(Cambridge) CHRISTIAN CLIMATE ACTION: Ely Cathedral Banking

At the end of last week, we joined a small demonstration by the members of Cambridge Christian Climate Action (CCCA) standing with a banner outside the magnificent Ely Cathedral, asking the Cathedral to consider switching its banking away from Barclays Bank, (which is the bank most invested in the fossil fuel industries) - and therefore at complete odds with the Cathedral’s A Rocha, Gold award for ecology.

We were met by the Acting Dean, Canon James Revelly who listened to our request that the Cathedral should reconsider its use of Barclays;  understandably countered by listing the Cathedral’s credentials as a climate-change-oncerned organisation. It was, perhaps, significant that the eco-awareness of the Cathedral appears to be achieved by just a small group of members of the congregation encouraging the Cathedral authorities.

Canon James, as acting Dean is, of course, not in a position to agree to such change but did agree to see whether the Cathedral Chapter would be prepared to meet with members of CCCA to hear their argument for what seems to be a very modest change and would make the Cathedral's concerns about the biggest existential threat to the planet clear, and which would be wholly consistent with a Christian approach to Climate Justice. The climate justice issue was expressed powerfully by the CCCA’s principal advocate who contrasted the effects on Climate change on the poor of the poorest nations in the world with the impact on the less affected wealthy West.

As we could have predicted, our pamphleteering was met with a wide range of attitudes. A few were genuinely sympathetic, too many simply weren’t interested and a few were opposed to any form of Climate Action, absurdly believing it to be a hoax.

 One man on his way into the Cathedral was unpleasantly aggressive, quoting what the LSE Global School of Sustainability has described as ‘The Misinformation of Lomberg and Tol' (Commentary published in April 2024 which can be found at More misinformation and nonsense on climate from Lomborg and Tol - Grantham Research Institute on climate change and the environment ). That was not a good moment but a dramatic demonstration of the dangerous attitudes that will see the planet destroyed in short order and endorses the reason that such demonstrations are so very important, because the Cathedral taking such action as changing their bankers would be an exemplar to churches throughout the Diocese and a signal to other Cathedrals.

What are CLIMERICKS (Armchair protest on Climate Concern)

WHAT ARE CLIMERICKS? 

CLIMERICKS (CLImate emergency LIMERICKS) - If you’re not sure what constitutes a Limerick, Wikipedia has an excellent description that will enable you understand what this invitation is about.

 

No-one, in 2023, can deny we are experiencing extreme weather in many, many places.

 

There are at least 70 scientific disciplines and a similar number of respected National scientific institutes (such as the Royal Society and comparable bodies in other countries) that believe, from solid evidence, the pace of climate change is way faster than has ever happened in thousands of years of history. Those very responsible scientists and those institutions are clear that the present temperature rises causing these extremes and the related climate emergency are human induced.

 

Since there is such a consensus among so many respected institutions and scientists of so many faculties, it is near-unbelievable that anyone or any organisation is prepared to deny these trends. That smacks of denialism, blindness, vested interest, greed for the profits which still flow from the fossil-fuel based industries, disinformation and outright lies. This sinister activity is, terrifyingly, funded by huge investment from the right of the political spectrum. Responsible people who have a more visionary understanding cannot muster anything like the funding base for deniers and delayers of the need for urgent action and, in order to wake the population at large to the catastrophe which faces the world, some engage in protest which is sometimes disruptive and unpopular to those inconvenienced by it. Politicians in many countries, hoping to gain favour of the general public, are passing legislation to prevent legitimate peaceful protest. This at a time of unprecedented existential crisis and with the hideous connivance of right-wing media.

 

So is there a method which can massively raise awareness to the impending crisis, (which is a crisis of TODAY and not a future crisis, and by which time today’s power-brokers, deniers and delayers will no longer hold the power they do today)? Long-term targets for ‘Net Zero’ or other CO₂ diminution are all fixed too far in the future, too late to be of serious help.

 

If you are concerned about this impending catastrophe which will make life increasingly difficult for everybody and every creature, you may well wonder what YOU can do. Well, here’s something very simple. Here’s an invitation to join CLIMERICKS.

 

CLIMERICKS have been devised to give voice to anyone concerned about the climate calamity we face. Here’s What to do.

 

1 Call up the Eco-verses site where you will find a growing collection of CLIMERICKS. You will find it at http://Eco-verses.blogspot.com

 

2 call up at your favourite reliable NEWS Site and/or a reliable community website for your own home community

 

3 Look around the news site to see if there are any headlines about CLIMATE CHANGE DENIAL, DELAY or the wilful obstuction of Climate change mitigation targets.

 

4 Look Round the Eco-verses/CLIMERICKS site to see if there is already a CLIMERICK that make that form of delay or denial a nonsense.

 

5 Either post that CLIMERICK as OR EVEN BETTER WRITE YOUR OWN and post it as widely as you can (If writing your own try and make them amusing but telling. Try not to be rude but make your verse as compelling as you possibly can). The CLIMERICK site has a growing collection of examples for you to model your writing on: you may get new ideas from there too! If you can inject hope into your CLIMERICK too, that will be brilliant. 

 

6 Invite those you know who want to show their support for early and wide-ranging climate chaos prevention to share your chosen or written CLIMERICK.

 

7 Send your chosen CLIMERICK to your MP, Local Councillors, Radio Stations and Any Civil Service department having input into Climate Change catastrophe politics. Send hard copies if you can afford it and Emails if you need to keep your costs of joining in, low. If you know how, overprint your CLIMERICK on a pertinent image and post it to whichever CLIMERICKS site you operate on. Let’s engulf all places where power is exercised with CLIMERICKS

 

8 JUST POSSIBLY, CLIMERICKS MIGHT BECOME AN ACTIVITY HUB FOR ALL THOSE WHO DON’T QUITE KNOW HOW THEY SHOULD BE MAKING A CONTRIBUTION TO THE VITAL CLIMATE EMERGENCY DEBATES.

 

THINK ON THIS: CLIMERICKS could become a place to express concern for 

 

ALL THOSE who care about the future of the planet and want urgent action, particularly -

 

·      Young people and especially any school or college Climate Advocates:

·      Mums to be and their partners:

·      All parents who care for their children’s future (and their own):

·      People in places threatened by and experiencing the fallout of wildfires, floods, tornadoes, unseasonal deep snow and other extreme weather:

·      Family members who have care of disabled, old and frail relations:

·      Anyone fearful for the planet’s future:

·      Anyone who cares about the impact of the Climate catastrophe on low income people:

·      Anyone who cares about the impact of the Climate catastrophe on those who inhabit low-lying lands:

·      Anyone frustrated by the inaction of politicians:

·      Anyone who assents to the Pope’s encyclical ‘Laudato Si’ and wants to take action prompted by it:

·      Any members of the hero organisation ‘Extinction Rebellion’ and similar organisations in other countries who want to supplement their existing brave protests:

·      People of faith who feel it is their call to be a steward of our beautiful planet:

 

Anyone who wants to join a life-saving initiative for a healthy planet -SOON.  

To see all CLIMERICKs posted to this blog so far, go to the Home page via your browser’s button. (more to come)

Here’s a sample of using a letter to an MP

SAMPLE LETTER TO MP using a CLIMERICK

Home address

      Date

 

Lucy Fraser MP.

 

As one of your constituents,

I wish to register my deep 

concern that your party leader

has blatantly reneged on any 

sense of being concerned

about the present human 

induced Climate Catastrophe.

 

In order to help me to understand

how you stand as my MP, I would

like to know your reaction to the

following CLIMERICK 

(CLIMate concern limERICK).

 

Four brave people scaled wall and roof

to remind the PM of this truth:

Selling oil and gas stakes

Irredeemably breaks

His green promise: those stakes 

                          - damning proof.

 

Thank you,

Trevor Thorn

 

 

 

  

Portfolio for Life. (When Fossil Fuels Have Been Comprehensively Shunned)

Image Pixabay edited

Portfolio for Life. (When Fossil Fuels Have Been Comprehensively Shunned)

When fossil fuels have been comprehensively shunned -

and they must be;

 

when the production and proliferation of armaments

are killed off -

as they need to be;

 

when the impossible pursuit of perpetual growth

Is accepted to be illusory -

for it clearly is;

 

and when greed is once more perceived to be 

corrosive and deadly;

 

then hope can blossom

and the love that lies at the heart of creation

burst into the Godly glory of global justice and peace.

 

Seals and White Horses

Seals on Lindisfarne Sandbank

Staying once again on the beautiful Holy Island of Lindisfarne and privileged to be able to watch the tides from the lounge and bedroom windows. Sunday 10 days ago we experienced a wild wind which roared up the sound, so I tried to capture the moment and ... consider the future.

Seals and White Horses

(on a Lindisfarne Sandbank)

 

Twice a day,

some twenty score of seals

languidly allow themselves to succumb

to the encroaching sea,

as it steadfastly overwhelms

their sandbank resting-place.

 

But on this tide

a stampede of white horses

chases them

into forced retreat

before a fast-running tide,

driven by ferocious wind.

 

This wind has roared across the Atlantic

having wrought devastation-by-flooding

prior to leaving its last landfall.

 

Yet more extreme weather

resulting from the

undeniable climate chaos,

discerned by the truth-seeking,

broad-based research

of rightly sombre scientists.

 

Too soon, the sandbanks

will be permanently submerged.

 

No respite then for seals.

This post is part of  ‘My Lindisfarne Collection’, the rest of which which can be found HERE

No Longer is The Ploughing

Picture credit Kridneh via Pixabay free images

Last Sunday, in keeping with the Bible story of the sower, scattering seeds that both perish and prosper depending on where they fall, we sung (on Lindisfarne) the well-known harvest thanksgiving hymn ‘We Plough The Seeds and Scatter the Good Seed on the Land’. 

 

I was reminded that back in 2011, I wrote new words trying to reflect the onward march of technology on the farm. The revised version was called ‘The Great Machines of Harvest’ which can be accessed by link at the end of this post.

 

However, as we sang the original version of the hymn, I was disconcerted by, what in these ‘extreme weather’ times, felt complacent to me, and I realised, the same criticism could be applied to my 2011 version. 

 

During the afternoon following the service, I explored a different approach which once again could be sung to any familiar hymn tune used for the original version. Here it is - and suddenly with the stupidity of politicians wanting to ditch green policies, it feels important to post it

 

No Longer is The Ploughing

No longer is the ploughing

one annual winter chore:

fields now are laced with compounds

so they will yield much more.

But snow which once warmed seedlings

might now be rain extreme,

so weather’s wild excesses 

wreck cultivation schemes.

 

Refrain

 

All good gifts around us

are not found everywhere,

for drought and floods and warfare,

can render farmland bare.

 

Although our generous Maker

desires that earth should thrive,

sustain its population

that everyone might live. 

The greed and vast consumption

of those in lands of wealth

mean millions face starvation

and dangerous ill-health

 

Refrain

 

We ask you then, O Father

‘Help us make protests strong

‘gainst fools and vested interests

who’d short-term gains prolong,

instead of realising

the change we can’t avoid:

STOP oil! STOP profiteering!

Before all Earth’s destroyed.  

The Great Machines of Harvest mentioned in the first paragraph can be accessed HERE 

Our Earth is Beset by a Crisis

 

Earth and Space  (imagined): Pixabay free image

This poem was written as a song for the Resound 12 Song Challenge 2022/3. Musicians might like the challenge of writing music for it. If used as a poem, in the chorus use line 1, 3,4,6

Our Earth is Beset by a Crisis 

 

Our earth is beset by a crisis, 

driven by human excess,

through profligate use of resources 

by we who could manage with less.

God surely calls us to be stewards

of the planet where Jesus has lived,

and challenge the fossil fuel behemoths,

to save our Creator’s great gift.

 

chorus

help us be stewards Lord,

help us be stewards Lord,

of this your much-loved home.

help us be stewards Lord,

help us be stewards Lord,

working so justice may come.

 

The evidence for this disaster

spans continents islands and seas:

so Christians in every nation

need pray and protest to relieve

the damage that’s being inflicted

on this ravaged planet, our home,

and bring hope through visionary challenge,

as_we_plead ’Now with justice, Lord, come’

 

chorus

help us be stewards Lord,

help us be stewards Lord, 

of this your much-loved home.

help us be stewards Lord,

 help us be stewards Lord,

 working so justice may come.

 

Where Intellects Are Nurtured in this Fast-moving Age,

Photo: Pixabay free images

I am currently engaged with a challenge to write a new worship song every month for twelve months. This month’s challenge has been to write about our hometown or village. With my enthusiasm for weaving ideas of faith and science together it was unsurprising that a hymn/ song for Cambridge (UK) suggested itself. (We live on the edge of the City).

It could equally be used by any chapel/ church/ worship group in any University town - worldwide. The prayer-plea for wisdom feels very needed in this day and age.

Here it is: the verses can be sung to ’The Church’s One Foundation’ (Aurelia) with an invitation for the refrain to be improvised by local musicians.

Where intellects are nurtured

in this fast-moving age,

the gift of Godly wisdom

is needed day by day:

when innovation fosters

new ethical demands,

or scientific progress

might transgress God’s commands.

 

Refrain

Give wisdom, dear Lord we pray,

Give wisdom, Lord, day by day.

Give wisdom, dear Lord we pray

Give wisdom, Lord, day by day

 

Where intellects are gathered 

from countries far and wide

deep-rooted propositions 

will frequently arise:

for with such fertile gatherings

of minds from many a race,

Inspired, wide-ranging theories

can be explored apace.

 

Refrain

Give wisdom, dear Lord we pray,

Give wisdom, Lord, day by day.

Give wisdom, dear Lord we pray

Give wisdom, Lord, day by day

 

Where intellects are welcome

from every race and creed,

inclusive ways are crucial

for Learning to proceed.

So Lord, let moral purpose 

and peace-based attitudes

grace all our institutions,

where research is pursued.

 

Refrain

Give wisdom, dear Lord we pray,

Give wisdom, Lord, day by day.

Give wisdom, dear Lord we pray,

Give wisdom, Lord, day by day.

 

  

Exoplanets; Thousands of them. Children’s God and Science song.

It is quite a while since I have posted anything new in the ‘Sing of God and Science’ collection (aimed at KS1 & 2 pupils). So, when a song-writers challenge (Organised by Resound!) incorporated that age-group in this month’s challenge, it felt like a good opportunity to write something new. This gave rise to a realisation that many sciences have been and are making huge strides and lots of discoveries. So, in this song I celebrate the rapidly growing number of discoveries of Exoplanets. In simple terms, these are any planets outside our solar system - planets that orbit round other suns (stars). NASA’s site will give much more detail for any teacher or young-peoples’ workers wanting to use this as a teaching song.

Per NASA

Exoplanets come in a wide variety of sizes, 

from gas giants larger than Jupiter to small, rocky planets

 about as big around as Earth or Mars.

 They can be hot enough to boil metal or locked in deep freeze. 

They can orbit their stars so tightly  that a “year” lasts only a few days; 

they can orbit two suns at once. 

 Exoplanets (can be sung to Infant Holy, Infant Lowly)

 

Exoplanets; thousands of them,

spin round hugely distant stars:

as new telescopes look further

they’ll uncover more and more 

 

maybe millions,

could be billions,

even trillions,

or quadrillions,

as God’s cosmos they explore,

as God's cosmos they explore.

 

Exoplanets spin their orbits

Out beyond Sun’s mighty sway:

those discovered, dim the brightness

of their host star’s gleaming rays.

 

maybe millions,

could be billions,

even trillions,

or quadrillions,

as God’s cosmos is explored,

as God's cosmos is explored.

 

Myriads of those exoplanets

Will have moons and weather strange.

Their conditions may be more

Extreme than earthly climate change!

 

Yes - more millions!

could be billions!

even trillions!

or quadrillions!

as God’s cosmos is explored,

as God's cosmos is explored.

And to see an index of the full collection of  ‘Sing of God and Science’ songs Click Here

 

 

Dear Lord, I Thank You for The Sun (& other clean energy sources)

 Dear Lord, I thank you for the sun

Tune: Fulda (We Have a Gospel to Proclaim ) or many LM tunes

 

Dear Lord, I thank you for the sun

with its amazing energy,

which we can harvest every day

and turn to power reliably.

 

Dear Lord, I thank you for the winds,

unseen as they turn turbine sails

to generate their gusty streams

of pristine power at mighty scale.

 

Dear Lord, I thank you for the ways

that water-power is utilised,

and pray that soon we’ll tame the tides

for widespread use – a precious prize.

 

Dear Lord, please guide those who invest,

to understand; NOW is the hour

for boosting flows of finance to

those who commit to greener power.

Find more Care of the Planet poems, songs and hymns at https://crossandcosmos.blogspot.com/p/care-of-planet-collection.html

 

People of God, Awake!

 

People of God, Awake! 

Tune: Hills of the North Rejoice/ Little Cornard

People of God, Awake!

In this earth’s crisis hour.

Bold in our stewardship

let us speak truth to power:

the use of fossil fuels must end

if we, the planet ‘s health would mend.

 

Unless good sense prevails

every low coastal place

will fall beneath the waves

millions will be displaced.

So may we like the prophets old

sound warnings and take actions bold.

 

If everyone of faith

rallied to make it clear

that our Creator God

needs us renounce our fears

of taking action, to demand 

that gas, oil, coal are swiftly banned.

 

Then would our stewardship

chime with the will of God,

who must lament the wounds

wrought on the world he trod.

So protest now in forceful ways

to save these being earth’s last days.

Find more Care of the Planet poems, songs and hymns at https://crossandcosmos.blogspot.com/p/care-of-planet-collection.html

 

 

From Proverbs 8 re-imagined for the Second Space Age

 Proverbs 8, (1 - 4, 22 - 31)

 

Does not wisdom call 

And does not understanding raise her voice? 

 

'In the deepest parts of God’s universe 

I have been privileged to witness the birthing 

of the foundational event,  

the very portal of creation.'

 

Wisdom cries out 

‘To you, people with sentience, I call

with a cry that is to all that live and have understanding,

in this miraculous, mysterious and marvellous cosmos’.

 

‘The Lord created me in advance of his first acts at the beginning of time:

I was his first foundational act, before even plasma and subatomic particles were set loose to discover valency and learn to discern their rôles of amalgamation’.

 

‘And long before time sprang into existence at his Word’.

 

‘Long, long before matter prevailed over anti-matter, and unimaginable aeons before the first-generation stars erupted to impregnate our galactic locality and others with water and heavy elements’.

 

‘Then was I brought forth to watch and assist with many of the wonders of creation, 

such as the wonder of stars shining light onto their planets and the gift of impenetrable depths of waters, not only on the surfaces of many planets but deep below their mantles’.

 

‘Even before accretion discs began to form to allow the shaping of orbits and the sculpting of their constituent planets and moons. Long, too, before any carpets of land were woven and made subject to the mighty movements of tectonic plates

 

I was there also at the earliest patterning of galaxies and witnessed constellations forming, each for a season, when viewed from the myriad locations and times of far-flung planets and moons’.

 

‘But even yet more wonderful was to be present at the first formation of life on hospitable planets and to watch it evolve, hoping that as sentience developed anywhere in the cosmos it would call on me to guide the responsibility of stewarding its planetary home’.

 

* * * * * **

 

V4 Plasma in this sense is an ionized gas, at very high temperatures (as in stars and nuclear fusion

     reactors).

     Subatomic particles, or quarks are the building blocks of atoms which were for many years

     regarded as the smallest entities in the universe.

     Valency is the ability of a chemical element to combine with another.

 

V6 Our sun is a second generation star and our solar system is formed mainly from the remnants

      of a colossal explosion of a first generation star which gave rise to heavy elements. Ie, those

      with higher atomic numbers. Eg Aluminium (atomic number 16);Iron (atomic number 26); 

      Gold ( Atomic number 79) 

 

V7 (In 2022), the source of water on planets is still not resolved but earth has a huge sub-surface

      ocean as well as the visible seas on the surface.

 

V8 Accretion discs are formed around a new star as its gravity attracts gases and solid matter

     which form planets (and other bodies). These rotate around the star in orbits delineated by the

     accretion disc.

If you found this helpful, you may like to call up a similar re-imagining of the glorious creation passage at Job 38 CLICK HERE

AND/OR Psalm 150 CLICK HERE