The temperature has dropped, and winter seems to have arrived to show us that Global Warming does not just mean that the summers are warmer. Climate Breakdown is a better word as it also brings vast unpredictability into the mix. Here in Warwick we are investigating ways that we can contribute to improving our ‘footprint’. One practical way to involve ourselves in wider efforts is to work towards the ideals of the EcoChurch movement. We are very small and may struggle to achieve full EcoChurch status but with our lovely garden we should try to commit to the basic principles. We hope to explore this more next year.
If one can foretell the weather from the extraordinary number of berries in the Holly trees, as my family used to believe, we are in for a very very cold winter, but even the trees and the birds may be confused by the changes, and they may have got it wrong. Whatever, now is a time for us all to take great care and avoid burdening the NHS with extra work!
But such unpredictability, created by man’s activities in the world, stretches across so many aspects of our lives. At this time of the year we turn our thoughts to Bethlehem and the story that has meant so much to generations up on generations of people. In the Middle East Christians, Jews and Muslims have coexisted for centuries in a peaceable if at times uneasy relationship that has been prepared to recognise that all three see Jerusalem and Bethlehem as the home of their own view of the world but can share the specialness and even the very buildings with others. Sadly, in that small corner of the globe we can see that a terrifying situation that could threaten us all has been allowed to develop.
Let us all pray for a future of tolerance, peace and security that can extend to all without the suffering that is being brought upon ordinary people by the most appalling modern weaponry. Our armament industries are able now to invent terrible enhancements of their power but do not seem to have the moral and ethical structures in place to control both themselves and the supposedly wise people that we rely on to keep us all safe.
May we hold in our thoughts and prayers all the victims on both sides.