A Rocha monthly eco tip
This is a great opportunity to review where you might be able to reduce single-use plastics in your life. Being part of Plastic Free July will help you find great alternatives that can become new habits forever. Paying attention to what we consume and its effect on God’s earth, can lead us not into guilt, but into action and prayerful determination to see change where it’s possible. Read more about the effects of plastic at arocha.org.uk/plastic-summer.
Taste the benefits of seasonal and local food. Plan to incorporate locally grown produce into your diet and shopping list throughout the seasons, as it is harvested at its peak ripeness, ensuring superior flavour compared to imported alternatives that have travelled thousands of miles. If saying grace before a meal is a regular practice in your household, this month, include giving thanks for your local food producers
Good news, Bad news and Fake news
I hope you are aware of all 3 in the above title. Bad news is easy to find as it fills our news bulletins on TV and radio and our newspapers. Fake news is a recent phenomenon where it is difficult to find the truth or who is telling the truth or where rumours are deliberately spread.
I am sure many of you will agree that living on a diet of bad news is not good for you. It can disturb your sleep and make you anxious. It can distort your view of the world and people.
Climate change and its effect on the environment are one dimension to this diet of bad news. I am sure you will have heard or read about the damage to nature, wildlife and the threat of regular extreme weather events. Some of you may have heard of eco anxiety. Living with a perpetual diet of negative news of the impact of climate change, the threat it poses, can make anyone anxious about the future of planet earth and how human life and activity could be affected.
One idea which has been put forward at Toll Gavel recently is to try and redress the balance of news we are exposed to with a particular focus on the environment. We want to provide you with good news, positive news, and hopeful news. We want to put a smile on your face and give you something positive to talk about with your family. friends and colleagues.
We would like to produce a series of articles which feature good positive stories about the world we share. We might even consider publishing a booklet with a collection of several stories and distribute them in the local community. Let us know how you feel about this idea and whether you have anything you could contribute.
Here is an example of some good news and the kind of story we are looking for:
The Prince of Wales’ Earthshot Prize will be held in Brazil in November. In the same month the country hosts the COP30 UN climate change conference. The global environmental award, founded by the prince, gives £1m to five winners judged to offer the best solution to some of the world’s biggest climate challenges. The Earthshot Prize is a 10-year project with past ceremonies held in London, Boston, Singapore and Cape Town.
Fifteen projects will be shortlisted for a chance of winning the prizes.The judging panel has received 232 nominations from projects based in South America – more than double the number received from the region last year.
Gaza
Our government, along with France and Canada in a joint statement on 19 May, called on Israel to halt military operations and allow humanitarian aid to enter the Palestinian territory of Gaza. The statement says ‘We will not stand by while the Netanyahu government pursues these egregious actions. If Israel does not cease the renewed military offensive and lift its restrictions on humanitarian aid, we will take further concrete actions in response’. However, despite the suspension of some arms export licenses to Israel in September last year, the UK still supplies components that are used in combat aircraft operations in Gaza, and we are concerned that these concrete actions are an empty threat which will not alleviate the suffering of the Palestinian people.
We are urged to write to our MP about the UK keeping to this promise of further concrete actions.
More information at the link below.
Assisted Dying Bill
Following the recent vote on “The Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill” in the House of Commons, people with a wide range of lived experiences and perspectives are feeling anxious. Steve Tinning from the Joint Public Issues Team (Methodist, URC, and Baptist Churches) has pointed to the need to ‘listen and engage with the conversation about
assisted dying faithfully, prayerfully and compassionately’. This prayer is offered as one way in which we might create space for listening, engagement and dialogue.
God with us,
you have experienced living, dying,
and living again.
You are woven within and between us
throughout our lives and in our deaths.
May we hold space
for those who are living with anxiety,
uncertainty, fear and pain.
God with us,
you have experienced disagreements and debate
been unheard and been treated unkindly
in response to your words.
You are woven within and between us
in our thinking, in our speaking and in our listening
May we hold space in our certainty
for those who are certain in a differing conviction.
God with us,
You have experienced caring and loss
You are woven within and between us
In our caring and in our grieving.
May we hold space for those who care
and those who grieve
and hold space for uncertainty, be it our own or
experienced by those we meet on the way
In the name of Christ, who lived and died and lives again.
Amen
The Social Responsibility Group discussed this as their main focus at their June meeting
Christian Aid Week 70k Challenge
The seven members of Team TG completed their challenge of walking, cycling or swimming and raised £1092. A great effort by all. Thank you very much to all those who sponsored them. Rev Fran completed her Peak Wesley Way pilgrimage in the last week of June. This is a relatively new walk linking 5 Methodist churches who can provide overnight accommodation for small groups.
Climate Action
On Wednesday July 9th thousands will gather in Westminster for a mass lobby of Parliament
Calling on MPs to a) deliver vital funding to communities hardest hit by climate change here and around the world
b) cut bills, back UK jobs, and secure a greener future for all
c) restore nature to create a safer and healthier future
The simplest thing YOU can do is write or e mail to your M.P. to show your support for all those who gather in London and demonstrate your concern for these important issues.
Toll Gavel United Church where faith, people and justice matter 