Cottage on the Cliff

Earlier in the year, we celebrated Pam’s birthday in River View, Iken Cliff above the River Alde.

 I was smitten! So we returned to celebrate my birthday.

                                                                            Arrival!

 

Moonshadows from

 the bedroom window at Iken Cliff

I had yearned to return,

to the cottage on the cliff

that overlooks The Alde.

 

Throughout our journey

(taken in a newly-acquired, used EV!),

I had fretted.

Maybe the retreat would not be

up to my high expectations.

 

We arrived in intermittent rain.

 

Leaving the car and rounding a corner;

kissing the far banks, a glorious rainbow.

 

The tide was full:

Joy in abundance.

 

Make Your Church Christmas Tree tell The Bethlehem Story as A NATIVITY TREE

End of the Summer holidays for many and the shops and garden centres are ramping up their Christmas displays, so here’s a further encouragement to churches to think about one of their seasonal focal points.

Throughout 2023, I was encouraging churches to decorate their Christmas Trees in such a way that they became part of the Christmas story; thus changing them from a near-secular emblem at the front (usually) of the church into a rich symbol of the story from when the angel host hovered over Bethlehem and invited the edge-of-society Shepherds to be the first people to witness the coming of the Saviour of the World, the Messiah.

However, as 2023/24 passed, and our companion site (a less faith-based site than this), has developed the ideas of CLIMERICKS and CLIMCUBES, (see http://eco-verses.blogspot.com/), these two potent symbols of Climate change, Climate Justice and servanthood, offer a further opportunity to turn a Christmas Tree into an even more graphic symbol.

To make this shift complete, the ecological symbols also need the help of some of those lovely Palestinian Olive-wood tree hangings. I hope you are beginning to get the picture.

That picture is, overall, almost breathtaking in its simplicity and explicit messages. Just Look!

FROM THE TOP - where, in all probability there is already an angel, add, to just-above-eye-level, your community's LOCAL ANGEL THRONG as follows:

As there is still time, ask local craftspeople to make angels to hang on the church tree, in their own medium. You will then have a beautifully diverse fellowship of angels for the tree AND an opportunity to invite the crafters in for their own pre-Christmas celebration and dedication of their work hanging in the church, which at its best is the beating heart of any community.

FROM EYE LEVEL to about 1metre off the ground, put Palestinian Olive wood tree hangings, thus vividly recalling the very land where Christ was born 

BOTTOM QUARTER OF TREE - hang CLIMERICKS speaking of our responsibility  for Climate Justice and Stewardship. You will find lots of these little verses at  http://eco-verses.blogspot.com/

AROUND THE TREE - CLIMCUBES (See the same Eco-verses site) to be given away at maybe an Epiphany service - symbolic of our sending Christ’s message of stewardship, and love for our planet, where he lived, further into our communities.

So the prettified church Christmas Tree (not the tree in your home - those are often part of family history)  becomes a NATIVITY TREE - a  multi-faceted symbol of HOPE and OUTREACH: a glorious transformation.

Please pass this idea on far and wide if you think it has merit

A Bible Framework for a Pilgrimage

PIxabay free image - scallop shells.

Our parish group from the East side of Cambridge starts a parish retreat to Lindisfarne tomorrow. We (my ordained wife, Pam and I) were asked by our Team Rector to produce a worship and liturgy b booklet for the four day weekend.

I looked extensively around the internet for a framework but although there were several sites offering ‘Bible passages for a pilgrimage’ (or similar), I couldn’t find anything helpful to build on, so we set out to produce something that might be helpful to others too.

Bible Readings reflecting the pattern of our Pilgrimage

·      We Leave Home not quite knowing what to expect as did Abraham Hebrews 11. 8 – 10 (Friday Morning Prayer)

·      We will travel Together as the Israelites did through the wilderness: we know little bits about each other and will learn more as we journey – Exodus 18. 7 – 11 (Friday Evening Prayer)

·      We are travelling to a Holy Place -Lindisfarne  is among many Holy places known as ‘Thin places’ and remind our selves of this through the story of the Transfiguration Matthew 17. 1-8 (Saturday Morning prayer)

·      We will be celebrating The saints  of Lindisfarne and in that celebration we join with Christians across time and space  with the help of Revelation 4. 9 – 11 (Saturday Evening Prayer)

·      Returning home our journey towards our day-to-day experiences/ normal life Psalm 23 (Monday Morning Prayer)

For Personal Prayer:

·      Throughout we will have a Common experience of worshiping together – as the Jews did and especially as they travelled to Jerusalem with a Psalm of ascent Psalm 121

·      There will be a Personal impact – hopefully opening us to unexpected encounters with God: The calling of Matthew Matthew 9. 9 -13 

       How  will it change us what will we want to talk about ? -  Mary :Luke 1 46 -55

 

* * * * *

We Leave Home: Hebrews 11. 8 - 10

 

⁸ By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. ⁹ By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. ¹⁰ For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.

 

We travel together: Exodus 18. 7 - 11

 Moses went out to meet his father-in-law, bowed down, and then kissed him. Having greeted each other, they went into the tent. ⁸ Moses then told his father-in-law of all that the Lord had done to Pharaoh and the Egyptians for the sake of Israel, and of all the hardships that had beset them on their journey, and how the Lord had rescued them. ⁹ Jethro rejoiced over all the goodness that the Lord had shown Israel in rescuing them from the power of the Egyptians. ¹⁰ “Blessed be the Lord,” he said, “who has rescued you from the power of the Egyptians and of Pharaoh. ¹¹ Now I know that the Lord is greater than all the gods; for he rescued the people from the power of the Egyptians when they treated them arrogantly.”

 

We are travelling to a Holy Place: Matthew 17. 1-8

After six days Jesus took with him Peter, James and John the brother of James, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. ² There he was transfigured before them. His face shone like the sun, and his clothes became as white as the light. ³ Just then there appeared before them Moses and Elijah, talking with Jesus.

⁴ Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here. If you wish, I will put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.”

⁵ While he was still speaking, a bright cloud covered them, and a voice from the cloud said, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.Listen to him!”

⁶ When the disciples heard this, they fell facedown to the ground, terrified.⁷ But Jesus came and touched them. “Get up,” he said. “Don’t be afraid.”⁸ When they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus.

 

We will be celebrating with the Saints:  Revelation 4. 9 - 11

⁹ Whenever the living creatures give glory, honor and thanks to him who sits on the throne and who lives for ever and ever, ¹⁰ the twenty-four elders fall down before him who sits on the throne and worship him who lives for ever and ever. They lay their crowns before the throne and say:

¹¹ “You are worthy, our Lord and God,
    to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things,
    and by your will they were created
    and have their being.”

 

We will have the experience of Worshipping together: Psalm 121

A song of ascents.

¹ I lift up my eyes to the mountains—
    where does my help come from?
² My help comes from the Lord,
    the Maker of heaven and earth.

³ He will not let your foot slip—
    he who watches over you will not slumber;
⁴ indeed, he who watches over Israel
    will neither slumber nor sleep.

⁵ The Lord watches over you—
    the Lord is your shade at your right hand;
⁶ the sun will not harm you by day,
    nor the moon by night.

⁷ The Lord will keep you from all harm—
    he will watch over your life;
⁸ the Lord will watch over your coming and going
    both now and forevermore.

 

There will be a personal impact Matthew 9. 9 -13

⁹ As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.

¹⁰ While Jesus was having dinner at Matthew’s house, many tax collectors and sinners came and ate with him and his disciples. ¹¹ When the Pharisees saw this, they asked his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”

¹² On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. ¹³ But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’^[a] For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”

 

We Return Home: Psalm 23

The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.
²     He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,
³     he refreshes my soul.
He guides me along the right paths
    for his name’s sake.
⁴ Even though I walk
    through the darkest valley,^[a]
I will fear no evil,
    for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
    they comfort me.

⁵ You prepare a table before me
    in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil;
    my cup overflows.
⁶ Surely your goodness and love will follow me
    all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord
    forever.

 

How Will It have changed us? Luke 1 46 -55

⁴⁶ And Mary said:

“My soul glorifies the Lord
⁴⁷     and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior,
⁴⁸ for he has been mindful
    of the humble state of his servant.
From now on all generations will call me blessed,
⁴⁹     for the Mighty One has done great things for me—
    holy is his name.
⁵⁰ His mercy extends to those who fear him,
    from generation to generation.
⁵¹ He has performed mighty deeds with his arm;
    he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts.
⁵² He has brought down rulers from their thrones
    but has lifted up the humble.
⁵³ He has filled the hungry with good things
    but has sent the rich away empty.
⁵⁴ He has helped his servant Israel,
    remembering to be merciful
⁵⁵ to Abraham and his descendants forever,
    just as he promised our ancestors.”

You may also like to look at an earlier post on this blog entitled ‘Embracing Silence: Prayer for contemplating or starting a retreat'

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

CLIMERICK: If You Looked Down From Space You Would See

Today, we take an idea from our companion Eco-Verses blog site and post a 'Climerick’ with a spiritual twist.

If you looked down from space you would see,

 ‘The Marble’ with blue and green scene:

it’s God’s planet Earth,

and it has to be worth

your investment to help it stay green.

Close To a Cliff-edge,

We are presently enjoying a week in our niece/s cliff-top lodge in South Devon. It is a delight to look out over the sea and have time to reflect on what the eyes chance on. In the mid morning heat of a veritable heat wave, a few days ago, the gulls, all silent for once, seemed to be revelling in gliding silently past.

 

 Free image from Pixabay

Close to a cliff-edge,

and we are treated

to a superbly silent fly-past. 

 

Gull after gull after gull

floats, it would seem,

from thermal to thermal.

 

Then, as if at a way-marked fissure

in the cliff,

they drop out of our sight

to attend their business of the day. 

 

For a few minutes,

their grace-filled peacefulness

(no squawking just now as they glide!)

is broken by the snarl 

of a small plane

which obtrudes itself

into the cloudless sky.

 

And, thankfully,

we do not have to be anxious

that it might off-load ordnance.

 

We are truly blessed!

 

 

Why Is Our Sight Drawn in The Night?

Why Is Our Sight Drawn in The Night? 

(could be sung to the tune to Star of The County Down)

 

Sol by the author (Acrylic)

Why is our sight

drawn in the night

to the planets, the moon and stars?

There’s wonder there

of God’s great dare

to create a universe.

So my soul shall sing,

O Creator king,

of the vastness that’s all around;

and the wondrous spin 

that holds us in

to our orbiting planet’s round.

 

Refrain

And way out there,

beyond our stare

are unearthly days and nights.

Wild gases burn

as the cosmos turns

with a billion, trillion lights.

 

And today we know

time began to flow

from creation’s wild big bang.

When space emerged 

at your mighty word

and with joy, your angels sang:

for all was good

and in time Earth would

form with others around the sun,

a planet fair

with sustaining air,

as our saga just begun

 

Refrain

 

In the course of time

With the earth benign

Life emerged at God’s command.

‘O human race

respect the grace

Of the sky, the sea, the land,

And nurture it through all your days,

It will give you food and joy.

Don’t tarnish it

or it won’t be fit

and too soon could be destroyed.’

 

Refrain

Morning After Twelfth Night.

 Morning After Twelfth Night.

 

 

Low sun streams its rays

into our gorgeously pine-scented Angel tree.

Glass angels catch the beams

and project them into rainbows,

which dance upon the walls,

the door, the ceiling

and the sofa.

The room rejoices.

Light’s Creator delights in its praise.

ECO THEMED SIDESHOW No 7: THE GYRE: Where the garbage goes at Sea

 

In this sideshow, you see at the top rivers flowing under a bridge. Each river has objects floating in it, on its way to the sea. In the foreground is an AI generated image from Pixabay which has been constructed to illustrate where our plastic and metal garbage finishes up. Whilst some rubbish will sink, a huge amount finds its way into a GYRE. This is a colossal trash can in the middle of the ocean. Of course, on its way to the gyre, some rubbish will disintegrate leaving micro plastic particles which are finding their way into the stomachs and digestive systems of fish, other marine life and sea-birds - and now even into our own human digestive systems.

To bring this massage home, ping pong balls are rolled across the gyre, which has a slight incline and score simply according to the width of the bridge over the river. To make the game slightly less predictable, the gyre surface is not smooth.

With this game in mind, let’s be very, very careful not to drop our litter, whatever it is in or near a watercourse. 

To better understand understand the purpose of the Eco-Fayre, go to The first Mini Eco Fayre entry that you will find HERE

ECO THEMED SIDESHOW No 6: BAMBOO 2030: Green sticks, Smoky Sticks

This compact and very simply constructed sideshow consists of two flowerpots (or similar) filled with sand, with somewhere between 70 and 100 bamboo sticks (obtainable from the web) stuck in them. The sticks have either a green top,  with a white turbine blade superimposed or a red top with a dirty smoke cloud on them. The proportion is about 2 green sticks for every red stick. Green sticks have positive numbers from 1 – 7 on the buried bottom of the stick and the red sticks have negative numbers. In up to 7 pulls, players have to either make up a score of 20 or 30. 

 

The reason for these two numbers is that they are each half of the year 2030 when the first significant goals, arising from the United Nations Biodiversity Agreement made at COP 15 in Paris in 2022, will be reviewed. Bamboo is used in the sideshow as it is a very sustainable crop if well managed.

To better understand understand the purpose of the Eco-Fayre, go to The first Mini Eco Fayre entry that you will find HERE

With Pentecost fast approaching....

Pixabay image

With Pentecost fast approaching, my watercolour, ’The Eternal Flame of The Holy Spirit’ moves into prominence in the right-hand column opposite and offers a click through into an A-Z Reflection on The Lordship of Christ and the ongoing work of The Holy Spirit. Praise be!

Somewhere in Deep Space

Between the writing up of the Mini Eco-Fayre practicalities, comes a moment of inspiration that literally comes in the night and I am especially grateful fr the concept of poetic licence, which ‘permits’ me to take unexpected turns! So...

Somewhere,

in deep space

there may be exoplanets,

where God’s gentle agent

evolution,

has fashioned eco-systems,

in which,

the tiny plants

that adorn all manner of 

our environments

thrive so well

that they reach gigantic loveliness!

ECO-THEMED SIDESHOW No 5: BUBBLES-TO- GO

Maybe one bubble can say a lot - but a wild stream of bubbles from the loan bubble-machine is bound to draw attention to this attraction. To hold that attention, once the young children have exhausted the fun of chasing and popping the bubbles, there is equipment for children to blow serious bubbles of various sizes, and, if someone is so disposed, a recipe and equipment to make bubbles large enough to match a child’s height. (This will take some pre-fayre practice).

Going deeper in thought about bubbles, apart from reflecting on the immediate joy they give children (and not a few adults), they are a small wonder of the sciences of physics and light, incorporating the mathematical properties of a sphere, the vital properties of surface tension, the balancing of internal and external air pressure, the iridescence which can show all the colours of the spectrum/ rainbow and at their last, the effect of gravity after each bubble’s brief flight

Children get a timed ‘slot’ to explore the bubble blowing on offer.

And in keeping with the Eco-themes of the sideshows, we can perhaps think of the fragility of each bubble as symbolic of the fragility of our home sphere, our planet, whilst dirty fuels remain.

To better understand understand the purpose of the Eco-Fayre, go to The first Mini Eco Fayre entry that you will find HERE

ECO-THEMED SIDESHOW 4: OILY BEACH

Today’s sideshow derives from an experience many of us will have had, of finding a beach we love sullied by large globs of tarry oil which are quite vile, leaving thick deposits of oil on shoes or clothes or on the skin of a curious child. 

Usually we will have no idea of the source which could be a major oil-spill, the deliberate discharge of oil from a tanker, to lighten load, or from a leak from an old or damaged tanker. Whichever it is, the mess it leaves on the beach will be s nothing compared to the destruction it will have caused on its journey to the beach. Sea-birds fouled and unable to fly, fish poisoned in the filth of the spill and who knows what damage done in the unseen parts of the sea bed. Yet another by-product of the dirty-fuel industry.

So, we reflect on this with numbered, scoring stones scattered, numbers down amidst large black-painted stones in a sand-tray, representing the disgusting disfiguring globs of useless oil. 

Wait - No! Worse than useless - for who will clear them up? Not the fat-cat shareholders of the extractors of the poisonous lumps, but a local sea-side corporation, obliged to clear up the mess and spend taxpayers’ money to make the beaches we love, safe.

To better understand the purpose of the Eco-Fayre, go to The first Mini Eco Fayre entry that you will find HERE 

 

ECO- THEMED SIDESHOW 3: THE GOOD, THE BAD and THE SMOG-BOUND

So here is the third of the sideshows which will shortly be available to churches and schools in the Cambridge area to borrow. The picture is a prototype, and the images on the wine boxes will be renumbered to give a clearer message. The sideshow is called 'The Good, The Bad and the Smoggy’. Playing is very simple: players toss or lob a beanbag at the array of wine boxes (an interesting way of re-using them) which are numbered to reflect that clean air technology is way more superior to dangerous, dirty fuel energy generation.Smog  was that dense and life-threatening form of air pollution that the UK experienced way back in late forties and early fifties, until the introduction of The Clean Air Act in 1956.

Thus, the (revised) highest score of 10, needless to say, furthest from the player, features a Tokamak. A Tokamak is a nuclear Fusion energy generator. It operates at colossal temperatures and pressure, in effect emulating the method by which the stars produce heat and light. Tokamak processing, which leaves no nuclear waste, unlike the present fission power stations, has been under development for decades. The development costs have been so vast that only international collaborative funding has been able to put up the huge amounts that have been necessary for progress to be made. Then, in May 2025, CNN reported that a commercial enterprise was building a Tokamak just outside Boston USA. Amazingly, and encouragingly, funding of US$2billion is backing this enterprise. Clearly, even usually hard-nosed investors believe Tokamak will deliver, and a date of 2030 is slated. It is hard to envision just what this will mean, but with a projected target of producing four times the power input, the enterprise will undoubtedly be a game changer in the energy market. So the incorporation of the Tokamak at the top end of the sideshow scoring is intended to give a message of HOPE to children playing the sideshow. Not that many of them will want to be bothered with such detail, but on the basis that every child is likely to be accompanied by a responsible adult, this message maybe part of a drip-feed of encouragement to be optimistic that Clean Air Technologies will sweep away their dirty and dangerous predecessors in the not-too-distant future.

Scores of 5 - 9 (inclusive) are allocated to various established clean air technologies, wind turbines, solar panels, sub-sea (near surface generators, which operate in races of water and produce three times the energy density of wind turbines) sea-borne booms and tidal lagoons. There are no scores of 2, 3, or 4: the scoring drops to 1 represented by Coal, Oil, Gas and Shale - all dirty and dangerous fuels which also leave scars on the landscape when they are abandoned.

'Should these score at all?' one asks - but then, this is only a sideshow game!

The concepts behind the sideshows will all be explained in a small pamphlet entitled ‘Our Sideshows: what they mean’, available to borrowers of the equipment. At the time of writing this post, the pamphlet is in embryo form.

For now, to better understand the purpose of the Eco-Fayre, go to The first Mini Eco Fayre entry that you will find HERE  

ECO- THEMED SIDESHOW 2: KNOCK THE DIRTY FUELS DOWN

Following my last post, here’s another of the Eco-themed sideshows at our Children’s Science and Climate Change afternoon. It’s called ‘Knock The Dirty Fuels Down'. The targets are empty  415gm  cans, with a wrap-around showing dirty fuel installations. They have to be knocked off their shelf with beanbags. Clearing 7 or more off the shelf earned winners’ tokens.

The sideshow had an associated placard (not seen in the picture of the sideshow) - but reproduced below the sideshow image.

Simple knock about fun - with a profound message

To better understand the purpose of the Eco-Fayre, go to The first Mini Eco Fayre entry that you will find HERE