9th December 2022
‘You are the Lord, you alone; you have made heaven, the heaven of heavens, with all their host, the earth and all that is on it, the seas and all that is in them. To all of them you give life, and the host of heaven worships you.’ Nehemiah 9:6
Christ is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation; for in him all things in heaven and on earth were created, things visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or powers—all things have been created through him and for him. Colossians 1:15-16
Creator God, forgive us
when we have failed to love all that you create;
when we do not treat creation with respect.;
when we have sought to impose our will – and not yours.
As we wait for the coming of your Son,
help us to show him honour by honouring creation,
to show him care by caring for creation,
and to show him love by loving creation.
Amen.
As the world’s leaders focus on the importance of biodiversity, may we all seek to understand better the importance of biodiversity and the role it plays in our daily lives.
The whale that keeps on giving
The wide vast oceans,
tropical balm and arctic chill,
teem with living things
great and small
And here dwells the whale –
God’s tiller of the sea –
formed to frolic in its deeps
and traverse its lengths.
From an infinitesimal nil
to 200 tonnes of mammalian flesh,
its life spans a century full.
A life of daily gorging and expurgating 10,
nay, 20 tonnes of krill
replenishes the seas with iron,
and spins once more
the phytoplankton’s oxygen giving,
carbon absorbing wheel.
From the depths the whale
redistributes food,
sustaining small fry
that dare not dive so deep.
Migrating between distant poles
and warmer summer seas,
the whale spreads the bounty
of each mouthful it digests
and spins once more
the global food chain’s thread.
Under the whale’s ocean watch,
krill and plankton multiply,
and so God’s worker feeds
5000 mouths and more.
Its leviathan frame
a maritime conveyor belt
of sequestered carbon
that gracefully sweeps the seas
till finally at whale fall
it sinks to rest –
a carbon store
for evermore
upon the ocean bed.
The Lord’s Prayer.
NB Over the last century whale numbers have declined by an average of 64% of which the worst losses have been of blue whales, down by 99%. Scientists are experimenting with reinvigorating the biodiversity of the oceans by the application of artificial whale poo.
The Green Tau 