testament Colorado

Springs, Biblica, 2010.3. All translations are from the NRSV.4. The Art of the Commonplace: The Agrarian Essays

of Wendell Berry Washington DC: Counterpoint,2002, pp.99-100.

5. The Rapture Exposed New York: Basic Books,2004, p.169.

Mark Bredin is a freelance theologicaltutor and writer and has publishedwidely in New Testament studies andecology. He is author of The Ecologyof the New Testament. He lives inKing’s Lynn with his wife, Fran, wherethey attempt to care for their largetown garden.


FEATURE

Finding the Still PointRoss Ashley continues her series on the rediscovery our directions

In the last issue of Green Christianwinter was drawing in and I wasreflecting on the way winter, the cold

north, night time, draws us into stillnessof the earth which can take us back toour roots, help us become grounded,gathering ourselves in and reflecting onwhat has gone before, as well asnurturing the seeds of what we may donext. It is also a time to celebrateeldership, experience, wisdom andtradition and to listen to stories.

Time has moved on, spring is here asI write, the birds are lively and loud andthere is blossom and growth, summeris waiting round the corner whenproductivity and energy will be at theirheight. Creativity and productivity in ourlives go through cycles, as do thehours of the day and the seasons of theyear which are often linked to thedirections of the compass.

The sun moves daily through the skyfrom east at dawn to sunset in thewest. Springtime, linked to the east,brings fresh new growth, summer(south) is the time of flowering, makingfruit and growing and autumn (west)brings fulfilment with the gathering in ofthe fruit and the harvest before winter(north) shuts things down. In the sameway our energies change through theday from rest, from incubating ideas, towakefulness and alertness as they arebirthed, through periods of illuminationand inspiration, activity, high energy,focus and productivity, then slowingdown, evaluating and celebrating andcoming back to rest in the dark timesof incubation once more.

So, in our days and in our creativeprocesses the time relating to highlevels of energy is the south, linked withthe sun’s heat, with fire, with thesummer, with the middle of the day. Insome climates that is the very time torest, as the heat is so great andeveryone stops for siesta. Here, wherethat natural rhythm does not occur, and

we plough on through the middle of theworking or creative day, or seasonallyfind ourselves busier than ever in thesummer ‘garden’ when it is bothpossible and necessary to geteverything done, how can we find waysto pause?

We choose of course how often welook for that still point; whether at theheight of a creative or productive cycleof work or a project, or part of eachday, retreat, each season or all of theabove, the elements can help us createrituals to bring structure to themoment. We can create a space or anicon that calls out to us as we pass: inthe corner where we put down ourkeys, near the sink, next to our eveningchair, using symbols of the elementsas powerful reminders for differenttimes of the day or year.

Fire in the form of a painting, acandle, a colour, can help us rememberto give thanks for the energy andcreativity, the work we have, as wepause and make sense of it. Lighting acandle, sitting near or around a fire,star-gazing, enjoying the beauty, colourand fragrance of flowers produced bythe summer heat, turning our faces to

the sun coming through a window, willeven for a moment lift our hearts andfill us anew with the energy we need.The sun itself is the bringer of all theenergy that flows from plants toanimals, that links all living and non-living things and basking in the sun is acelebration of its life-bringing purpose.

The rising and falling of energy isuseful and natural. The seventh day restand our need for daily sleepdemonstrate that constant productivityis not how we are meant to operate. Tokeep on going without pause, withoutrest, without relief can wear us downand stress us out, we can lose directionand lose our love of what we are doing.Accepting the waxing and waning ofenergy will release us from the pressureof always doing, always proving ourvalue, to ourselves and others. Pausingand finding the still point is to nourishourselves and to join in the creative act.

Dr. Ross Ashley is the CentreDirector of Ringsfield Hall EcoCentrein Suffolk. The Centre providesprogrammes for all ages particularlyemphasizing reconnection with self,others, the earth and God.

Prophets and Clowns – imagination and resistance in action

a call to consider Non-Violent Direct Action

Why the image of the Clown?

The clown is both comedian and critic,at once jester and prophet. The clown’srole is to provide comic relief andcritical commentary. What begins aslaughter at the clown’s antics oftenleads to laughter at the humancondition itself, with all its absurdityand ambiguity. Still more, a good clownhelps us laugh at ourselves. We laughwhen the clown falls, trips, receives acream pie in the face, only to realizethat our lives are full of falls, unhappysurprises and totally unexpectedmoments. We laugh in order not to cry.The clown is oppressed, incoherent,silly, an object on whom others venttheir fury. The clown laughs, as we do,and yet at the very best the clowncries, as do we.

Eugene L. Stockwell, DirectorCommission on World Mission and

Evangelism, in A Community of Clowns,WCC Publications 1987

circa 30AD

Jesus said, “The Sabbath wasmade to serve us; we weren’tmade to serve the Sabbath”. (Mark 2.28,29 The Message)

When Jesus left the field, heentered the meeting place. Therewas a man there with a crippledhand. They said to Jesus, “Is itlegal to heal on the Sabbath?”They were baiting him.He replied, “Is there a personhere who, finding one of yourlambs fallen into a ravine,wouldn’t, even though it was theSabbath, pull it out? Surelykindness to people is as legal askindness to animals!” Then hesaid to the man, “ Hold out yourhand.” He held it out and it washealed. The Pharisees walked outfurious, sputtering about howthey were going to ruin Jesus.(Matthew 12.9,14 The Message).

Truly free for action

I think the biggest challenge CELmembers have is to reconcile hope(from which action springs) andhonesty (about the prospects ofimprovement, whether in theinternational process, human nature orthe power of privatising interests). Weeach have to find a reconciliationbetween hope and honesty. Minecame from Thomas Merton's Letter toa Young Activist (see p.16). I commendit to everyone.

His exhortation 'do not depend on thehope of results' is sobering. It canlook like a betrayal and a surrender.But it's only when we are free from theoutcome that we are truly free for theaction. There was a time when I couldhave been pushed out of optimism intodespair. I think what Merton tells us isthat beyond both optimism and despairthere is a holy place where activistsshould be – a place of that obediencewhich is true freedom.

I'm afraid I simply don't have time leftin my diary for new levels of action, butI do have further to go in 'allowingmyself, in the obedience of faith, to beused by God's love', and I am sure Ialways will. That's what being part ofCEL does for me, and the idea of agathering rooted in mutual support andseeking the Spirit's guidance appealsto me. We try to make ourconferences, retreats and annualmembers' meetings such occasions,

but I am sure wecould do better.Please say how,and I for one willbe keen to makeit happen. n

Paul Bodenham,Chair, CEL

Westley Ingram articulates a quextraordinary times in an open let

Dear Readers,

Thank you for reading this. The readershipof Green Christian, and by that I meanChristian Ecology Link, has become alifeline to me. I find myself, I expect muchlike yourselves, living in a society gleefullysinging and dancing its way off the edge ofa cliff. For those of us trying to dance to adifferent tune it can be lonely and not alittle embarrassing at times.

As such, being able to share with youthis burden of concern for the creation wewere created to care for is ofimmeasurable value to me. At the risk ofstretching a metaphor I feel like we are theweird kids at the school disco dancing toThriller while the DJ is playingHammertime. Hang the DJ indeed. I havejust revealed my age perhaps but you caninsert your own musical references as yousee fit.

This shared burden we carry – thiscurious blessing that keeps us awake atnight and makes us round pegs in squareholes at work, rest and play – is the giftgiven to a prophetic community. I ambecoming less averse to describing us as

such. As the situation we face worsens it serves no purpose to be coyabout our calling.

Although I never got it at first and somebody had to point it out to me,the term ‘Storm of Hope’ that we use to articulate the still, small voice thatwill give us no peace until there is peace, is from a poem by DanielBerrigan, ‘That Intransitive Being’:

Christ, alpha, omegaavatar of hopewhose heart in spite of allhopes on in spite of ushopes on for us, in spite of us –rain, rain on usuntamed, unconstrainedyour wildfire storm of hope.

We are greatly inspired, encouraged and challenged by the example ofprophets like Daniel Berrigan. He was poet, priest, activist and convict. Thelast of these categories does not sit well with me and for good reason.Nobody should relish the prospect of incarceration. This notwithstanding, ithas been a long time since Christian witness meant Christian martyr tomost Christians. We who have been blessed with the knowledge of JesusChrist will always be grateful to the Church, the kyphotic giant upon whoseshoulders we stand. This said, we have inherited a Church and a gospelwhich is very well adjusted to injustice, yet our faith remains a living faith ina living God who has not changed. He is still the God who would haveIsaiah tread Jerusalem naked, the same God who thought it acceptable thatJeremiah would languish in a pit and ultimately the God whose supremeprophetic act led to his Son being nailed to a cross.

I find myself wondering then what is appropriate behaviour for those of uswho are both aware of the will of God for creation and also of what is being

1965 ‘Nonviolent direct action seeks to createsuch a crisis and foster such a tensionthat a community which has constantlyrefused to negotiate is forced to confrontthe issue. It seeks so to dramatize theissue that it can no longer be ignored.

‘We who engage in nonviolent directaction are not the creators of tension. Wemerely bring to the surface the hiddentension that is already alive.

‘Cowardice asks the question, “Is it safe?”Expediency asks the question, “Is itpolitic?” Vanity asks the question, “Is itpopular?” But, conscience asks thequestion, “Is it right?” And there comes atime when one must take a position thatis neither safe, nor politic, nor popular,but one must take it because one'sconscience tells one that it is right.’

Martin Luther King Jnr

The question we now face is,‘Does loving as God lovesrequire us to be willing totransgress against the law?’

A few of us in ChristianEcology Link have begunasking this question.

Phil KingstonSandra DutsonReggie NortonRod ThickRuth JarmanGeorge DowWestley IngramChris Walton

A few days before his ‘I have a dream speech’

uestion for ordinary Christians intter

done to the beloved of our beloved. Letters we write and marches wemarch and we change our light bulbs and grow our vegetables andcertainly people take some notice. We have an aversion to crossing theline in our activism onto the side of illegality and that seems verycommendable. Certainly it is widely commended. However, is itappropriate?

We face the certain destruction of the natural systems that make life onearth recognisable. Our Government doesn’t deny this. They cannot. Theirown scientists tell it to them. It is our Government’s official policy that weare committed to limiting UK carbon dioxide emissions to levels that areconsistent with no more than a 2°C rise in temperature. This all soundslike excellent news. Certainly our news media, from the most respectableto the least, are very happy to tell us that every other story in the world isof more concern to us than the eradication of a significant proportion ofthe lives on this planet. Decisions are influenced by those with no interestin justice and then communicated to us by those with a dulled appetite forthe truth. Our society is gripped in a vice of fear and suspicion, crippled byanxiety about the future but fiercely protective of the status quo, the onlyviable option we are allowed to imagine. When some public display ismade to reassure us that the whispers we have heard about the end of theworld as we know it are being addressed, the results are hollow and don’tstand up to inspection.

In this context I find myself wondering what the appropriate responseshould be. Since respectability, congeniality and legality guarantees thedeath of hundreds of millions if not billions of people, is the line of legalitydrawn by our law-makers an arbitrary barrier? Certainly we are told tosubmit to those in authority but that was written by a man prone to writingletters from prison. I don’t know the answer to this. I know a few of uswithin Christian Ecology Link have begun asking this question. Thequestion is not ‘Is it possible to love as God loves while transgressingagainst the law of the land?’ That question has been answered in the

affirmative by Christians all over the worldfor the last two millennia. The question wenow face is ‘Does loving as God lovesrequire us to be willing to transgressagainst the law?’

I take no pleasure in writing this, nor do Ienjoy considering it. My Christian testimonyhas been a series of attempts to live aquiet life, each confounded by the deathand resurrection of Jesus Christ. I do notseek out controversy for its own sake andcertainly would avoid any arbitrarylawbreaking, but I have to ask, ‘Is oursociety’s response to catastrophic climatechange deluded enough and theconsequences severe enough to makelegitimate the inclusion of non-violent directaction in our activism?’

Certainly some of us are having difficultyanswering ‘no’ to that question. If you havea different response to these issues then Iwould genuinely like to be convinced byyou. If you also feel that what we now facemakes legitimate non-violent direct action,please contact us so we can prayerfullysupport each other in this. n

Yours Westley [email protected]

NVDA 2013We cannot escape the truth of climatechange, and so we shrug our shoulders,preferring to accept various facts: entireecosystems have died ... As Christians, weare required to do more than accept theproblems we create. We are challenged torepent. And repentance should be morethan saying sorry. It requires a change ofboth heart and action.

Our repentance must be loud, and it mustbe visible, if we are to act as an example,and to suggest a way out of thecomplacency into which our society hassunk………

Quiet regret is not enough. We mustassert our repentance for the misuse ofcreation. We need to unite our voices. Ifwe could have the courage to challengethe status quo and all it represents, thenwe could force the Government to countthe physical presence of our non-violentdirect action.

Tamsin Omond

If you are interested get intouch:[email protected]

Tamsin Omond, author, journalist and founding memberof the direct action group Climate Rush.

Grandparentsoccupy BarclaysBank

Grandparents for a Safe Earthcare deeply about the world ourgrandchildren will inherit. We call onBarclays Bank to disinvest from coalinfrastructure and radically to increaseinvestment in renewable energy andenergy efficiency.

On 6 March, members of the groupmade a protest inside Barclays Bank,Whiteladies Road, Bristol. Theydisplayed posters, offered leaflets andasked for the support of staff andcustomers in pressing for Barclays todisinvest from coal. Photographs ofgrandchildren helped draw attention totheir reasons for action.

The group is focussing on Barclaysbecause the bank is the UK’s largestinvestor in worldwide coalinfrastructure, and therefore a majorcontributor to climate change(www.banktrack.org). The groupbelieves that current energy policy,financed heavily by Barclays, puts theirgrandchildren’s future at risk.

http://youtu.be/lsp4ZvlC7BU http://bristol.indymedia.org.uk/articles/716965

CEL member and founder memberof Grandparents for a Safe Earth,Phil Kingston writes:

I don't rush to put myself in aposition where I break the law andcould get arrested so last Wednesday'saction came after a lot of thought andprayer. Like each of you who haschildren, I have been increasinglyconcerned about the kind of earth thatour children and grandchildren willinherit. For a number of years I haveplugged away at engaging politicians,business and media about theseriousness and urgency of this. I thinkmany of them already know at a headlevel but are frightened to speakbecause they either don't know what todo or are concerned about theenormity of trying to manage society'sresponses, and maybe the magnitudeof the changes to their ownphilosophies. I am disappointed anddisturbed by their responses, thoughthose words often don't do justice towhat I feel, which is sometimes moredespair. Well, despair is a usefulpathway to re-finding hope, hope inGod and the human spirit and in thelove which we have for our childrenand grandchildren; and for all of thoseunborn who aren't yet even a twinkle intheir parents' eyes!

The reason we took the action we didis stated in the extract from the pressrelease which is on the BristolIndymedia website below.

After going into the bank we gave themanager a letter which explained whatwe intended to do and why. It includedthis statement:

'We are grandparents who come herewith peace and goodwill in our hearts.This reflects both the kind of earthwhich we want our grandchildren toinherit and our wish to connect with thelonging for peace and goodwill whichwe believe resides in all human hearts.Our actions today will be peaceful andour intention is to cause no damage orinjury.'

That advice from Thomas Merton...

Do not depend on the hope ofresults. When you are doing thesort of work you have taken on,essentially an apostolic work, youmay have to face the fact that yourwork will be apparently worthlessand achieve no result at all, if notperhaps results opposite to whatyou expect. …The big results arenot in your hands or mine, but theysuddenly happen, and we can sharein them, but there is no point inbuilding our lives on this personalsatisfaction, which may be denied usand which after all is not thatimportant....All the good that you willdo will come, not from you but fromthe fact that you have allowedyourself, in the obedience of faith, tobe used by God’s love. Think of thismore and gradually you will be freefrom the need to prove yourself, andyou can be more open to the powerthat will work through you withoutyour knowing it. ... If you can getfree from the domination of causesand just serve Christ’s truth, you willbe able to do more and will be lesscrushed by the inevitabledisappointments. Because I seenothing whatever in sight but muchdisappointment, frustration, andconfusion. ...The real hope, then, isnot in something we think we cando, but in God who is makingsomething good out of it in someway we cannot see.


CEL NEWS

CEL Activities

Over the past few months CEL hasbeen active in several areas:

• Westley Ingram, Ruth Jarman andothers carried the CEL banner insupport of the biofuelwatch intheir demonstration at the DRAXAGM in London. DRAX plans toconvert its coal facility to dual-fuel, burning biomass importedfrom abroad. Although assuranceshave been given that this will befrom sustainable sources, currentplans for converting powerstations to biomass will requiremany times more wood than isgrown by this country every year.

• Judith Allinson sent out aEuropean Churches EnvironmentalNetwork Churchyard Survey tomembers who requested it. Callthe CEL office if you would like tocomplete a survey of your ownchurchyard.

• We signed up to the call foraction in support of the GlobalDay of Action on Military Spendingwhich calls for military spending tobe shifted towards social andenvironmental needs. Pax Christiis one of the initiators of thisproject which was marked for thefirst time in the UK this April.

• We distributed thousands of extracopies of our Storm of Hopebrochure to be handed out by CELmembers in their own churches.Call the CEL office if you wantsome extra copies for your ownChurch 0845 459 8460.

Members of CEL’s ecocell discipleshipcommunity were joined by new friendslast January for the ecocell transportseminar: From A to B? Or Making A agood place to Be? The title of the dayspoke volumes as we spent timeconsidered how we travel, why we traveland what it means for us to stay put.

How we got hereTony Emerson, joint co-ordinator ofecocell 2 gave an overview of ourcurrent position. First of all we took a“Cook’s Tour” of the last century’sdeveloping relationship betweenpersonal motoring and town planningand the corresponding trends inemissions. Those of us committed toliving lives that are responsible in termsof emissions of CO2 and everything elsehave a long way to go. The ecocellcommunity usually concentrates on ourpersonal lifestyle choices and theirimpact on our co-creation but thechoices we make are limited to thechoices available to us in the placewere we live. Today we would beconsidering what it means for acommunity to be sustainable in termsof transport and travel.

Where are weThe new joint co-co-ordinator of ecocell,George Dow, reflected on what itmeans to live in a place. Our willingnessto curtail our travel, to travel moreslowly and more deliberately derives

from our ability to find meaning andpurpose in the place we find ourselves.George reflected on the place he livesin now, and how he came to accept hisplace in it and then to see the potentialin the place. Staying put allowed him tofind places of beauty and people ofpeace who he had not seen before.

Car-free communitiesSteve Melia, Senior Lecturer intransport planning at the University ofthe West of England in Bristol spoke tous about his research into car-freecommunities, concentrating upon theexamples of good practice fromFreiberg, Groningen and Lyon. It seemsthat Britain leads Europe in our relianceupon the car.

Nevertheless reliance upon the car iscommon throughout Europe and even where car use is discouragedwithin large cities Europe’s system of motorways means that intercitydriving is on the rise.

The examples given were veryinteresting, showing how it waspossible for a city to move away fromcar use over a period of decades ofconsistent town planning. Steve’sresearch revealed a lot of challengingfacts also. When people are asked whatneeds to be done to encourage peopleout of their cars they usually say ‘betterpublic transport’ but he showed that

CEL’s Annual Members MeetingPlease note the date has beenchanged since Storm of Hope cameout. Our AMM for 2013 is at StAloysius Church, 20 Phoenix Road,Euston, London NW1 1TA, onSaturday 2nd November.

ecocell: The Place to BeA report on ecocell 2’s workshop on sustainable transport

Dr. Steve Melia addressing theworkshop


CEL NEWS

cities that invest in improved publictransport do not necessarilysignificantly reduce car use. Usuallynew and improved public transportprovision mainly leads to new trips orpeople switching from existing modesof public transport with only small levelsof transfer from the car. He cited oneinteresting example of free publictransport for the young in Hollandhaving the primary effect of reducingcycling. Ultimately it is important todisincentivise car use while makingpublic transport easier. This will notonly make for more liveablecommunities but will also increaseresilience in the event of resourceshortages to come. n

Westley Ingram

New MembersKathy Barton (Lancs)Gordon & Lynne Blair (Lancs)Alison Duckers (Notts)Peter Grimwood (Worcester)Ralph Hindle (Avon)Michael Howitt (London)Michael Milton (Kent)Rev Andrew Norman (Surrey)Simon Ross (Shropshire)Anthony & Eline Smith (Yorkshire)Sylvia Walker (West Yorks)Diocese of Gloucester (Dr SimonTopping)Merrilyn Sawrey-Cookson (Cumbria)Richard Griffiths (Surrey)

Please notify the CEL office if youmove or change your email ortelephone number – and ask for aMembership Response Form to fill inif you haven’t already sent one to us.

Steering CommitteeNominationsThis time each year we refreshthe membership of CEL’s steeringcommittee with a call fornominations. This year thedeadline is 6 July. If you wouldlike to consider becoming part ofour national committee pleaseemail Barbara Echlin (CELSecretary)[email protected] or call Paul Bodenham (CEL Chair)on 01949 861516 for moreinformation on what is involvedand how to put yourself forward.

CEL has agreed to be one of the signatories of the LausanneConsultation on Creation Care and the Gospel The prophet Joel challenged the peopleof his time: ‘Listen, all you who live in theland. Has anything like this everhappened in your days or in the days ofyour forefathers? Tell it to yourchildren…’Joel 1:2. The land had beendevastated by locusts; now we arefacing an unprecedented ecologicalcrisis that demands the kind of whole-hearted response that Joel called for,but this time from the worldwide Church.

In 2010 the Third Lausanne Congress onWorld Evangelization issued ‘The CapeTown Commitment’ which recognisedthat ‘The Bible declares God’sredemptive purpose for creation. Integralmission means discerning, proclaiming,and living out the biblical truth that thegospel is God’s good news, through thecross and resurrection of Jesus Christ,for individual persons, and for society,and for creation.’ This led to acommitment to ‘urgent and propheticecological responsibility.’

One outcome of this was the gatheringof over 50 people from 26 nations lastOctober at the Lausanne Consultation onCreation Care and the Gospel. Ourprayers, discussions and worship grewout of the themes of God’s world, God’sWord and God’s Work. Voices were

heard from many different contextsincluding the urban poor in Brazil, Haitiand the Congo; those engaged inforestry work in Ghana and Burundi, andin conservation work in India; and frompastors, scientists, mission leaders,theologians and educators.Presentations and interest groupsexplored issues such as missions andthe gospel, food security,communications and sustainable cities.We were led to two primary conclusions:that creation care is indeed a ‘gospelissue within the lordship of Christ’; andthat we are faced with a crisis that ispressing and urgent and that must beresolved within our generation. Do praywith the consultation participants forfruitful outcomes, including:

1. A whole-hearted response to theconsultation’s Call to Action,

2. A global creation care movement ofscientists, theologians andpractitioners, with regional planninggroups to encourage appropriateresponses in different parts of theworld,

3. Creation care will be embraced by allChristians in their understanding andpractice of mission.

So please read the Call to Action andprayerfully consider how to respond:

• Should you enter a covenant withyour family, fellowship group orChurch to encourage significantchanges towards a simpler lifestyle?

• How can the whole Church bemobilised to contribute to modellingand advocating a more sustainableway of life?

• How can you engage students andother visitors from overseas tocontribute to an exploration of what asustainable way of life will involve indifferent contexts, and itsimplications for trade etc? How canyou foster creative links andpartnerships between Churches andfellowship groups here and acrossthe world?

• So many of the impacts of our wayof life are ‘below the horizon’ – whatcan you do to research and sharesuch information, and to contributeto remedial action?

• How can you pray for, support andencourage those involved in creationcare as an integral part of mission?How can you mobilise others to joinin this work?

For more information about theLausanne Movementhttp://www.lausanne.org/en/about.htm


In Light and ShadeIsobel Murdoch places CEL’s Local Groups on the prophetic edge

Desolation and restoration, lamentand hope, shadows and shafts ofsun: familiar conflicts to all of us

who struggle with this degraded world.And conflicts familiar also to Jeremiah.His early prophecies are doom-laden‘I will weep and wail for the mountains’(9.10), although these too are shotthrough with glimmers of hope, as inJeremiah 23. Then in Jeremiah 29, thetenor alters, the balance shifts andreverses. Still we hear of punishmentand storm, still the city will bebesieged, but there will be joy andgladness for God’s followers, and Hewill ‘plant them in this land infaithfulness’ (32.41).

Light and shade interplay in nature: inthe sea where darts ofphosphorescence light the dark ocean... on my recent winter and springwalks with, on one side an older ivy-cladhedge, flailed and torn, and on theother, a newly laid hedge, the shrub

stems cut and bent to form stronggrowth, ungainly now, but a signal ofhope in each day’s weather – thismorning was dark, windy and wet, butnow the flagstones glisten in the sun.

As light and shade interweave in ourown consciousness, so I see thismirrored within CEL local groups, asseveral groups, whether long-running orrecent, struggle and close, while newones open. A new CEL group hasformed in King’s Lynn, and the firstweekend in July will see their inauguralevent, an Open Weekend to celebratecreation and display members’sustainable lifestyles. They would beglad to see you there.

In their walk all of CEL’s local groupsseek to interweave the dual threads offaith and ecology, in diverse ways.Andover CEL recently enjoyed a bringand share supper preceded by a bringand share liturgy, when members could

request a specific song, piece ofmusic, prayer or poem and explain whythis inspires them. The Norfolk DEOintends to draw on the writings ofMatthew Fox, an eco-theologian in theUSA, to inspire others with Fox’s verypositive theology of creation. ChurchesTogether in Leighton Buzzard havefollowed an environmental study courseassembled by the CEL group leaderfrom ecocell and like programmes. TheSt Ives group will hear Hilary Marlowpreach at the Free United ReformChurch. Hereford CEL recently met todiscuss the 2013 Storm of Hope issue,while on another occasion they heard atalk with slides on the Nature ofHerefordshore. The Clun Group hasmaintained their link with SustainableFutures, with talks on organic farmingand on the work of Natural England tomaintain the flora and fauna of theStiperstones.

Reawakening the awareness of thenatural world we are losing in the faceof the demands of the 24/7 mediaoutput is crucial. The Clun group willtour an organic farm this spring.Leighton Buzzard CEL is also planningan outing to an organic farm. Membersof the other CEL group in Bedfordshire,Clifton, went to Welwyn Garden City’sPeace Garden: an unused space behinda chuch now planted with hundreds ofbulbs and many species of plants anddrawing the community together.

Once again, groups also seek tointerweave political activities and anindividual response. Cheltenham CELheld an event in February at which thelocal MP was quizzed about theGovernment’s new Energy Bill. In Maythey will hear from Tom Cullinan, aCatholic priest, about ‘A Year of Foodand Faith’, cross-referencing PopeBenedict XVI’s year of Faith with the IFCampaign against global hunger. Thiscampaign will be central this year andmembers of Reading CEL lobbied theirMP alongside other local campaignersin March. The IF Campaign was one


issue covered by the first issue of anew quarterly magazine which theWallington group has decided toproduce. Entitled New Leaf, themagazine will be sent to 18 localChurches. Perhaps an idea othergroups might follow?

Petersfield CEL still supports theGreening Movement which in Marchheld a talk by Lord Stern on theenvironmental situation since the Sternreport in 2006. The Milton Keynesgroup heard a Green Party politiciandiscuss the party’s policies and alsohosted a talk about the UnitedSustainable Energy Agency.

At the individual/group level, childrenin Clifton have enjoyed planting bulbs inthe churchyard, and craft sessions,glass-painting and making cards. InShrewsbury the Ecumenical GreenGroup has responded to the RubbishDiet Initiative with a Slim Your Binchallenge. The group’s contact’s streethas become the first street in Englandto implement the challenge to cutwaste down to 10kg, or even 3kg afortnight, when the national averagestands at 26kg (see the box alongside)!

The Wallington group has decided toembark on ecocell 2 interspersed withreflective sessions on faith and nature.Ottery St Mary will once more run theirbiannual environment event in theirchurch in early October, with activitiesfor children outside and a programmeof talks inside.

As Jeremiah’s prophecies progress,the time shifts once again, darknessredescends. Many nations will beuprooted, ‘joy and gladness … gonefrom the orchards and fields of Moab’(Jeremiah 8.33). As there, so here,phosphorescence fades away. Monthsgo by before the new hedge grows.And dark clouds gather once more overmy garden.

Jeremiah’s hope and lament stillsound. When we return to God and trulyrepent our faithfulness (3.22), then Godassures us, ‘your wounds I will heal’(30.17). I will close there with theshadows aside, but as in Jeremiah, thestruggle goes on, as each day closes inmid-sentence. Will we walk the way ofdesolation or the way of restoration? n

The Rubbish Diet Challenge.

Can the average person really create zero waste? Karen Cannard a mother fromBury St Edmunds gave it a go in 2008. By the end of an eight week trial she threwaway only one plaster!

Now five years on the Rubbish Diet is about to be launched across the counties ofSuffolk and Shropshire. It has made it through to the finals of a major nationalwaste reduction challenge. Over the next six months each county needs to havebrought 100 households on board.

The idea is to monitor your bin, taking photographs and/or weighing your bin duringan eight week period. This will help track progress and by comparing with others,encourage exchanging hints and advice.

Every week challenges are set such as: finding what and where items can berecycled, shopping with waste in mind. We look at trying to reduce food waste andcomposting more, all the time working towards zero waste.

See www.therubbishdiet.co.uk for more details.

Here in Shropshire we did a trial with 15 households at the end of 2012. Thisshowed the potential of the concept and following this pilot a member ofShrewsbury Ecumenical Green Group. Howard Hutchings has helped launch it in hisstreet, the first in the country to do so. 15 households are working together to slimtheir bins.

All recyclable items that cannot go into the fortnightly kerbside collection are putinto dumpy bags situated outside one of the households taking part. This householdthen takes these items to one of the county’s recycling centres. This means thatone vehicle is taking recycled goods to the centre saving 14 journeys from thestreet. A different household carries out this task two weeks later.

Initial results have been astounding with most families reducing their waste by athird and one family by 20kg! The Rubbish Diet really works – bins get slimmer andworking together makes it a fun and rewarding process.

If you or your Church or your street would like to slim your bins or if you would likemore information please contact Alison Thomas on 07972 858313 [email protected]. Or Howard Hutchings. [email protected]

Send in the Clowns is a song by Stephen Sondheim from the 1973 musical ALittle Night Music, an adaptation of Ingmar Bergman's film Smiles of a SummerNight. It is a ballad from Act II in which the character Desirée reflects on theironies and disappointments of her love life. The refrain keeps asking, ‘Where arethe clowns?’ and ‘Where are the Clowns?/There ought to be clowns’ and again‘Where are the Clowns?/Don’t bother they’re here’.

The use of the image of the clown in the song refers to the two lovers. They hadgot it wrong; botched it up. They were both vulnerable, sad and wondering if therewas any hope of ever getting it right. There was no need to send in the clowns tomake them laugh and recover their self-esteem and their love. After all theythemselves were the clowns, the ones with the resilience to carry on despite theset backs, in spite of the mistakes to live with hope and finally to reach their goal.

Send in the Clowns


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The place for Green Christian readers to find inspiring and informative resources

No Oil in the Lamp: Fuel,Faith and the Energy Crisis By Andy Mellen and Neil HollowAugust 2012Darton, Longman and Todd240 pagesISBN 978-0-2325-2944-9RRP £12.99

Andy Mellen owns a smallholding andhas written on ecological issues forThirdWay magazine. Neil Hollow has adoctorate in Environmental Biotechnologyand concerns about peak oil.

The first thing that made me sit up wasthe review that read, ‘Neil and Andy haveset out the background to the issue ofPeak Oil and exposed some of theconsequences of an energy-constrainedfuture’, this by the Chief Executive ofScottish and Southern Energy!

The 13 chapters cover the problemand the Christian attitude to it. The

conventionalenergy sources –coal, gas andnuclear – areconsidered indetail and some ofthe moral issuesfacing Christiansfrom use of theseare discussed.There are twochapters aboutalternative energy,renewable electricity

and renewable heat and transport, and alook at the neglected area of therelationship between oil, food andchemicals. The economic market systemis explored, as are some of the alternativemodels compatible with a life after PeakOil from a Christian viewpoint. Theconsequences of carrying on in ourpresent way are debated; the TransitionMovement is discussed as is the way the

Bible relates to the present situation interms of the lessons and instructionswithin.

The final three chapters cover what weas individual can do, what the Churchlocally and nationally can do, explainingwhat some local Churches have done and,in conclusion, where we go from here.There is also a very useful short glossaryand study guide.

I read the whole book in just one and abit readings; I could simply not put itdown. Easy to read, full of facts, somequite frightening, very well referencedindeed, and quite inspirational. As far asPeak Oil is concerned the world is sleep-walking into a bleak future unless factsare faced. The authors of this book facethose facts in easy-to-read detail andshow that there really is a way forward ifaction is taken.

Revd Peter Doodes

Fukushima:The Death Knell for Nuclear Energy?By Sean McDonagh July 2012 Columba Press166 pages ISBN 978-1-8560-7784-2 RRP £10.99

This is a clear exposition of the Fukushimanuclear disaster, its antecedents and itscontinuing aftermath. McDonaghcompares the nuclear craze to the ancientmyth of Poseidon stealing fire from thegods. Nuclear energy was first discoveredby the French physicist Henri Becquerel in1896. But the real history of thedevelopment of nuclear energy and poweris in the 20th century, the quest formilitary uses culminating in the Nagasakiand Hiroshima disasters, but stillcontinuing as deterrence, as in Israel andNorth Korea, and the UK.

McDonagh documents the horrendousdangers of nuclear power, including thenear impossibility of decommissioningplants and storing spent fuels safely andavoiding accidents from natural disasters,such as occurred at Fukushima. Almostimmediately after the catastrophe,radiation was found in air, soil, water andfish within a large radius. Shockingly inApril 2011 the Japanese governmentreleased 11,500 tons of contaminated

water into theseas. LikeChernobyl,Fukushima isnow within the deep earth, endangeringearth life including humans.

McDonagh notes that spent uranium andother saturated materials must besegregated and stored for 200,000 years,a span roughly comparable to the yearssince our species first appeared in Africa.McDonagh has done impressive research,including the writings of Dr HelenCaldecott, New Economics Foundation,NGOs and contemporary journals,including the Guardian and New Scientist.McDonagh chronicles other disasters suchas Windscale, Three Mile Island, andChernobyl, and warnings about otherpotential, and even beginning, disasterssuch as Sellafield, Hinkley Point,Hartlepool and Dungeness. In all accidentsand credible warnings there is asubsequent cover-up by the nuclear lobbyincluding industry, government and media.

McDonagh also describes developingcountries keen to risk their biosphere withnuclear plants, including Vietnam, thePhilippines, India, Egypt, Nigeria, Kenyaand North Korea. According to McDonagh,Catholic bishops in these and othercountries have warned about the dangersof nuclear, and promoted genuinealternative renewable energies. Fukushimaalerted even the cautious Vatican. InMcDonagh’s words, ‘In response to theFukushima Daiichi disaster, it seems thatthe Holy See has now changed its policyon promoting nuclear energy. Nuclearpower is neither safe nor cheap.’

To return to Prometheus stealing firefrom the gods and giving it to humans,Zeus was so angry he sent the goddessPandora, who opened a box releasing allevils such as disease and death, whichplague humans. Hubris brought nemesis.The Christian response to nuclearism,along with religions such as Shinto andBuddhism, was well described by theJapanese bishops after Fukushima. ‘Inorder to protect life, which is so precious,we must not focus on economic growth byprivatising profitability and efficiency, butdecide at once to abolish nuclear plants.’Governments, including that of Japan,would be well advised to heed theJapanese bishops.

Dr Edward P. Echlin


RESOURCE REVIEWS

Between God & Green: How Evangelicals Are Cultivating a Middle Ground on Climate ChangeBy Katherine K Wilkinson July 2012 Oxford University Press 256 pagesISBN 978-0-1998-9588-5 RRP £18.99

This book is based on research carriedout in the USA during 2007 to 2009 bya consultant to the Boston ConsultingGroup who has also taughtenvironmental science at OxfordUniversity. It provides a wealth ofmaterial and some deep insights and iswritten in a clear but inevitablysomewhat academic style.

The research included interviews withboth leaders and ordinary members ofevangelical Churches. It is estimatedthat evangelicals account for 25-30% ofthe US population so for those who areconcerned with effective action onclimate change they are a vital group.

In the USA the term “evangelical” isoften taken to imply people who aredeeply sceptical of the science ofclimate change and of the need totackle it. The author met many suchpeople and this perhaps still representsthe majority of people in evangelicalChurches. But among the leadership

there are nowmany who seethis as amajor issuethat Christians are calledon to address urgently.

The author’s summary of how and whythese widely divergent positions exist wasvery enlightening to this reviewer, who isnot an evangelical. Although much of whatshe writes applies particularly to the USA,for example the links between the rightwing of the Republican Party and right-wing evangelicals, many of the insightswould be helpful for understanding peopleof similar views in the UK.

What is particularly fascinating is thedescription of the growth of a movementwhich encouraged evangelicals to addressclimate change. To even mention this waslike a red rag to a bull and the patient,courageous work of a number of Churchleaders is inspiring. Also notable is thehelp they received from Sir John

Houghton who is great supporter ofCEL.

The ‘middle ground’ to which theauthor refers still seems to besomewhat elusive. Perhaps the areawhere this is most likely to develop is inthe increasingly broad acceptance of‘creation care’ and care of neighbour asbeing essential elements of a Bible-based Christianity. The author quotesseveral testimonies of people whomoved via this area to subsequentacceptance of the centrality of climatechange.

The environmental movementworldwide has to accept that to a greatextent it appears to have failed tocapture the hearts and minds of peopleor to energise them to take action. Thebook suggests that religion, with itsfocus on ethical values, has animportant contribution in motivatingpeople and the author maintains that alink between secular and religiousenvironmentalists is both possible andessential if the necessary action is tooccur. It will be a long road ahead. Asone of the major evangelical leaders inthe USA puts it: ‘right now … we’re kindof wandering in the wilderness, but we’remaking for the promised land’.

Mike Monaghan

Sharing Eden: GreenTeachings from Jews,Christians and Muslims By Nathan Levy, David Shreeve andHarfiyah HaleemJune 2012Kube Publishing Ltd106 pagesISBN 978-1-8477-4041-0RRP £4.99

Sharing Eden represents an importantinitiative between the Muslim, Jewish andChristian traditions. It attempts to bringtogether resources, theological ideas andreligious insights from each tradition inorder to show the reader that addressingthe ecological crisis is an opportunity forthe human community to come togetherin dialogue and in love.

Each section includes a short summaryof how Jews, Muslims and Christiansapproach issues such as sustainabilityand waste; water; energy and naturalresources; climate change; food; andbiodiversity and regeneration. The readeris guided carefully through clear and

accuratepresentationsof how theMuslim,Christian andJewishcommunities areseeking toaddress aplethora ofecologicalconcerns.

It might besaid, however,

that the more advanced reader wouldhope for a more sustained and criticalanalysis of some of the topics and,perhaps, of how the ecological crisispresents us with an opportunity forgenuine inter-religious dialogue.

Nevertheless, those who have yet toacknowledge that there is, in fact, anecological crisis, or admit that faithtraditions contain rich resources whichcan sustain the quest for solutions, will begreatly inspired by the writings containedwithin this short book. The illustrationsassist in giving the reader visual stimulithat encourage them to look at creation

differently and subsequently to attempt tochange their vision concerning how itought to be regarded.

The potential of this book lies in thefact that it brings faiths together in a waythat avoids the temptation of expectinganyone to abandon their tradition, or topresume their tradition is moreecologically advanced or sophisticatedthan the others, but rather to show thatthe ecological crisis is one which isshared by the entire human family.Therefore, it makes sense to use suchecological discussion as an opportunityfor dialogue and to share the richresources contained within each tradition.We may then come to a greaterunderstanding of how we should behave inrelation to the created order and movetowards the various contexts within whichthis might be done.

One hopes that the authors of thisshort book will consider collaboratingonce again to produce a fuller andperhaps more sophisticated volume in thenot too distant future, as this is importantwork indeed.

Ann Marie Mealey


RESOURCES TO DISCOVER

Cosmic Prayer andGuided Transformation:Key Elements of theEmergent ChristianCosmologyBy Robert Govaerts August 2012 Eugene, Oregon: Pickwick 226 pagesISBN 978-1-6109-860-6 RRP £17.00

Govaerts presents a Christiancosmological vision for all creation whichenvisages humanity in a process oftransformation towards what God intends,exemplified uniquely in Jesus: care anddesire for justice for all creation.Govaerts elucidates this vision in dialoguewith Scripture, Hellenistic thinking,traditional Christian theology –particularly Maximus the Confessor(580–662) – and process and newtheology, as well as scientificunderstandings of evolution.

Govaerts emphasises personaltransformation through prayer and divineguidance by which we develop virtues fitto bring about God’s will. This raisessome concerns for me. For example,how does a single isolated mother withthree young children and without apartner, living in a high-rise block of flats,

fit into Govaerts’ contemplative/prayer-centred vision? Christians might offer herrespite so she can go out with somefriends for an hour and thus in some wayfacilitate more intimate community.

The doctrine of the Trinity is importantto Govaerts and is characterised byGod’s self-giving, suffering, love andcompassion. This theory of the Trinity,with its emphasis on God as lovingcommunity, is popular among manyChristians concerned with both social andecological justice. This discussionprovides a helpful overview of scholarlyviews such as those of Moltmann andFiddes.

It is argued that creation is incontinuous process. All creation longs forcommunion with the Holy Trinity and forpersonalisation within the Trinity (p.134).Through this longing for God, creation isbeing guided by God to be at one withhis will (p.150). This view rejects adeterministic view of creation as wellas views of creation as finished or thatGod is micromanaging creation.Indeed, creation as in process is partof God’s creative intention and thisprovides a reason for Christians beinginvolved in the world through livingobediently in such a way as tofacilitate what God intends.

This book challenges the notion ofhumankind’s distinctiveness asrooted in its rational abilities (p.99).Hierarchy is often based on rational

abilities and dominates our attitudestowards creation, leading to those in theupper echelons domineering over allothers. A key symptom of this hierarchyis the encouragement of self-empowerment among individuals. Thisperspective leads to inequality andincreasing suffering for many others.Govaerts rightly argues that humans areto be defined by their capacity for acommunal life rooted in God’s nature ascommunity and culture based in prayer,care, love and joyfulness.

In summary, this book is not an easyread and I wonder whether Govaertscould have made his argument morepalatable by limiting his scope to fewerdisciplines. It strikes me, for example,that Scripture alone would have amplysupported his argument, albeit withoutthe developed Trinitarian ideas. But this is

still a valuablepresentation of aChristiancosmologicalvision that canindeed motivatemany of us toseek justice for allcreation and a veryuseful resource foranyone dealing withTrinity or Maximusthe Confessor.

Mark Bredin

Faith and the Future of theCountryside Edited by Jill Hopkinson and Alan Smith March 2012Canterbury Press, Norwich 144 pagesISBN 978-1-8482-5117-5RRP £24.99 (paperback), £17.90 (ebook)

The book Faith and the Futureof the Countryside drawstogether the work of 12excellent rural theorists andpractitioners and is aninteresting mix of business,social, ecological, spiritualand pastoral concerns.

Several chapters stressthe importance of the onemillion rural businesses inthe UK. The business whichreceives most attention,apart from farming, is

tourism, and there is a plea thatChurches should work much more inpartnership with secular agencies liketourist boards, but also that thosesecular agencies should take moreaccount of the Churches.

There is considerable emphasis onrural poverty, which, it is claimed, hasbeen largely ignored by successivegovernments. While there has recentlybeen some government concern about

the desperate need formore social housing, therecent cuts have set thatback. The needs of theelderly and the mentally illare considered, and onechapter raised the issue ofreclaiming the land for thepeople, known as foodsovereignty, though theauthor admits that vestedinterests would make thatwell nigh impossible atpresent.

There is a connection between thebusiness and the ecological in that it issaid that a low-carbon economy wouldgreatly benefit rural areas and there isstress on the proximity principle inregards to local trading and that peasantfarmers are ‘the last line of resistance tothe global corporate takeover of the foodchain’ (Echlin, quoting from Julian Rose).There is satisfaction that at least there issome hope of a sensible policy about ourwoods, which are so vital to combatingclimate change.

Also, ‘woods draw humanity to see thedivine in the ordinary’, and there areadmonitions to Churches to take moreaccount of people’s spiritual yearnings,which can often lead them to beinginspired by church buildings, providedthey are open, and to enjoying the peacethat such rural areas as forests provide.

There is much in the book about theneed for Churches to encourage the

continued on page 24


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Making Peace with the Land: God’s Call to Reconcile with CreationBy Fred Bahnson and Norman Wirzba October 2012 IVP Books 178 pagesISBN 978-0-8308-3457-0 RRP £9.93

Writers Fred Bahnson, anagriculturalist, and Norman Wirzba, atheology professor at Duke DivinitySchool, contribute alternate chaptersof this carefully-written, fact-packedand fast-paced 180-page book.

I will freely admit that time after timeI was left wide-eyed at the knowledgecontained within its covers, especiallyBahnson’s reference to ‘some divineagro forestry advice’ in Isaiah 41:19regarding the acacia tree,the acacia being a treewhose deep tap roots reachthe water table and whosenodules fix atmosphericnitrogen. Bahnson alsowrites of the maringa tree,a tree that grows in manytropical areas, a treewhose small leavescontain – gram for gram– seven times the vitaminC of oranges, four timesthe vitamin A of carrots,four times the calcium of milk,three times the potassium of bananasand twice the protein of yoghurt. Asthis book shows time and time again,God’s abundance of nature is there,just waiting to be discovered.

The two writers complement eachother perfectly as their chapters cover‘Reconciliation with the Land’,

‘Learning to See’, ‘Reconciliation withChrist’, ‘Field, Table and Communion’,‘Reconciliation through Eating’, and‘Bread for the Whole Body of Christ’.Each chapter is biblically grounded,but not in an overbearing or preachingway, rather in references to thesituation of, and the answers to, theenvironmental problems that we facetoday. So often when readingenvironmental books I feel a sense of

guilt for my distantbehaviour, or ‘ecologicalamnesia’ as the writersgently put it, yet afterreading this I felt a senseof hope and a renewingof my enthusiasm, anenthusiasm that I mustadmit sometimes runsperilously close to empty.

As the Prologue headingsays, ‘For God so lovedthe soil (that) God planteda garden in Eden’; God thegardener indeed. Powerful

visions from a thoroughlyrecommended and very powerfulbook, with its invitation to join Godand, with him, get our hands dirty aswe renew and restore creation.

Revd Peter Doodes

formation of resilient communities andthe book ends with a delightful tale ofhow the sensitive use of three occasionaloffices in a small village, which wouldhave been written off by many as havingno vibrant Christian life, completelytransformed the community and broughtinto the Kingdom surprising people inones and twos.

However, there is one very importantelement missing. Professor Leslie Francisbrought out a book in 1985 called RuralAnglicanism, subtitled A future for youngChristians? He traced the way ruralChurches had turned from looking afteryoung people to looking after ancientbuildings. The cover of Faith and theFuture shows children exiting a churchbuilding, but in the introduction it isstated that it was decided to leave outany mention of young people. It looks asif Francis’ question mark has not goneaway.

Tony Hodgson

continued from page 23

CEL Annual Retreat 2013 is to be held at Ringsfield Hall in Suffolkon the weekend of 18-20 October

Using Ringsfield’s experience of enabling children to reconnect with the natural world, we will enjoy aprimarily outdoor retreat following andreconstructing some of their activities, fromdemonstrating interconnection to the favouriteactivity for very many of the children who visit,namely times of solitude. We will discover how thechildren really do lead us and how we can engagein making our own meaning.

Come and enjoy CEL community in retreat togetherwith all the space, quiet and good food atRingsfield.

To book contact Chris on 07881 941296 or [email protected] or write to Chris WaltonRingsfield Hall, Beccles, Suffolk NR34 8JR.


RESOURCES

Flight Behaviour By Barbara Kingsolver Faber and Faber 2012 UK price £18.99 416 pages

This is a novel about globalwarming. If you enjoyedBarbara Kingsolver’s othernovels such as ThePoisonwood Bible or TheLacuna you will enjoy this.The story is set in afarming community inTennessee, a communityin which a Christiancongregation of a conservativeevangelical character plays an importantpart in setting the scene and determiningthe responses of the characters to whatoccurs.So what does occur? The novel concernsthe migratory behaviour of the monarchbutterfly, swarms of which suddenlyarrive on the farm of the heroine’s familycontrary to its normal pattern of life. Whyis this happening? Why are these hosts of

orange butterflies so wildly off courseand why have they arrived at this

particular place at this particulartime? What are theconsequences of this strangephenomenon for thecharacters, the country andthe butterflies themselves?How is this event to beunderstood by the scientists,the Church and its preacherand the family on whose landthe insects have settled?As she comes from a farmingcommunity of this kind herselfand has degrees in biology, thisis a story that the author is well

qualified to write. The best aspect of thestory is the description of the interactionbetween the heroine, Delarobia, and thescientists who come to her farm to studythe monarch butterflies. The leastsatisfactory aspect is the somewhatclunky way in which the hard science isintroduced into the story line. Anotherdifficulty for me is that much of thedialogue is written in Appalachian slangwhich adds to the verisimilitude but offers

Methodist Relief andDevelopment FundThe IotaCourse This is a smallgroup resource a free 8-Sessioncourse to helpChristiansunderstandthe issuesbehind globalinjustice andhow they can take action.The Leader’s booklet includes a CD.

Iota includes:Introductory session on Think Global: whois my neighbour?Session on A Changing Climate.Session on myths and preconceptions wesometimes have regarding internationaldevelopment/aid.15 short films, interactive exercises andgames, Bible studies, discussions,quizzes and action points.

Available from The Methodist Church, 25 Marylebone Road, London NW1 5JRO20 7467 [email protected]

a challenge to the English reader. Delarobia’s life and that of her family istransformed by the coming of thebutterflies, the scientists who study themand the media who are looking for agood story. The butterflies offer her away of escape from a loveless marriage, a constraining social existenceand into the world of science. Hence thetitle of the novel Flight Behaviour. This novel would be a useful text for aChristian reading group whose membersshare an interest in justice, peace andthe integrity of creation. It offers anengaging way of addressing the issue ofglobal warming and climate change andintroduces the reader to some of thepolitical, scientific and moral issues thatneed to be resolved if we are to makeany progress towards a wise response tothis critical issue which is so fundamentalfor all our futures.

Let’s hope the book is soon published inpaperback and made into a film. Such atreatment would be of great benefit tothe environmental cause.

Peter Grimwood

Stations of the Forest A Columban MissionEducation Programme

This DVD and 32 page Resource Bookletuses the ‘Stations of the Cross’ format tolament the stages in the death of a partof God’s creation, the rainforests.

The programme visits the 14 Stations ofthe Cross as stations of the forest,providing Bible readings, facts andfigures and discussion questions.

Originallyproduced in the1980s this is arevisedproductionincorporatingglobal issuesto rainforestdestructionsuch as theextractiveindustries andclimate change.

“The earth is precious to God and toharm the earth is to heap contempt onits creator”

Chief Seattle’s Testimony

For further information:www.columbans.co.ukand [email protected]

Hope for Planet EarthA Christian Response to Climate Change

Produced byTear Fund and A Rocha

This DVDfeatures fourprofessionalmulti-mediapresentationsguiding youthrough thescience ofClimateChange, dispelling the myths; exploringour impact on the planet; the moralimperative surrounding the world’s poor;and the Biblical perspective.

Featuring:Sir John HoughtonDr Martin HodsonRev. Dave BooklessAlisha SanvicensAndy Frost

For further information:www.hopeforplanetearth.co.uk


MAIL BAG

What our readers have to say

Dear Editor

I am off again!

I am listening to the Radio 4 programmewith Melvyn Brag, about the Value ofCulture. It is very interesting and is talkingabout the way Edward Tyler coined the word‘anthropology’ and the phrases ‘primitiveculture’. The German Protestant Quakersused the word ‘culture’ but he included theword ‘civilisation’ as well.

It reminds me of a thought I had that in ourmodern world we need to think about LIFESTYLES. The western world is now afunction of life styles in our consumeristculture. We do not have class any more; weare divided by the levels of our life styles.Our financial wealth governs our life stylesand the pressure to go up the life stylelevels forces many into debt.

We need to start to look at this and gradelife styles so we can work at leveling lifestyles so we can fairly reduce our impact onour earth.

Have you ever had any thoughts about this?

Barbara Mark

Dear Editor

On the 21st October 2012 I attended aCAFOD Potato Day at Noddfa RetreatHouse. While I was there Christian EcologyLink was staying there. This was anexcellent opportunity for me to learn aboutthis organisation. I wasn’t aware of thegroup beforehand and felt that the talk theygave us was very inspiring. As a youngperson myself I felt it was interesting tolearn about the group and the environmentaround us. I feel we have a responsibility tokeep God’s creation and to respect it. Ilearnt that the idea of LOAF was formed bya member of Christian Ecology Link andthat the idea was very clever. CAFOD arenow using the LOAF principles as part oftheir new campaign known as Hungry forChange. LOAF represents Locally produced,Organically grown, Animal friendly and Fairlytraded food. All these things will make ourworld a better place. I would like to thankCEL members for their inspiring words.

Amy Davies

Dear Editor

I shared this reflection in a local magazinesome time ago and, following the ecocelltwo day on travel in January, I would liketo share it with Green Christan readers.

We had become close friends with nearneighbours in Hackbridge, at the foot ofwhose small garden runs the RiverWandle.

And so there we were – Jacqueline andme – rowing up and down this river – inthe late afternoon sunshine, with theshade and light reflecting on the leaves ofthe overhanging branches and the surfaceof the water. On the opposite bank wasWilderness Island, a haven of informaltangles of plants – trees and wildflowers –which no doubt is the home to teemingwildlife.

And it struck me that these local richesare freely available to us all. As manyreaders will know, we have some lovelygreen spaces in this borough, an activeHeritage Centre (at Carshalton Ponds), anearby Ecology Centre, a recentlyestablished Community Farm at thesmallholdings (just near to where we meetfor Church each Sunday) and the Wandle– whose history is described on theThames Water website as follows:

‘Its location and steep gradient, whichresults in fast-flowing water, led to itbecoming one of the hardest-workingrivers in the world, with more than 94mills along its 11-mile length. In 1086, theDomesday Book noted 13 mills. By theyear of Trafalgar in 1805, this numberhad quadrupled to 12 calico works, nineflour mills, five snuff mills, five oil mills,three bleaching grounds, two dye-works,and one each of paper mills, skinningmills, logwood mills, copper mills andbreweries’.

I recall reading several years ago of aman who made the decision not to travel

more than a few miles away from hishome for around six months. And duringthis time he slowly began to appreciatethe beauty of his surroundings –sometimes in the most unexpectedplaces. He started to notice for the firsttime the lie of the land, the shape ofroadways, the flow of a river, the wildplaces and so on.

I can very much empathise with thisexperience. Before we left to set up homein Yorkshire seven years ago I had feltlittle connection with this physical place,considering it very much an anonymousouter London borough – convenient forcommuting but lacking in beauty. And itwas only after returning that I began tolook around me with clear eyes and seethe places which I had previously passedby unnoticed.

Perhaps there is something in this forother folk too. Rather than ‘escaping’ ourtowns for faraway places, it may be aninteresting and surprising experience to‘have a holiday at home’. To go deeperinto the place – the land and – yes –many of the buildings which have beenconstructed so well and which may have afascinating history.

And of course this is God’s place – just asmuch as some far-off, more glamorousholiday resort. In Colossians Ch 1 verses16 - 17, Paul writes: ‘By him all thingswere created’ and ‘In him all things holdtogether’. God’s creation is everywhere –even in Wallington on a cold and rainy day!

So how about for your next holiday, try anadventure trip around your locallandscape – remember your heritage,glory in your surroundings within a fewmiles radius of your home ... and think ofhow much you save in terms of money,stress ... and carbon emissions!

George Dow


PRAYER

Thomas has a warning for us. Even aslow God can be a delusion. Any Godwho is ‘plain and out there’ will give us awild goose chase.

So it is with salvation history. In thebeginning the people heard God say‘Go’, and they went. Seeking theirdestiny, they roamed far and wide,throughout the Near East, to the ‘landof milk and honey’, and, by turns, intoexile and dispersion.

Then in Jesus, God said not ‘Go’ but‘Come’: come, follow me; come to mewith your burdens; come through me tothe Father. When Jesus did tell peopleto go somewhere, it was usually home– once they had been healed andrestored to their full humanity.

In Christ our goings are turned tocomings. The impulse to roam givesway to the invitation to belong. As theprodigal son discovered, our conversionis to homecoming. From Jesus’ lips,the only ‘Go’ without apparenthomecoming is into the world to preachthe gospel to all creation (Mark 16) –the greatest homecoming of all.

Towards the end of his life, that taciturnpriest-poet R S Thomas moved toAberdaron, at the very end of the LlŷnPeninsula. From there, it’s a short andtricky crossing to Bardsey. For Thomasthe ‘Island of a Thousand Saints’ heldthe lure of the beyond, as it did forseekers of a pre-modern age. In hispoem Pilgrimages he follows in theirsteps, but asks:

… Am I too late?Were they too late also, those first pilgrims? He is such a fastGod, always before us and leaving as we arrive.

… Was the pilgrimageI made to come to my ownself, to learn that in timeslike these and for one like meGod will never be plain and out there, but dark rather andinexplicable, as though he were inhere?

The Green movement stands for slowtravel, slow food and slow consumption.We might say with some justificationthat we confess a ‘slow God’. But R S

We had been people who ‘go’; we heardan invitation to ‘come’. But there ismore than that. When we respond wefind that in fact God comes to us. ‘I have come that you might have life’.The kingdom of heaven has come near– and even nearer than that:

Asked by the Pharisees when thekingdom of God would come, Jesusreplied, ‘The coming of the kingdomof God is not something that can beobserved, nor will people say, “Hereit is,” or “There it is,” because thekingdom of God is in your midst.’(Luke 17.20-21)

When we see with the telescopicperspective of Jesus, the whole worldbecomes my neighbour. Then we cantake the advice offered by St Romualdto his novices: ‘Sit like a chick, eatingnothing and tasting nothing but what itsmother brings to it’. That is theessence of ‘local living’.

God of journey, our hearts arerestless until they rest in you. Give us courage:

not to search the nations for ourdesire, but to let the Desire of Nations finda home in usCome Lord Jesus

not to choose the no-stringsanonymity of the stranger, but the risk and reward of becominga neighbourCome Lord Jesus

not to go looking for such life as wecan afford,but to receive as much as life wedareCome Lord Jesus

not to go and acquirebut to stay put and be enrichedCome Lord Jesus.

Give us the courage to say with ourlips and in the choices of our livesCome Lord Jesus.n

PrayerscriptPaul Bodenham led prayers at the end of the ecocell day on travel

A RETREATat Ringsfield Hall, Suffolk

Friday 18 - Sunday 20 October 2013

…and a little child shall lead them

Experiencing the sacred through deep connection with the natural world

For further information and bookings see page 24 or ring 07881 941296

A RETREATat Ringsfield Hall, Suffolk

Friday 18 - Sunday 20 October 2013

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