GOOD FRIDAY (2)

If there is one thing which has stuck with me these past few days as our local faith community has read and considered portions of the passion narrative, it is Jesus’ steadfast walk towards and into Jerusalem with all the risk involved. He would not be swayed, by easy ways out, diversions, political or offensive strategies. He somehow commanded the courage to keep calm and carry on as the wartime phrase says.

Given his absolute confidence found in connection with God the Creator, he lived life as only he could. His was such a lonely road, which is why Luke’s gospel in particular stresses the cost of the journey itself.

On Wednesday we heard shared Hebrews 12:1 together.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us

Perseverance . . . a quality little known to the folks who seek endless stores of labour-saving devices and create social structures which insulate us from harm or even its possibility.

Environmental advocacy here in North America has its supporters, even in the churches, but for those who take the long view, and have devoted many years to what often seems an endless struggle, the way is fraught with resistance, sometimes actual danger, and much fatigue.

A new ACEN representative wrote to me the other day:

I know my first feeling is one of encouragement and hope, because it can be such a lonely road and the more we are together the stronger we will be and so will be our message.

Amen. And again I say (and feel) Amen. So friends let us keep up the witness for God’s wonderful creation. Entities with more money, energy and probably a more clearly defined strategy will continue doing what they think is the right thing to do. Let us together provide reality checks, theological responses, well coordinated activism, sacrificial and simplified lifestyles, and prayer, especially as we behold the Christ of the cross on this Good Friday.

Ken Gray+

ACEN Secretary

HOLY WEEK

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. (John 3:16 New International Version)

Arguably one of the pivotal verses in the New Testament Canon, John’s explanation of the process and motivation of salvation is striking. Folks have tended to read it anthropocentrically, God loved ‘humanity’ you and me. But the single word ‘world’ is clear. All translations in English use the same word. What ‘world’ constituted in ancient times is debatable, but then and now, it still means all that can be considered beyond the local. It is not hard to include creation, and humanity within it, as the centre of God’s passion, and Christ’s self-giving action Phil 2).

For those concerned with creation, as a mission priority, the connection is easy. God has provided, graciously for our needs and the needs of non-human elements and being within creation. Salvation, specially expressed in Christ’s self-offering affect humans within the broadest realms of creation.

‘Belief’ as set out in this verse is often understood as a gateway to eternal things, to the detriment of current existence and environment. I beg to differ. What God creates, and continues to animate, is a direct expression of God’s creativeness. So consider what we have done with this gift! Consider our silence as others continue to destroy God’s gift.

As a reflection enjoy this clip from St. Paul’s Cathedral in London.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5Akz6J8Rw0

A blessed Holy week to all.

Ken+

WONDER BOX?

OK, I admit, I haven’t a clue what a ‘wonder box’ is. The suggested activity for Thursday, March 21^st is ‘Consider purchasing or making a wonder box.’

So I guess . . . It must be a cooking device, using renewable energy, something like a solar cooker. Maybe it’s a box of foods produced and distributed locally. Possibly such a box is an assembly of food one would give to a friend or neighbour or a special display to inspire a child.

One of the challenges in producing a global awareness programme is using language everyone can appreciate and understand. Sometimes this is easier said than done.

After investigation http://www.iwillprepare.com/cooking_files/Wonder_Box.htm I have learned that a wonder box is a heat retention cooker. After you bring your food to a boil, (so it is heated throughout) using any number of cooking methods, you remove it from the heat source and quickly place the pot inside the wonder box. The major benefit of the Wonder Box is to reduce the fuel you need to cook your meals. One source stated that you can save up to 80% of your needed fuel by using a Wonder Box because the heat used for simmering is eliminated.

Great idea, good effect, all in an effort to reduce fuel consumption, use less energy produced through fossil fuel extraction, and keep carbon in the ground where it belongs.

Ken+

FROM FRANCIS TO PAPUA

Encouraging words from Pope Francis at his installation service:

We are all called to be protectors: “It means protecting all creation, the beauty of the created world… It means respecting each of God’s creatures and respecting the environment in which we live. It means protecting people, showing loving concern for each and every person, especially children, the elderly, those in need, who are often the last we think about.”

Francis called on “all those who have positions of responsibility in economic, political and social life” to be protectors of creation: “To protect creation, to protect every man and every woman, to look upon them with tenderness and love, is to open up a horizon of hope … Let us not allow omens of destruction and death to accompany the advance of this world.”

Taken from a FaceBook post by Dave Bookless A Rocha International

To hear such environmentally supportive language from the leader of the world’s Roman Catholics is encouraging. To suggest the role, for all of us, but especially for the world’s leaders, of protector is timely, appropriate and essential. Now to the stretagy.

How do folks move beyond a conservationist appreciation of nature/creation to a truly transformative process? I often turn to the principalities and powers of Ephesians 6 for inspiration. Forces collude–to keep things the way they are, unless there is a gospel re-ordering of things. Corporations, governments, investors, local leaders, individuals, churches, faith communities need to do things differently. The work is not easy, and there will be resistance. Brace yourself!

Just this morning, another example crossed my desk, this time in West Papua, Indonesia. A colleague wrote:

I find myself this Lent in a new place – my attention has been grabbed by the 50 year saga of West Papua – another story of resource extraction transnationals, together with the Indonesian govt who benefits, destroying the indigenous people and the environment. Even the UN avoids addressing the issue.

Here we go again . . . So we study the situation . . . We investigate in order to advocate, and consider our own connections with such activity, as investors, travellers, as members of various networks.

Here’s a link to Pedaling For Papua, a great initiative from Jeremy, from Western Canada, a totally motivated activist who puts a personal face on a nasty situation. Very cool.

See his video clip at http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Iz0pmwTKYHE&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DIz0pmwTKYHE

What do you think?

Ken+

GET READY FOR THE TWENTY-FIRST OF MARCH (FOCUS ON FORESTS)

OK, it’s not strictly in line with the Carbon Fast Calendar, but this year marks the first International Day of the Forest, ever. An  International Day of Forestry has been around for some 30 years, but this year, we can focus on forests on a single day. I share this a few days prior to the celebration so you can make your own plans.

Forests will play a central role in human attempts to transition towards a sustainable future. The full text of the UN resolution proclaiming the IDOF can be read at http://www.un.org/esa/forests/international-day-of-forests.html . See also the UN forum on Forests at http://www.un.org/esa/forests/ .

It’s purpose is to celebrate and raise awareness of the importance of all types of forest and of trees outside forests. We are encouraged to undertake local, national and international efforts to organize activities involving forests and trees, such as tree planting campaigns.

For those requiring further information, the third chapter in the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) latest report on the State of the World’s Forests includes suggestions for future strategies in realizing the potential contribution for consideration by leaders inside and outside the forest sector at the local, national and global levels. Goto http://www.fao.org/forestry/sofo/en/

In the Anglican Community, readers of this blog will be interested to learn of the work of Land for Life, a ministry run by Andrew and Maria Leake in Argentina. Specifically they work to preserve forest lands threatened by development and support the people who depend on them for their livelihood. For these folks and their work, our prayers continue. A link to a recent newsletter is at http://www.downanddromore.org/cmsfiles/moved/files/l/Land-for-Life-Feb13.pdf

Otherwise, let’s celebrate our forests. Send us some pictures. Here is a link to some of my own in a forest area close to where I live.

http://grayintheforest.smugmug.com/Landscapes/Turkeyless-Thanksgiving-Day/14151352_fvn9N5#!i=1043961110&k=bgCsNPB

Either add a comment with a link to this post, or email me directly at rector@colwoodanglican.ca with your images and I will put up a gallery.

Ken Gray+

A BICYCLE BUILT FOR TWO

This week, the carbon fast is all about transportation, something prized by North Americans as an inalienable right. When I say ‘right’ I mean the ability to travel anywhere, anytime usually at high speeds and without any restrictions.

Cars and trucks are marketed ad-nauseaum as more comfortable, more fuel efficient (not a bad thing), more agile and capable of going anywhere, to the tops of mountains, into the dessert, and here in Canada through any and all kinds of weather. Overcoming the struggle in travel is so . . . Canadian.

The idea of staying home contributes little if nothing to our economy, and let’s just say that you see precious few advertisements with people sitting on the couch reading books. Mobility is where it’s at.

All this has been denied to me personally, as one born legally blind I have never driven a car, flown a plane or even piloted a boat. For some eye conditions technology makes driving possible but not for me. I must wait for the trillion dollar Google Driverless Car http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_driverless_car (I will start saving now).

I have always felt like an outsider, especially on the occasion of my sixteenth birthday when all my friends processed down to the drivers license office for their adolescent rite of passage. Growing up in the mid seventies in Western Canada, the world of the bicycle was remote. I got the bike, they got the girls. Sigh!

Things have certainly changed, as my own city of 300,000 or so persons is replete with bike lanes and biking is now cool. A new consciousness of slower speeds, and a renewed interest in travelling less has taken hold of at least middle class life in the residential sections of our city. The suburbs are another matter. To arrive at one’s destination sweaty and carrying pannier bags no longer elicits puzzled looks. Folks say ‘good for you.’

What I describe above is only a small shift in culture, but the carbon fast is all about small shifts adding up to significant changes. if you and I can change our patterns, others can also, and eventually a huge consumer group can drive cars longer because they use them less. manufacturers and governments will notice. Urban designers can re-discover the role of corner stores and small community centres as places we can walk to and from instead of depending on large shopping malls and office blocks distant from where we live and work.

Schumacher said in the seventies that Small is Beautiful, and you know what, it still is. We don’t need to travel half as much as we presently do, and if I can build my life around a bike, so can you, hence a bicycle ‘built for two.’

Happy riding, Ken Gray+

CHRIST AND CREAATION, TOGETHER – A WORD ABOUT THE ACEN

If blogs, email, social networking and the internet are all about connecting, here’s another connective destination, the Anglican Communion Environmental Network (ACEN).

This blog is initiated through the efforts of two ACEN members, Revs. Ken Gray and Rachel Mash. Both work full time for their respective Anglican churches in Canada and South Africa in parish or justice ministry. Both gather with other Anglicans concerned for creation, in rare instances at face-to-face meetings but primarily through electronic communication.

Anglican Communion General Secretary Canon Kenneth Kearon recently described the networks as the ‘future of the communion.’ Cynics might suggest he did so because networks are cheap. Comprised of volunteers there is only a sole coordinator position associated with networks at the communion level. A more thoughtful interpretation is that networks gather like-minded, ministry focused individuals who make ministry happen.

Such ministry however required coordination, encouragement, resources and a sense of community. The ACEN connects Anglican environmentalists globally through a list serve and through the publication of monthly digests. Digests are archived at http://acen.anglicancommunion.org/resources/digest/index.cfm

What’s in a Digest? Take a browse. Recent headings included

AN INITIATIVE – Carbon Fast Blog attracts Interest

A PUBLICATION – Gandhi, Ecology & World Religions

A MEDIA PROGRAMME – Letters to the future: Eco-justice visions in South Africa

A PROJECT UPDATE – Land for Life, Andrew and Maria Leake in Argentina.

A STUDY RESOURCE – Sabbath Reflections: Capitalism and Inequity versus a Gospel Mandate – a series of seven studies written by Bishop George

AN ACADEMIC PUBLICATION – The Spiritual Dimension of Global Change

AN ORGANIZATION WORTH FOLLOWING – A Rocha – Planetwise

The digest and this blog are a couple of ways the ACEN achieves its aims, thus:

To encourage Anglicans to support sustainable environmental practices as individuals and in the life of their communities.

To provide information about policies embraced by synods, councils and commissions, and especially by the instruments of Unity (Statements by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Resolutions and Reports of the Lambeth Conference and the Anglican Consultative Council)

To support local initiatives by providing information about ideas and best practices developed around the communion.

To share information about resources and initiatives that may be of value to Anglicans everywhere.

To provide an opportunity for interested Anglicans to meet both as a formal network, and informally via electronic media.

So friends, let us encourage one another and strengthen out witness. Let us build up these good works in our local communities, for Christ and creation, together.

Ken Gray+

O HEALING RIVER

As we complete our focus on water, and move towards week three where the theme changes to the ‘face of climate change (see image) we hear a new scripture, from Isaiah 24:4 – 6

The earth dries up and withers, the world languishes and withers, the exalted of the earth languish. The earth is defiled by its people; they have disobeyed the laws, violated the  statutes and broken the everlasting  covenant.

Therefore a curse consumes the earth; its people must bear their guilt.

Therefore earth’s inhabitants are burned up, and very few are left.

As a reflection I hope you will enjoy a folk version of a hymn, now quite popular in the Canadian church:

O healing river, send down your waters,

send down your waters upon this land.

O healing river, send down your waters,

and wash the blood from off the sand.

 

This land is parching, this land is burning,

no seed is growing in the barren ground.

O healing river, send down your waters,

O healing river, send your waters down.

 

Let the seed of freedom awake and flourish,

let the deep roots nourish, let the tall stalks rise.

O healing river, send down your waters,

O healing river, from out of the skies.

Enjoy, Ken Gray+

p.s. a nice choral version is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AiHXEmsk-0U

SOLUTIONS – GREY WATER IRRIGATION

More from Canadian, Stan Parker, on water management.

(If we wait for industry, we falter; if we become industrious and are satisfied with our efforts)

There was a lot of talk a few years ago about gray water irrigation, whereby a household could use water from kitchen, laundry and bath drains for watering lawns and gardens, and thus save using good potable water for such purposes. Another step in reducing one’s footprint on this earth. We thought we’d give it a try.

Our first attempt was a very simple system: the drain hose of the washing machine was led out the laundry room window into a rain barrel, via a length of 2 ½ inch black plastic pipe and a couple of elbow fittings (to go around corners).  We added a submersible sump-pump, a length of garden hose and a garden sprinkler to save having to carry a bucket full of water from the barrel around the garden, several times to empty it.. All this material came from the local hardware store, for a few bucks. When Fall came it was a simply matter to shift the discharge hose back to its original drain, and close the window.

The year we moved to a new house, was a particularly dry summer, and at the same time, there was an influx of new residents in the area. The Regional District imposed watering restrictions, and has since decided to keep them in place permanently. Our solution was simple; just re-install the Gray Water System, unfortunately the new house, didn’t have a window in the laundry! A new system had to be devised. We found that all the drains went into the crawl-space and came together into the main sewer line before exiting the house. It was easy to see which line drained which basin, toilet, bath or appliance.  Cutting the plastic pipes from the baths, shower, wash-basins and sinks (and of course the washing machine) then inserting a Diverter Valve in each was pretty straight-forward. The diverter valves were connected via short pieces of the same plastic pipe we had used before, to a cistern. To be on the safe side we had help from a plumber friend in making sure the connections were water-tight.

The Cistern was made up from two 200 litre plastic barrels connected in series, and the sump-pump placed in the lower of the two barrels.  Closely monitoring the water usage for the first few weeks, we found the cistern needed pumping out only once a week, so a switch was fitted inside the  laundry making it a simple matter of turning on the sump-pump each time the washing machine was used. The garden hose and sprinkler from the previous system were re-used in this new one. At the end of each watering season, one has to remember that the diverter valves must be changed over to the main drains, and the cistern drained and flushed out.

One thing we still avoid, is using Gray Water for fruits and vegetables. This is because we’re not sure if the soap and detergents we use are readily bio-degradable to the extent that they can be directly absorbed by the edible plants, without causing any unwanted side-effects to the food chain. Other than that, we have reduced our footprint, kept a green and flowering garden and saved money for more useful purposes. Oh! And one more thing; green plants absorb carbon-dioxide and produce oxygen.

Stan Parker, Victoria BC, Canada

REALITY CHECK – WATER with a note on WHAT CHURCHES CAN DO

Water

1.1  Billion people worldwide lack access to clean water.

1.8 million children die each year from waterborne diseases – one every 10 seconds.

A ‘toilet’ which tells the story of the local water eco-system on display at the Church of the Advent, Victoria, Canada

5.3 billion people, two thirds of the world’s population, will suffer from water shortages by 2050.

The average American family uses 293 gallons of water per day; the average African family uses 5 gallons.

It is estimated that women in many developing countries walk for an average of about 6 kilometers each day to collect water (United Nations Population Fund, 2002).

Global consumption of water doubles every 20 years – more than twice the rate of human population growth.

In 1966, the UN International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights established the right to water as a human right in Articles 11 and 12.

In 1999, the Dublin Conference on Water and the Environment established four principles that have subsequently guided world water policy:  (1) fresh water is a finite and vulnerable resource; (2) water development and management should be based on a participatory approach, involving users, planners and policy-makers at all levels; (3) women play a central role in the provision, management, and safeguarding of water; (4) water has an economic value in all its competing uses and should be recognized as an economic good.

In 2001, 800 delegates from 35 countries attended the Water for Peace and Nature Summit in Vancouver.  They endorsed and signed the “Treaty Initiative to Share and Protect the Global Water Commons,” which says:  “the intrinsic value of the Earth’s fresh water precedes its utility and commercial value,” and that “the Earth’s water belongs to the Earth and all species, and therefore must not be treated as a private commodity to be bought, sold, and traded for profit.”

While it is obviously true that we need water for basic survival, continuing attempts to categorize water as a “need,” rather than a “right” have been legal attempts to justify privatization – that is to say, companies claim that their mission is to fulfill this basis “need.”

What the Churches Can Do

Church leaders, lay and ordained, must speak directly to government representatives on all levels – local, regional, and national – about the right to safe, clean water and preserving that right as a basic public trust.

Use the water in your baptismal font both as a sacrament and as an educational tool linking spiritual teachings, environmental stewardship practices, and basic human rights.

Invite women in your congregation to share their experiences about the significance of water, its uses, and the issues surrounding it.

Visit nearby wells, streams, and rivers with your congregations and communities to examine and bless the water.

Implement water conservation strategies in your parish church or other places of worship.

Compiled by Canon Jeff Golliher, PhD, and used with thanks.

Ken Gray