Tree planting as part of the IEPC

Each day at the IEPC the Convocation paused at midday for a very simple form of prayer which remembered how God planted a tree in Eden and how we are called to live like trees planted next to a source of water.

Each day trees have been being planted, in the grounds of the university of the West Indies. Forty-nine trees in all have been planted, all of them local species and the University is really pleased to have this lasting legacy of the IEPC which will go on growing here. A good sign of peace with the earth. I wasn't able to get to an actual tree planting but was sent this really great photo of one of the Bible study groups watering "their" tree with water from their "just water" water bottles. This photo comes courtesy of Tara Curlewis, general secretary of the National Council of Churches of Australia.
It's good to know that we're leaving something that will grow here.
Meanwhile some folk are also sending in photos of the trees they planted on World Sunday for Peace. Here's a great one from Sweden where the group planted an apple tree. The just peace we build has to be lovingly planted and firmly rooted.

10-10-10 Pumpkins at the organic market in Ferney

Today is the 10.10.10 and 350.org are calling on all of us to make a difference by reducing our carbon footprint now, today.

Kennings and labyrinths for a retreat of the Council of Anglican Episcopal Churches in Germany

On Thursday evening I caught the night train to Germany to come and spend the weekend with folk from the Council of Anglican Episcopal Churches in Germany.
I was privileged to be able to sit in on their business sessions yesterday - I have to admit that I really must be a bit of a sad case ecumenical bureaucrat to find business meetings interesting. However this was less a business meeting and more a news of the local congregations' life. There were also a couple of opportunites to talk about the WCC's work on environmental issues and the current time for creation, and in terms of ecumenism in Germany through the ACK and involvement in the Ecumenical and Protestant Kirchentag.
However, the real reason I was with this group is that in a moment of weakness (also known as the well-known stranz inability to say no) I agreed to be a retreat leader for three "input" sessions. It's always strange to have a completely free hand with a group and it was wonderful for my brain to try to piece together something that I hoped might be both useful and meaningful for them (and of course for me!).
So, based on the ideas of my friend Janet Lees in Word of Mouth and on the Vision4Life website, I decided to try and do Bible Study without Bibles, and encourage them to allow themselves some time to see how much their story crosses with Jesus' story.
In the first evening session I did a bit of story telling, about myself and where I "come from" to try to empower them to do some deep talking about their own journeys. Then I gave each of them an A4 photocopy of a chartres labyrinth to trace with their fingers or a pen, both inwards and outwards and encouraged them to talk in groups of three and dare to name where they thought they might be going ... and perhaps even acknowledge where they might be coming from.
At the end of that session I distributed some "kennings" that I'd prepared on small pieces of card and we read them aloud around the room as a way of trying to sense where God's story and each of our stories were crossing, how we could pick up the thread.
This morning we began by remembering the labyrinth, thinking about the difference between labyrinths and mazes Then I got everyone to write some kennings - which was fun and the results were brilliant - I'll type them in later.
The main part of that session we then spent in remembering in the large group Christ's passion and betrayal. Our remembering was a powerful time of words and silence, of promptings and saying. It became clear to me just how good a tool Remembered Bible is - we were interpreting and telling at the same time, adding ourselves, our feelings into the story, But today I also felt very much how meditative and emotional remembering the Bible can be.
In the third session we moved to remembering resurrection and the Emmaus story. I had never done this before with a group and as the "remembrance teaser" told them the text we were going to remember together was about bread. so we remembered lots of bread stories before I moved them on to Emmaus. Remembering Emmaus really showed me how much the Bible itself is a remembered story, all about anamnesis. More about the content of our remembering in a later post.
To close I gave the group another labyrinth - this time the Peace Convocation logo - just a black and white version rather than the colourful one pictured here. We prayed and then moved to the chapel for our eucharist where our remembrance became real in the taste of the broken bread.
By the end I felt we had all walked a fair way together, seeing how our paths and God's were crossing and intertwined, how even seemingly dead ends might hold the opportunity for new life and challenge.

Stop exhausting the earth - do summer differently

As the northern hemisphere prepares for summer and holiday time the French Protestant Federation has launched a "give the earth a holiday campaign". You can read more about it here.
This is the 10th campaign seeking to raise awareness of environmental and care for creation issues within the FPF member churches.
The campaign is taking palce with the "live differently" collective

It's an addiction ...

Pollution kills
This man began very early, quite innocently, it was just a game.
Today he's completely dependant on the car to such an extent that he puts a large part of salary towards paying for his habit.
Cars endanger our health and our children's health. Do something for the planet and its inhabitants, learn to live without the car.

HT to Robin Sautter on Facebook for this. You can find out more here.

The transport revolution in the Pays de Gex

At the beginning of January we decided to really try to no longer take the car to work. Better for us - even if it is only a shortish walk to the bus stop it is still more than the 10 paces to the car - better for the environment. Since timetable changes in December there are now far more F buses and one in two of them goes up to Gex. The real change is the new bus, the Y which comes in to Geneva from Thoiry in France and then goes past the airport and out to Ferney. We can get to the airport and also on to other parts of the Genevan tram and public transport system in more varied ways. It is really changing things. The bad weather conditions didn't help the start of the new timetable and the Y is still having problems sticking to its timetable, it is still a brilliant improvement. A new P bus should also be starting soon, linking people in Prévessin up to the trams in Meyrin.
As a result we have not used the car at all since January 2. So now the big question, should we buy a new car (our old VW Golf has just come of age this month and is 18 years old) or should we try to organise our lives differently and just hire a car when we need one? Hmmm ... Can't change the world unless we try to change ourselves.
The bad weather also led to all kinds of buses from Lausanne and elsewhere being used on the Genevan TPG. Dr B is more than a bit of a transport spotter and gets quite excited about the different kinds of buses available. I just get cross that the order for the new F buses was delayed by our anti public transport regional council so we have rather a hotchpoth of buses at the moment, many of which seem to come from Paris. The local transport revolution in the Pays de Gex still doesn't seem to have tackled the major reason for delays though which would be to get buses which have doors that open and close properly!
You can keep up to date with all kinds of information you never knew you didn't want to know about public transport in Geneva on the Site non officiel des TPG.
This is all part of cross border cooperation within something called the PACA (périmètre d'aménagement coordonné d'agglomération!!) which is holding a public meeting on February 18 to look at studies about how things are likely to evolve in some of the Pays de Gex and the neighbouring municipalities in Switzerland. There are similar studies underway for the Geneva and neighbouring France area. Find out more here.

2010 is the UN year of biodiversity

I suppose my new year's resolution should really be learning how to deal with photos and images I want to put on my blog. The logo above would be better a bit bigger. Anyway big is not always beautiful, the message of the UN year of biodiversity is that the planet's diversity is beautiful.
You can access some great educational material on biodiversity and also visit other resources on the biodiversity is life site. It's a way of moving 2009's 150th anniversary of the publication of Darwin's Origin of the Species forwards.

At work we are in the process of preparing an issue of Ecumenical Review on the Greening of the Church, following on from Copenhagen and the previous 20 years of campainging on issues related to creation. This sets me wondering what thinking about biodiversity might have to offer our thinking on ecumenism. That will have to be for another post.

2010 is also the international year for the rapprochement of cultures, about which you can read more on the wonderful UNESCO website.

But what will 2010 be the year of for me? Well 2010 marks me entering my second decade of living with MS. And given that the latest terrorist attempt on a transatlantic plane tried to use a syringe as a trigger, I imagine that 2010 will be the year when I try to avoid travelling by air if at all possible. My syringes can't go in the hold - they break in the cold - and trying to get them throught security is always interesting. We'll see how things go.

What will 2010 be the year of for you?

Not done yet - keep beating the climate change drum and ringing the bells

The world was ready but it seems global leaders were not, and of course most of them are not walking but flying home ...
So we need to be vigilant and keep up the pressure. It's not done yet and the clock still goes on ticking. So keep on beating the drum and ringing the bells to get the message across.

More than 250 partner organisations have come together to form an unprecedented alliance under the TckTckTck banner – including development, human rights, environment, religious and youth groups, trade unions and scout groups. Over three days of global action, these partners have mobilized unprecedented numbers of people campaigning for urgent action on climate change. In Copenhagen on December 12, one hundred thousand people marched in a powerful manifestation of this unity.

And, when naysayers, fearmongers, and the business-as-usual-crowd try to usurp the issue, they will be met by a surging sea of people from all around the globe and all walks of life unified in their demand for a real deal.

The global climate movement - more diverse than ever before - stands united in the face of tonight's disappointing news. This weekend we are mounting an unprecedented response, with joint messaging appearing on the global public websites of our partners, to ensure world leaders know we are unimpressed with their lack of real progress and failure to deliver a real deal.

We have come so far in a short space of time. Millions around the world look to the future and see hope, justice, and opportunity. It is up to each of us to make our voices heard and to get the real deal that the world needs.

The world’s leaders still have a chance to get it right. They must realize that we expect, and will not accept, anything less.

Polar bears for climate justice

There is an empty plinth outside Copenhagen's cathedral and at the moment the plint houses an ice sculpture of a polar pear. At the Oxfam climate justice demonstrations in the UK some of the demonstrators were dressed up as polar bears with slogans saying on their costumes saying "Help us save the human race".
No one is quite sure how long the polar bear ice sculpture will last - it depends on the climate ...
Read more in ENI.
"People here are very excited about the bear. It is a creature those who are not familiar with life north of the Arctic can easily relate to," Storø told Ecumenical News International as another passerby asked the sculptor to pose for a photograph next to his bear. "It is easy for people to understand climate change when they see a 500 kilogram bear slowly melt and disappear," the artist said.

My favourite photo from Copenhagen

Tutu rocks.
But then I was a strange teenager and even all those decades ago I had a poster of him and not of a rock star on my bedroom wall.
Check out the WCC Media photostream for more great photos.

Escalade bellringing

Across the world today inside and outside churches bells have been ringing, drums have been beating 350 times. Here are friends outside Geneva's Lutheran Church in the heart of the old town ringing handbells for climate justice while all around the festivities of Escalade continued.
In the small french Protestant Church in Orange the bells rang out. The pastor there is Caspar Visser 't Hooft. Like many others across the world he was taking part in a global action but in his local church. His grandfather W. A. Visser 't Hooft was the first general secretary of the World Council of Churches, the body organising the campaign. In Copenhagen the bells of the cathedral rang out as the ecumenical service drew to a close. The bells were saying - don't try to tell us a different story - don't sell the earth off cheap. Our great grandchildren will also need air to breathe and water to drink.
Many more stories will no doubt come in over the next few days about how people acted locally to show they were thinking globally.
Let the bells ring out for climate justice.

The Archbishop of Canterbury's sermon in Copenhagen

you can find teh the full text of the Archbishop of Canterbury's sermon online here. Because of teh strange way the text is displaed it will come up in the left hand blue column. It's as always a good and thoughtfull sermon. Here's an extract:

Love casts out fear. If we begin from the belief that God wants us to rejoice and delight in the created world, our basic attitude to the environment will not be anxiety or the desperate search for ways of controlling it; it will be the excited and hopeful search for understanding it and honouring its goodness and its complex, interdependent beauty. If there is any 'fear' around here, it should be fear of spoiling the heritage given us, of forgetting the overwhelming scale and depth of the gift and of our responsibility and care for it, fear of forgetting that we are called to show consistent and sacrificial love for the created world as we must show towards our fellow-human beings. And, as we should have learned by now, the truth is that we cannot show the right kind of love for our fellow-humans unless we also work at keeping the earth as a place that is a secure home for all people and for future generations.

Sing a new version of jingle bells for climate justice

Over at novice blogger Janet has written a new version of jingle bells for climate justice. This is her creative response to the bellringing campaign that is underway today - and there are many other imaginative activities underway today across the whole world today. Make sure that you let the WCC's climate change desk know about your event - even if was modest, we're all part of a global event taking place locally. It's great, it's fun, it's creative and it's serious.
As Fred Pratt Green's great Advent hymn says:
Ring, bells, ring, ring, ring!
Sing, choirs, sing, sing, sing!

So get ringing, singing and jingling. Here's Janet's jingle bells theme adpated for climate change ringers everywhere:

A ringing good day

Bells ring out
Bells ring out
Bells ring out all day
As bells ring out around the world:
Protect the world today!

Bells ring out
Are you listening?
Ring out loud
Are you listening?
We’re happy today
To worship and pray
Working for a much fairer world

Bells ring out
Bells ring out
Bells ring out all day
As bells ring out around the world:
Protect the world today!

Drums beat out
Are you listening?
Beat out loud
Are you listening?
We’ll beat a loud song
As we right the wrong
Working for a much fairer world

Bells ring out
Bells ring out
Bells ring out all day
As bells ring out around the world:
Protect the world today!

copyright (c) JAL: 12.12.2009
To a well known Christmas tune

Get ready to ring church bells across the world tomorrow!

There's still time to get ready to ring your church bells 350 times tomorrow. If you've not got bells then use some drums or maybe get a trumpet player to play a 350 note fanfare, be creative to protect creation. Make sure everyone can hear. Friends in Geneva are planning to ring hand bells outside their church tomorrow - get to the Lutheran Church on the place Bourg le Four.
The bells of Copenhagen's Cathedral of our Lady will ring 350 times at the end of the ecumenical service there tomorrow afternoon. Across the whole world churches have signed up, and many, many more will be taking part who haven't signed up. At the moment the Netherlands has the largest number of churches registered but Switzerland is doing well with over 540 churches registered. France has only four registrations and Brazil is not doing much better, the UK is also looking a bit quiet according to the lists so if you do ring bells or do something remember to tell us about it afterwards too please!
And remember action for climate justice doesn't stop with Copenhagen it starts so keep getting creative and use the resources.
One of my favourites is the song "Bells of the World" composed by Torsten Borbye Nielsen for 13 December 2009 - honouring a Danish tradition to compose particular songs for special events. The song, which has 7 verses with 50 notes each, can be sung by congregations or played by church bells, for those who have a carillon able to play tunes. With the alternative lyrics "First was God's Word", it can also be used in other climate-related services.

Water, politics and justice in Palestine and Israel

In the run up to the Copenhagen Climate Change talks two of the Ecumenical Accompaniers in Palestine-Israel have written a powerful story about how the human right to water is being rationed for Palestinians in the Holy Land.
You can learn more about the World Council of Churches' Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI) and you can also find EAPPI on facebook and follow EAPPI on twitter. You can also find out more about the human right to water through the Ecumenical Water Network and its campaigns.

Rows of neat suburban houses stand on the parched, barren hillside. A water tower looms over them, irrigating lush greenery in the gardens. But outside this West Bank settlement's perimeter fence sits the tiny Bedouin community of Umm Al Kher, whose residents are desperate for water.
Here in the South Hebron Hills, there has been scarce rainfall for many months. Grey rock and dry, rugged earth spread off in every direction. But locals who met observers from the Ecumenical Accompaniment Programme in Palestine and Israel said the effects of the recent drought are exacerbating a man-made water crisis.The community is not connected to any water supply network and the Israeli army will not issue permits to dig wells. The community is forced to buy tanked water from Mekorot, the Israeli national water company, which charges 5 shekels (around $1.30) per cubic meter. That cost prohibits the shepherds of Umm Al Kher from irrigating crops. Umm Al Kher's only other water supply is a pipe no bigger than a garden hose that trails across from the pump in the settlement.

More slowing down Advent resources - change your climate

There are some wonderful Advent resources from the Church of England here.

It's all about slowing down. So take some time, watch some ot the videos and slow down.

"We hope for a world in which we have learned to live with the grain of things, to live patiently, to live respectfully, to live in a way that takes our environment seriously..."
Dr. Rowan Williams

Noah's Ark and Advent liturgy for creation justice

My friend Marie Martel is doing scrapbooking and I told her my only experience of doing scrapbooking was with Remembered Bible earlier this year in Windermere. This gave her an idea and she's just done her first "Bible et scrap" on Noah's Ark. I must ask her for an electronic copy of the text she's used here.
Her scrapbook reminded me that one of the British initiatives for climate justice within the churches is called operation Noah - they're having some financial problems at the moment and need all the support you can give them, but they are still doing excellent work as are the Christian Ecology Link.
At our morning service in the ecumenical centre today we used the 350 drum beats liturgy with prayers from the different regions of the world. It worked very well, weaving a rainbow while listening to the drum beats and praying the Advent antiphones. Towards the end of the service after saying aloud the promise God makes to Noah and lighting the first candle on the Advent wreath, we kept silence, hoping that there would be no more drum beats and that the world would not go beyond the 350 parts per million of carbon.
As long as the earth endures,
seedtime and harvest, cold and heat,
summer and winter, day and night,
shall not cease.’ Gen. 8.22

Drum beats, bell ringing, musical notes, bead-threading - act for climate justice

Listen to the drumbeat of creation, weave a rainbow, act now for climate justice make the world leaders hear!
The seven days of creations were the inspiration for the liturgy we've just posted online. 350 drumbeats, 50 for each of the seven days of creation. After each day is read out from Genesis so also one of the great Advent Antiphones is read. Colleagues from different regions of the world have written cries and hopes of and for climate justice.

Here are cries and hopes from the Pacific:

Atua! Your Pacific people call out to you, even as the waters continue to rise...
hear our prayer, we who trust in your love!
Atua! Your Pacific people call out to you, even as our land disappears before our eyes...
hear our prayer, we who hope in your love!
Atua! Our strength! Our life! Our love!

Meanwhile the Danish Council of Churches have put together a great liturgy for bellringing including a powerful hymn by Torsten Borbye Nielsen called bells of the world and an English translation by Edward Broadbridge. They've also got a specially commissioned piece of music with 350 notes in it. A stimulus to creativity - will you be ringing bells, threading beads, beating drums, singing hymns - to get the world to hear the case for climate justice?

Here's the two final verses of the hymn:

For though we know
we should rise higher,
we are consumed by our desire;
hear how our earth, ravaged, consumed,
calls for our care, or we are doomed.
May we free Earth from its pain;
give us hope that once again
Your will be done.

In hope and faith
we shall not cease
striving to make a world at peace,
for all that lives, from pole to pole,
from east to west, from soul to soul.
Lord, our God, whose mighty Word
then and now and shall be heard,
renew our Earth!

Copenhagen - lies and truth ...

As I listen to the media preparing us for nothing much out of the Copenhagen, and despair, I came across this quote:

Man darf die Wahrheit, nicht immer auf den neusten Stand der Lüge bringen.

One should not always take truth to the most up to date level that lies have reached ...

By that famous author "Anon".
Like Cassandra those who tell truth are often not listened to, and yet we try to hope ...

The Archbishop of Canterbury on human well-being and economic decision-making

Rowan Williams has been giving a lecture today at the TUC Economics Conference. Its powerful stuff - as almost everything Williams writes is. Here's an extract which struck me particularly as we heard today that in Copenhagen a binding decision on climate change may not be possible:

'In reality', writes Kenny Tang, a leading Asian expert in sustainable development, 'there are only two sources of wealth in the world today: the wealth that flows from our use of the Earth's resources and ecosystems, all powered by incoming solar radiation (our natural capital); and the wealth that flows from the use of our hands, brains and spirits (our human capital)' (CRISISnomics, Credit and Climate, p.114). It is a sharp reminder that exactly the same threat lies ahead in both the ecological context and the human – the exhaustion of resources, the depletion of natural capital and the shrinking of human capital by the abuse of brain and spirit that results from social fragmentation and from personal stress and lostness in inhuman patterns of working.