Green Patches

Francistide Blog of The Week - Creation Care Newsletter

Why Care For Creation?

Here are three reasons to interact carefully with the Creation, to nurture and preserve it

Prudence or the thoughtful care for one’s own well-being.  You breathe; so you need breathable air.  You drink, so you need potable water.  You eat, so you need nutritious food.  You see, so you need clean skies.  You can get sick, very sick with cancers, so you need a world without cancer causing chemicals.  You move through and have your being the environment, so you need to wake up to it, think about it, perceive how the changes we have made and are making could be harmful to you.  Your life comes from nature.  Protect your source. It’s just common sense.

1. Do you owe a debt to the future?  “What did the future ever do for me”? You say?  Well, it created you.  Before you were, you were in the future.  Before you were, people planted the trees that shade you, developed the grains and the animal strains that feed you, invented the clothes and the way of building houses that shelter you, kept pure the water that you must have to live each day, invented the writing that you are now reading, and learned how to teach you to read it  They preserved this  world through countless generations so it would be here for you to inhabit.  You owe them a debt, the debt of your very life; but here’s the paradox; since they are gone, you can only pay it forward, to the next generations. It is a moral obligation.

 

1. Jesus came to reconcile us to one another and to God our Creator and Sustainer Who has made us as part and parcel of the larger creation—as members of it.  We are not alone here—God made millions of other creatures and all are His children.  He is manifest in His creation—it is His work.  To be reconciled to Him we must be reconciled to his creation.  If we love Him Who made us, we must love what else He made.  If our mortal father lovingly built for us a house and garden with his own hands and we then trashed it, we could not say we loved him.  Jesus said, “Love one another as I have loved you. By this all men will know you are my disciples.”  And if we are to be reconciled to one another, we must care for that which cares for others, namely the earth and all that is in it.  If I say I care for my neighbor, then go cut down his apple trees and take the fruit for myself, I can not say I love him.  If I poison her air, use up resources she needs to live, foul his water with my landfills and radioactive dumps, how can I say I am reconciled to her?  The choice to drive a hybrid or a Hummer is not about you—it’s about other people and about your grandchildren.  God’s earth was made for us all, and for all who are yet to come, not just for those of us who are fortunate enough to live in comparative prosperity at the present moment.  - From Environmental Commission, Episcopal Diocese of Eau Claire via Franciscan Associates 

 

 

 

Saving The Planet

photo credit: Bill Longshaw  at Free Digital Photos

If the sheer complexity of it all threatens to overwhelm you, remember the starfish principle - 'Start small.' In a meeting yesterday to discuss ways in which our love of God, neighbour and planet might be reflected in our day to day lifestyles, somebody reminded us of the site Generous.org which provides community and encouragement to enable people to begin to do just that. I was more than a bit embarrassed; I'm a signed up member of the site; however, I've not 'visited,' for ages.  Even if I have been carrying - or trying to carry out some of the actions suggested in the meantime.  Accountability can be a wonderful thing, (most of the time, anyway!).  So - remember the little boy throwing the starfish, one of thousands stranded on the seashore, back into the sea and being told it was a waste of time as what he did would make no difference. "It makes a difference to that one!" he retorted!

Change can be easier than you think

Says Generous.org  

Paul Northup shares a few familial thoughts at the start of another New Year about how the thought of change can sometimes daunt us, force us into passivity, hold us captive. When, in actuality, things might be easier – and sometimes even quicker – to change than we think.

Carbon- neutral church

Given the name of this blog, I've been a bit remiss in not mentioning an exciting new sustainable development project launched recently. Newchurch [must stop calling it that; I've been there a year] is aiming to become one of the first carbon-neutral congregations in the Church of England.  Hear and read all about it here, here  , here   and of course, here. [you'll need to be a  Church Times subscriber to access this last link]. 

For readers who might wonder Climate Change - Why  the church?  the C of E's National Environmental Campaign Shrinking the Footprint  provides some helpful info, as well as linking to a talk on the topic by the Archbishop of Canterbury.

One Green Life

Ms GP and myself were at a family gathering a few weeks ago - to celebrate the life of an uncle, one of your original 'Green' activists long before such issues became fashionable. The ceremony took place in a woodland burial ground; probably a 'first' for many, if not most of us attending, yet for him, it couldn't have been more appropriate.  The (edited) tribute below was given  by my aunt.

A Tribute to ---- - his green life

Not fashion or culture or sloppy idealism. Not a hobby or a pursuit to pass the time, but a clear-sighted vision of the direction we should all be taking in order to save the planet.

----'s passionate adherence to the ecological approach to daily life, was over the past forty years, dedicated to keeping up with Green thinking and translating this not in a slavish, but in an innovative way, with imagination, integrity and ingeniousness, into reality.

---- urged us to listen, to pay attention and respond to evolving events and their environmental significance. To those as yet unaware of the need for action, his enthusiasm may have seemed excessive, even tinged with madness!

From his arrival in ------, he took part in demonstrations, attended conferences and gatherings and edited newsletters in support of spreading the green ideal. The first ecology group met at his home.

On behalf of us all, as we stand here in deep affection and respect to say a last goodbye, let us take up ----'s message and pass it on to use our personal time and ability with concern for how it will affect others in the world and indeed the future of mankind.

Not success or fame was his objective but having regard to the necessity of conserving a civilisation now at its pinnacle of development (having been touched, some would say, in it's origins, by the finger of God) but rather is not this to "dance to the muisc of time!" ----'s desperate and repeated injunction towards the end of his sufferings. Possibly this command will remain enigmatic. We hear you, ----, and with gratitude for your selfless life, will listen and ponder on these words and do our best to do as you have done, and "Dance to the Music of Time!" As the years go by, rest in peace in your woodland arbour. 

And from the sublime to the ridiculous

I love the sound of breaking glass.  Though not the original version, unfortunately. As I mentioned earlier, the green boxes and sacks are neatly arranged outside the back door, (much to GP dog's delight) and the new kerbside recycling collection is due to launch any day now. Yes, there's been a certain amount of confusion when trying to remember that cans and glass no longer go together, and the council's definition of recyclable plastics is somewhat limited, but never mind, it's a start. It's noticeable how much longer it takes for the kitchen and wheelie bins to fill up now that plastic bottles and card  are separated out. From now on, sneaking packaging into the pedal bin because you can't be bothered to step a couple of feet outside is an arrestable offence - in the same category of heinous crimes as squeezing the toothpaste tube from the wrong end and leaving the toilet seat up!

Where God Is

Christians don't take God into the world. They discover God actively working there for good through all sorts of people and situations whether Christian or not. God challenges us all to join in with his mission of love to the world.

- After Sunday

Thanks to Dave Walker of Cartoonchurch for pointing me in the direction of this site.

Summoned by smells

Sorry! I just couldn't resist the pun.  Leafy Surrey has taken creativity to new heights. (Or should we say depths?!).

A scale model of a cathedral has been created from rotting vegetables to inspire people to compost at home.

Sand sculptor Mark Anderson built the miniature version of Guildford Cathedral as part of

Surrey

's 3Rs - "reduce, reuse, recycle" - campaign.

The 4ft (1.2m) replica, which is made from green waste , is on display at Bocketts Farm near Fetcham,

Surrey

for two weeks.

It is designed to encourage residents to make their own fertiliser.

More here.

If you look over to the far right of the photo, you can see the Lady Chapel where Mr GP and I were married nearly 25 years ago. Do you think we could persuade them to preserve it for  another four months? It would make such an attractive tablepiece!

And now, if you'll excuse me, I feel the Lord is calling me to reconstuct Michelangelo's David out of the Greenpatch compost heap. 

Are You Self-Sufficientish?

Asks Eco-Worrier over at  the 'Times.'  Anna Shepard passes on Ten unexpected benefits of being self-sufficientish from Andy and Dave Hamilton, urban guides to almost self-sufficiency. There are some great tips on their site for you to follow. Thus spake the Greenpatches whose sole effort to grown her own produce just now consists of cultivating a rather forlorn basil plant on the kitchen window sill. (Next to the would-be Honesty plant).

I wonder if Mr GP might be interested in the Hamilton's recipe for nettle beer?  It'd provide me with the ideal excuse to put off that weeding for a little longer!

La modification de l'environment

Cartoon Wallpaper : For the Birds

Found  earlier in a box of old photos: an essay written by Ms Greenpatches back in French primary school, many years ago. Just look at the fiddly graph type paper they had to write on, and proper pen and ink; none of this new-fangled  free expression nonsense in those days!

It's the following paragraph that made me smile:

C'est vrai que c'est plus cher d'enterrer les cables electriques que de les pendres a des poteaux, mais ca gache le paysage. Et pensez aux pauvres oiseaux qui se perchent dessus...

A  St Francis in the making, there! Even if her scientific knowledge hadn't quite caught up with everything else. Oh, and anticipating protest from my now adult offspring, yes, I know I missed off the accents. All this HTML is beyond me! Click below if you want to read the real thing in all its glory.