Eternal Echoes

The effect of sanctions...

Many members of the Comfort Zone Community are affected by Sanctions, week after week we help folk with food, clothing emergency fuel payments and more, what we do is a drop in the ocean. We seek to respond as often as we can, and what we do is appreciated, but sometimes we are reminded of the utter desperation that being sanctioned, being hungry and being cold brings on...

How many of us honestly go to bed hungry, cold and desperate?

How many of us know that the next meal, the next place of warmth, the next welcome will be days away?

I suspect that the answer is not many who are reading this, because you have the luxury of access to the internet! But if you didn't, or if you are reading this from a library or on a friends phone you might, and if you are you will recognise what it feels like to have your hand tied by a system that seems to be out to get you!

Today one of our community is in prison, another is awaiting sentencing; why because one stole £12.00 of food to eat, and the other stole a jacket...

Now I don't know whether the jacket was to be worn or sold on the street, but either way it was about survival; this is the effect of sanctions, people are hungry, people don't know where the money to pay their next energy bill will come from...

This is life in 21st Century Britain...

...and frankly I think it is unjust and inhumane....

...stealing is not right, but perhaps what is being stolen is more than food or clothes, but human dignity!

Image: Journey (mine)

 

 

Entering the storm (prayer and the current world crisis)

I am sitting in the lovely sun room in the Manse in Blackpool looking out across my back garden, there are flowers blooming and a soft breeze is blowing, it would be easy to say all is well with the world, to bury my head in the sand ( not difficult here in Blackpool)  and to carry on with the mundane stuff of life. At the same time I am reading news pages, reading posts to Facebook and twitter expressing continued outrage at the atrocities happening elsewhere, posts calling for peace, calling for an end to the madness, calling for something to happen, someone to listen.

I have joined my voice to these voices, shared and re-shared news items, grown angry at the atrocities, appallled at the continued violence and destruction. The place names are repeated again and again, Israel, Gaza, Iraq, The Ukraine, Israel, Gaza.... Image follows image, children maimed, bloodied, and tormented faces fill our screens. There are arguements from each side too, arguements claiming absolute "right", arguements insisting that war, violence and slaughter is justified. Arguements that fail to see the the inhumanity they perpetuate upon fellow human beings.

How can the slaughter of children be right, how can the targetting of family homes be right, how can the beheadding of children, the hanging of fathers be right? Quite simply it cannot be and is not right, no matter what your religion, what your race or creed wholesale slaughter and destruction is wrong. 

As I ponder adding my voice to the voices crying out for peace again I am struck by the smallness of it, but I must not let this stop me, I must enter the storm of protest with an open heart and an open mind, I must be willing to speak up even if it seems that the winds are roaring so loudly that my voice is carried away. I must enter the storm because it is there that I find the open heart of God, the heart of a God who I am convinced weeps for the people he has made who are so intent on destroying one another, and I must be prepared to weep with him, and weeping will become my prayer. I have to challenge myself to see the humanity through the images  and feel the horror of the stories that come to me day by day, hour by hour.

What is it like for the medic who can do no more because there is no power and supplies have run out? How does she sustain the strength to sit with the dying child whose life in different circumstances could have been saved. 

What is it like to watch approaching soldiers knowing that your death is imminent unless you convert to a faith you do not hold? Can I place myself into the shoes of a mother seeing her children beheaded knowing that she faces rape and death herself, and there is nowhere to flee?

Of course I can't, but I can try, I can try to be open to the pain and the horror and to meet the Christ who met his disciples in the storm ( Matthew 14: 22-33), because it was Christ who sent them into it! I have a choice, I can bury my head in the sand, enjoy the flowers in my garden and generally ignore the suffering and horror, or I can dare to get into and maybe even out of the boat, dare to walk with Christ across the waves and allow my voice to join the many voices calling for peace until the storm is stilled.

Jesus compelled the disciples to enter the boat, and sent them out into the sea ( which represents chaos, darkness and evil), they laboured their pushing through the storm fearing for their lives almost all night before he came walking out towards them. He had been up upon a mountain praying, face to face with the Father before entering the storm, and I have a suspicion that that mountain top was not a place of idyllic calm and loveliness but once again a place where Jesus fought through the storms of his humanity to find the complete peace and strength of being at one with God. In that strength he walked across the waves and into the storm.

The storm is raging today, raging all around the world, raging in the Middle East with obvious violence and horror, raging in West as decisions are made over arms and aid, raging in the hearts of those who seek war, and those who seek peace. I believe we are called to enter into it, for if we ignore it we forget that we are a part of it anyway, so let us dare to enter, dare to step out, dare to speak up, dare to say once again, and then again, THAT THIS MUST STOP.

This is not about politics, race or creed, this is about people, real living, breathing, hurting, bleeding and dying people, and THIS MUST STOP!!!

Image "Storm" mine

do we not bleed?

I am writing yet another blog post about the treatment of vulnerable people, every week I meet people who have been affected by cut backs and Government Sanctions, people who are struggling to eat, a man who asks us for candles because he cannot afford electricity and we cannot afford to help everyone with everything. This week a young couple asked if they could have an extra food bag, they were struggling to make ends meet with the effects of Sanctions and because her Disability Living Allowance had been stopped, they had applied to the Local Council for help but were turned down because they had money coming in on Friday, it was Monday! It was Monday and she needs to eat when she takes her medication, so we give out candles, we give out extra food bags, we give out clothes and whatever we can to help people.

We are often acused, by our critics, of being a soft touch, accused of believing lies and being taken in, and perhaps we are now and then, but I would rather be taken for a ride on the odd occasion than turn away people in genuine need, people just like me who bleed if they are cut...

People like J&C who have been living in a tent for the past few months, unable to find housing, unable due to a mix up to claim benefits, and falling through every crack imaginable. Every morning they pack up their "home" and carry it around the streets for fear of it being stolen. Every evening they set up camp again where they can, they are in their 50's, they are not unwilling to work, they have worked, life has dealt them a cruel blow. I call them my friends, and yes they bleed...

People like S who has been mis-diagnosed and even refused treatment at a health centre, told to come when it is less busy. People like M, discharged by an overwhelmed Mental Health Service, unable to cope and now homeless, hungry and confused. People, so many people apparently tossed aside, classed as unimportant, unwanted, undesirable! And yes, they bleed...

This last week I saw the system reach a new low in the same way for a second time, T came to Comfort Zone, he could hardly walk, we heard his story, made him a cup of tea and tried to help him. His leg was badly swollen and was becoming more swollen as the evening progressed, we made the decision to call for an ambulance, details were taken, and when it came to his address he reported as homeless. At that point the conversation with the Emergency Services changed, they wanted more and more details, a date of birth, a proof of ID, the reason we were helping T. We waited for an hour and a half, no ambulance came. Two volunteers took T to hospital, he could not walk, on arrival they ( 2 women) asked for help to get T into the A&E department, none came. The next morning T came to thank us for our help. He had been discharged at 1am, with a set of crutches and some anti inflamatories, he had nowhere to go... and YES HE BLEEDS...

I am absolutely exasparated that people can be treated so appallingly in one of the richest countries in the world. I am appallled that people are written off, consigned to the rubbish tip, disregarded and de-humanised. How can we not look into the eyes of out fellow human beings and see just that a human being. A human being created in Gods image just as we are, a human being with needs and fears, with joys and sorrows, a human being who bleedslike we do, like I do...

I am challenged yet again to consider my own lifestyle, to ask what more I can do, to recognise what common humanity means, and to speak out and keep speaking out. We cannot, we must not write anyone off. Richard Rhor reminds us in his book "Dancing Standing Still" that;

"Jesus does ask of us strong moral decisions, but they mostly have to do with changing ourselves, not trying to change other people."

and

"Who wouldn't like it if all in the world showed a sense of basic social order and concern? And yet Jesus says in effect, "But that's not what I am here to talk about, I am not here so that polite society can continue to be polite."

Jesus does not ask us to be polite, he challenges us to have eyes to see, to see others, and to see ourselves, to see our common value, our common humanity, our common potential, our common worth...

And yes if you prick us we bleed, but we also heal...

 Paintings mine

Related articles

Dear Mr Cameron, it is about more than statistics....

All this...

stumbling blocks....

Reading the Word in Time on the Methodist Church web-site this morning has got me thinking. The disciples were concerned with who will be the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. Jesus brings a small child amongst them and points to her humility. Today's writer Ric Stott brings another perspective:

Now, either children were very different in first century Palestine or Jesus doesn't know much about children. They are so often consumed with who is the fastest, or prettiest, or who's got the biggest slice of cake or the best toy. "Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?" sounds like a pretty childish question.

I pondered that for a while and I have to concede that he is right, children today (certainly in the west) are often consumed by these unnecessary questions, what they look like and what they have are seen as all important- and they become marks of status. Why are children like this? Well quite simply because children are doing what children do, they are emulating the adults in their lives!

Although we don't like to admit it we live in a culture that is consumed by image; just think back if you can to Susan Boyle's first appearance on X-Factor. Can you remember the judges faces and the audience reaction before she opened her moth to sing? Of course she has gone on to become a successful recording artist, and has undergone the "required" make-over, and the fact that, that makes us all more comfortable with her is an indication of the shallowness of our culture and an indication of our willingness to paper over the cracks of our brokenness with surface remedies! 

These surface remedies become stumbling blocks to reality- we are no longer in touch with the true value of our humanity- we fail to declare that we are fearfully and wonderfully made, we forget that we are loved for who we are and we contunually try to make ourselves something other, and loose touch with our true value in the process. We are so surrounded by the stumbling blocks of our culture that we fail to notice that we are falling!

Church is not immune to these stumbling blocks, and the more middle class we become the further we find ourselves from Jesus teaching. If children were different in first century Palestine then what were the stumbling blocks Jesus was referring to? Could they have been the demands of religion, the rules and regulations of life that prevented people from living in freedom? Here I think we find a double problem in the church of today- for while we are very often slaves to our culture we also rebel against it, we create our own rules and sets of criticism and end up not knowing which way to turn. We become victims of our own double standards. 

All of this is a long way from Jesus call to live freely and lightly:

"Are you tired? Worn out? Burned out on religion? Come to me. Get away with me and you'll recover your life. I'll show you how to take a real rest. Walk with me and work with me—watch how I do it. Learn the unforced rhythms of grace. I won't lay anything heavy or ill-fitting on you. Keep company with me and you'll learn to live freely and lightly." (Matthew 11:28-30)

How then do we escape the stumbling blocks and recover our lives? Ric Stott suggests:

"Perhaps there is another childlike quality that Jesus is alluding to – that ability to live fully in the present, experiencing life deeply without concern with what happened yesterday or worrying about what will happen tomorrow. A child can run joyfully with total abandon across a beach, delighting in the splashing of the waves and falling exhausted, giggling into the sand in a way that most adults are far to uptight and concerned about self-image to emulate."

Living freely is not as easy as it sounds for to live free we need to break free from the demands of  our culture and religious notions, we need to discover the God colours and flavours in our lives so that we can respond to Jesus challenge: 

"Let me tell you why you're here; You're here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of this earth. If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste godliness? You've lost your usefulness and will end up in the garbage.

"Here's another way to put it: You're here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We're going public with this, as public as a city on a hill. If I make you light-bearers, you don't think I'm going to hide you under a bucket, do you? I'm putting you on a light stand. Now that I've put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand—shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you'll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven. (Matthew 5: 13-16)

Maybe in this we will begin to be those who:

 "Prepare for God's arrival! Make the road straight and smooth,  a highway fit for our God. Fill in the valleys, level off the hills,smooth out the ruts, clear out the rocks.Then God's bright glory will shine and everyone will see it.  Yes. Just as God has said." (Isaiah 40: 3-5)

Called to be salt and Light (Sermon blogging) Matthew 5: 13-16, Romans 12: 1-2

I’ve just returned from my holiday, and being super efficient I had planned my service before I left, the hymns and the scriptures were carefully chosen. I even had a the beginnings of a message forming but speaking about riots and rioters was far from my mind, a lot can change in two weeks.

What then shall I say? So much has already been said, news reporters, newspaper analysts, through the T.V., the radio, the papers, everyone has been asked their opinion, from comedians and magicians (The Guardian carried articles from Paul Daniels and Russell Brand) to politicians and community leaders.

Some blame the politicians, some blame the system, some blame the breakdown of society, and some blame the rioters calling them wild animals. Some blame greed and lack of community, some blame one another…

One thing becomes abundantly clear as you read reports and listen to the news; everybody is looking for somebody else to blame and very few want to take responsibility! But I suspect that deep down we know that the awkward truth is that we are all responsible at some level!

Yes I really did say that and I’ll repeat it just in case you think you misheard me: “we are all responsible at some level.” Now I know that most of us did not take to the streets, that we did not loot and pillage or set buildings alight, we didn’t and we wouldn’t…

…and yet we are responsible…

We are responsible for the generations who have grown up in this country without hope:

Though the newspapers are right in pointing out that single parent families, illiterate and impoverished youths were among the main perpetrators they were by no means alone, and the Daily Telegraph rightly states:

“Something has gone horribly wrong in Britain. If we are ever to confront the problems which have been exposed in the past week, it is essential to bear in mind that they do not only exist in inner-city housing estates.

The culture of greed and impunity we are witnessing on our TV screens stretches right up into corporate boardrooms and the Cabinet. It embraces the police and large parts of our media. It is not just its damaged youth, but Britain itself that needs a moral reformation.”

Britain itself needs a moral reformation! I’d go further; Britain does not just need reformation it needs deep transformation, for that we need to get away from selfishness that pervades every pore of our society and that I believe includes the church.

Listen to Jesus words again:

"Let me tell you why you are here. You're here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavours of this earth. If you lose your saltiness, how will people taste godliness?

Here's another way to put it: You're here to be light, bringing out the God-colours in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We're going public with this, as public as a city on a hill. If I make you light-bearers, you don't think I'm going to hide you under a bucket, do you? I'm putting you on a light stand. Now that I've put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand—shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you'll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven.

Jesus was not speaking into a vacuum; he was speaking to his followers. His followers who loved among people who were suffering under political oppression, among people in an occupied land who were being heavily taxed people who were in some cases tired and worn down. People who needed hope….

Jesus was speaking to his followers and calling them to be those who brought hope, hope and flavour and colour to a world that needed salty light bearers!

Jesus is speaking to us too, calling us to be that salt seasoning, to bring light into the dark places; calling us to be aware of the needs of our communities.

We are going public with this message of hope says Jesus, as public as a city on a hill! I’m putting you on a light stand he says! I want you to shine…

This is a huge challenge to us, and it requires a big decision from us. It requires us to examine ourselves individually and corporately it requires us to understand and accept our part in the problem that faces us. It requires repentance from us, and a renewed, restored and even transformed desire to become bearers of hope…

It requires us to lay aside our wants and comforts in order to engage with the needs of others…

But before this all begins to sound like hard work and a call to a miserable way of being lets not forget that Jesus promises us his Spirit, promises us that to walk with him is to walk freely and lightly, to move in his unforced rhythms of grace! It also means that we don’t have to generate the love and compassion from within ourselves because they spring from the heart of the God who loved us first, and from whom all of the fruits of the Spirit flow…

Choosing to become a part of the solution requires action from us, listen to the words of Romans again:

^1-2 So here's what I want you to do, God helping you: Take your everyday, ordinary life—your sleeping, eating, going-to-work, and walking-around life—and place it before God as an offering. Embracing what God does for you is the best thing you can do for him. Don't become so well-adjusted to your culture that you fit into it without even thinking. Instead, fix your attention on God. You'll be changed from the inside out. Readily recognize what he wants from you, and quickly respond to it. Unlike the culture around you, always dragging you down to its level of immaturity, God brings the best out of you, develops well-formed maturity in you.

 

God will bring out the best in us! God wants to bring out the best in us; God blesses us and calls us to become a blessing, a blessing to those who need his touch of love, his colours and his flavours running through their lives. He calls us beyond our comfort zones to touch the unlovely and unloved, to speak out against injustice at all levels, to be different and to make a difference!

And yes it will be risky and costly, but we are followers of the God who gave all for us, leaving the glory of heaven for us, who went to the cross for us, and then conquering sin and death he was raised to newness of life by the mighty resurrection power of the Holy Spirit working in and through him. It is that restoring, renewing and transforming power that he calls us to move into again, to receive from him, to live and move and have our being in him…

He was not concerned with our religion or tradition; he is not so much interested in how we sing our hymns or say our prayers as he is with our attitudes and actions towards the folk he has placed us amongst. His words to us are the same as they were to his early followers:

 "Let me tell you why you are here. You're here to be salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavours of this earth. You're here to be light, bringing out the God-colours in the world.”

And he asks the same question of us:

Will you follow me?

 

 

 

 

Starange dreams, the Lord's Table and other Communion related ponderings

I had a night of strange dreams last night, and all of them centered around the practice of Holy Communion/ Lords Supper/ Eucharist/... the fact that there are so many ways of naming it is confusing from the outset. I seemed to be floating from one situation to another trying to derive meaning from what we do. This may be partly reflective of my journey through a number of different denominations all of whom place different levels of importance and stresses on practice; Congregationalist, Baptist, Episcopalian, various flavours of Free Church, Anglican and finally Methodist, and even then each local situation is different.

When I think about different Chapels in this Circuit some have prominent tables, some have little more than shelves, some are central, others to the side, and others are dwarfed by enormous pulpits. Some set  the table with a plate  a decent sized roll and a chalice ( even if it is not used beyond being a visual representation) while others dice up tiny pieces of white sliced bread and only have thimble sized "cups".

Different emphases are placed on the importance of receiving communion too, I have a few members from a Primitive Methodist background who don't receive at all because they can't see the point. I'm not sure why as even the Prims administered communion to their members, although again local practice varied, we have talked about it and they say they might receive if they feel it is right... who am I to argue?

So as I head of to preside this morning I am pondering what is important to me and why, this is a continuation of my musings over the last few years, you can find previous posts here and here there are more but they sum up my thinking quite well.

So why another post? Well my dreams highlighted for me the importance of Holy Communion, and my desire that others should also find it meaningful and through it enter into a real encounter with the living God. I think that is why I am concerned about practice. I don't like using diced up sliced bread, and am not happy if the only cup on the table is thimble sized, as for the table, then I want there to be a proper table...

Why these specific preferences, quite simply because I believe that these elements enhance the telling of the story, to stand at a table and lift a plate and a chalice, to lift and tear open a small loaf of bread, all of these things are visual reminders. Important visual cues that help us to place ourselves into the story, to become invited guests and friends at Jesus table. I also value the set liturgy of the church (Methodist in my case) which does more than tell the story of the last supper by inviting us to affirm our faith and reminding us of the holiness of the sacrament. Each time I lead the Great prayer of Thanksgiving I am humbled and awed by it; today these words becme particularly significant:

When we wandered from you in our sin

you sought us out with your steadfast love,

and did not give us up.

(Methodist Worship Book; Easter Season pg 169)

So why am I pondering this in the midst of what may seem to some more important stuff, when the country is preparing to go to the polls, when wars prevail, and when the skies of Europe are a no fly zone? Well quite simply because in order to deal with and think about all of that stuff I feel the need to be centered, and Holy Communion centres me, it calls me back to the source of my faith and then sends me out again nourished and recommissioned. It stands at the centre of the rhythm of faith reminding me of its source and purpose, and it requires me to reconnect with the living God through the elements. Yes reading the Scriptures and prayer do this, but it is at the table that I find the centre, and at the table where I am reminded again that heaven truly has touched earth. 

I wouldn't start from here.....

I have had a busy weekend, and am trying to draw together my thoughts, for although there have been many different activities there seems to me to be a common thread running through...

On Saturday I traveled to Newark to present a Jesus Deck Workshop. Two Journey Into Wholeness Groups were involved, and as they engaged with the teaching a common theme emerged from the comments and questions, it centered around the way we expect to present the gospel. So often we take a linear approach, we want to tell the story of Jesus from beginning to end, and we want people to confess their sins before we are happy to say that they have had a meaningful relationship with God.

The Jesus Deck demands that we engage with the gospels in a non linear way. We may have to begin in the middle and move around between the end and the beginning as we tell the story of the cards. It can also be so with people coming to faith, I have a friend who talks of having a meaningful relationship with God for almost 3 years before he had any conviction of personal sin! We talked about how the traditional ( or at least post-enlightenment) emphasis on preaching a gospel of repentance, provides us with a narrow message, often perceived as unattractive in a spiritually minded culture. I do believe that there is a place for repentance, indeed I believe it is essential ( and should be an ongoing part of out journey), it is just not necessarily the first or second thing that we should ask of folk!

Could it be that we so often encounter folk and try to get them to come with us to a starting point within our comfort zone so that we can journey with them... Maybe the challenge is to learn to start where they are, no matter how uncomfortable that makes us! If we dare to do so maybe we will end up at a wonderful destination we could never have envisaged!!!

Next came the Sunday morning service and a look at the themes of Advent. How interesting that we begin the Church year with a look at the second coming! I find this challenging and discomforting, and used two images to make my point.

, and

It is easy to domesticate the season of advent, to visit only it's acceptable themes, but Christ cannot be domesticated and the message of the gospels is not always comfortable. If we never dare to venture beyond our comfort zones maybe we never meet the risen Christ and never come into contact with resurrection possibilities for ourselves! Maybe we need to engage with the season of advent by daring to begin from a different place....

Lastly Tim and I drove around the Circuit tasking photos and filming for two different projects. My favourite photo was this one...

I live in an area dominated by power stations, Drax, Eggborough and Ferrybridge are iconic if sobering landmarks. This photo taken at Drax this morning shows the original power station and two new wind turbines. Interestingly in an ever increasing culture of eco-awareness there have been a number of locsal protests.Some folk are not happy about the turbines.

I am challenged by this thinking on a number of levels, and am struck by how human it is! Could it be I wonder that this picture and situation could serve as a parable for the church...

We want change, but how often do we dig our heels in and refuse to begin something new. How often do we welcome change, providing it is not us who are being challenged...

How often does the sentiment "I wouldn't start from here" pass through our minds and flow into our practice....

I wonder how many of us would have dared to start in a rough hewn manger in Bethlehem?
 

 

Jade Goody; thoughts on a life

Jade Goody was a controversial figure, for the last seven years ever since she hit the TV screens through the reality TV show Big Brother she has been loved and hated by the tabloid press and the public alike. Her death was reported this morning.

Over the last few weeks her battle with terminal cancer has been documented and we have watched a brave young woman deal with her last days in a glare of invited publicity. It is easy to critisise Jade, in our Mothering Sunday Service this morning a request for prayer was made for her children, the request was phrased that no matter what we thought of the mother we should pray for her children.

I tend to think that we might do well to listen to some of Jade's words during her last few weeks; yes she sold her story for a handsome sum of money, but as she explained she did not do so in order to buy flashy cars and big houses, but in order to provide for her sons so that they could have a better childhood than she had had! Jade has also been generous in support for charities including cancer charities.

Jade often displayed hidden depths, she weathered the storm of racism accusations emerging eventually to take part in an Indian version of Big Brother where she explained that she did not realise how offensive she had been. If anyone else had made such a statement would and should have been met with suspicion, but Jade wore her heart on her sleeve, and I for one suspect that she meant what she said. When confronted with the fact that her behavior was unreasonable Jade usually listened to reason, it was not her fault that she did not know another way.

I have been struck by her recent desire to know Jesus, her theology might well be shaky but her desire was genuine, and I explained here why I felt that her desire to be baptised and to see her boys baptised should be welcomed rather than frowned upon.

So today I prayed for Jade and for her family, and I pray that her example of love and care for her family might be one that challenges us this Mothering Sunday to open our eyes and see even through this flawed image the evidence of the God of love at work, a God who loves each one of us more than we can possibly imagine. Did Jade find God as some newspapers are quoting, I don't know how to answer that, but this I know for sure, God would not turn Jade away!

The Guardian on the Covenant Service

In praise of ... the covenant service

Leader
Monday January 14, 2008
The Guardian

Hymns rich in workaday yet powerful images are usually ranked as Methodism's main contribution to literature, but yesterday witnessed another example of this small but hugely influential church's power of inspirational writing. Many Methodists across the country celebrated their annual covenant service, a renewal of faith comparable to new year resolutions, but one that impressively emphasises the importance of doing as much as believing.

more here.

How many lightbulbs....

                                                            

Synopsis
Did you know that changing just one high energy lightbulb to a low energy one saves 75kg of carbon dioxide a year? That's 7,500 party balloonsful. This full-colour book provides hundreds of practical ideas for making small changes to your lifestyle that can make a big difference to the environment. In eight sections "How Many Lightbulbs?" will inspire you, your church and your community towards actions that will reduce your ecological footprint, from turning off the tap, to starting a church compost heap. Start making strides to shrink your ecological footprint today. Available from amazon here

Now I could be cynical and ask why we need a book specifically for Christians- are we unable to read other literature... but if it encourages folk to make a difference it has to be good.........

As Christians we SHOULD have something to say about creation!