Judith Russenberger

Counting on 2026 …. Day 24

18th February

Yesterday was Shrove Tuesday when in the past people confessed their sins and were shriven so that they could start Lent free of the burden of guilt.

If in observing Lent, we are following the example of Jesus who prepared for his mission in sharing the gospel by spending 40 days of prayer and fasting in the wilderness, what can the next 7 weeks offer us?

In the wilderness Jesus was totally reliant for his survival on what God could give him and what the wilderness – ie nature – could give him. Through this experience he would have been very close relationship with both God and nature. So is that, I wonder, what we should be aiming for during Lent? A chance to deepen our understanding of, relationship with and reliance on, God and nature?

Green Tau Shrove Tuesday Reflection

17th February 2026

Today is Shrove Tuesday. Shrive comes from the Old English to write, and thence to assign or prescribe, and from that to confess. Today would be a good day to list all the things that we feel are out of kilter in our lives and in the lives of our society, with perhaps a particular focus on those relating to our care of creation.

In the 15th century (and earlier) Shrovetide wasn’t just a Tuesday but was the three days before Ash Wednesday. Three days, including a Sunday, would have given more opportunity for people to formally confess their sins and receive their penance – what they must do to atone for the sins they have committed.

Once shriven – absolved from sin – the penitent was ready to embark on the forty days of Lent: forty days of fasting and observing the penance they had been given.

Fasting is holding back for pleasures and often includes food. Not ‘not eating’ but not eating certain foods, typically meat and dairy products. In many countries the days preceding Ash Wednesday are called Carnival. The name comes from the Medieval Latin ‘carnelevamen’ meaning to put away, to not eat, meat. Not wanting perhaps to waste food, or perhaps to enjoy one last pleasure before the fast began, the days before Lent have becomes days for feasting and merriment. Hence Carnival and shrove Tuesday pancakes! For those of us who are carnivores or vegetarians, giving up meat and dairy products for forty days could be a challenge. In the 15th century it may have been less so – Lent coincided with the lean time of the year when winter supplies had largely been eaten and spring foods had yet to appear. Fasting from meat and dairy products may have been a necessity rather than a choice. But now, as more people swop to plant based diets, the restrictions of Lent can seem less daunting. There is a growing range of plant based foods, recipes, cuisines etc that makes not eating meat no penance.

What then is the purpose of fasting? Fasting can be a way of cultivating self discipline. It can be a way of focusing our awareness on the needs of others: some people opt to limit their food intake to the limited amount that many brothers and sisters ensure as a necessity. Some opt to eat only locally grown produce, such as the Fife diet, as a way of rooting their awareness of local food production. Some might concentrate on foods that adhere to Green Christian’s LOAF principles – local, organic, animal friendly and fairly traded.

Such fasting for Lent shows us how penance can be constructive. It helps us both to address the harm we have caused and to learn new habits to stop us from committing the same sins again. Fasting and penance need not apply just to food. Some people practice a carbon fast, cutting back on activities or use of equipment that has a high carbon footprint. Some might opt out fast from consumerism, and cut back on new purchases, cut out of retail therapy etc. some might fast from work – some of us put work and achievement as a priority in our lives and may wish to spend more time with friends, with family, with nature, with God.

In some cultures past and present, those who were penitent wished to make a clear statement of their decision – their need – to repent and would put on clothing made for sacking, would cut their hair, or go barefoot. Such action strengthened their resolve and was a witness to others for the need for repentance.

If we want to take Lent seriously as a time for re orientating ourselves towards the resurrection and life lived in Christ, then observing Shrove Tuesday as a time to confess our sins and to accepting a penance that will be make good at least some of the harm our sins, is a good starting point. However you may find yourself in a minority with most people deferring such reflection and preparation till Ash Wednesday. Even in the church, Shrovetide has been replaced by ‘pancake day’ and become a day in which to eat pancakes in all shapes and sizes and adorned with all manner of flavourings from the sweet sour lemon and sugar, to the meaty ones of bacon and maple syrup.

Ash Wednesday is the modern Shrovetide.

NB this is based on earlier articles I wrote in 2022 and 2023

Counting on 2026 …. Day 23

17th February

The main cause of climate change is the increase in carbon dioxide emissions – and it is an increase caused by human activities. The following chart shows the annual levels of CO2 emissions measured in parts per million. 350 ppm is the safe planetary boundary. (1)

The second chart shows the correlation between rising levels of CO2 emissions and global temperatures. (2)

Once released into the atmosphere, carbon dioxide remains there for centuries. So it is important to understand not just how much we emit each year, but also how much has already accumulated in the atmosphere and to which we are now adding. The chart below comes from an article produced by Our

World in Data. (3)

Whilst climate deniers may point to periods on the past when temperatures in the UK during the past two thousand years have been higher than average, there has been no period during human history when global temperatures have risen to the levels now seen and nor when carbon emissions HVO been at current levels. We have very clearly passed the safe planetary boundary vis a vis carbon dioxide emissions.

Counting on 2026 …. Day 22

16th February

Of the seven planetary boundaries where we have passed from the safe zone into the unsustainable zone, the last I am writing about is climate change which is subdivided into CO2 concentration and radioactive forcing.

Radioactive forcing is a scientific concept which measures the imbalance between incoming and outgoing energy in Earth’s climate system. When energy from the sun reaches Earth, some reflects back to space while some gets absorbed. The difference between these two creates what scientists call radiative forcing, expressed in watts per square meter (W m⁻²). (1)

Different gases and particles suspended in the atmosphere (aerosols) plus the reflective capacity of the land/ sea surface contribute to this. Of all the gases in the atmosphere carbon dioxide has the greatest impact – absorbing energy (heat) whilst of aerosols sulphur dioxide has the biggest impact reflecting energy/ heat back out of the atmosphere. Thus the dirty smoke from coal power stations and from diesel shipping does in fact cool the planet, and as these sources of air pollution are reduced, there is an ironic increase in temperatures. Sulphur dioxide forms of smog which is harmful to health, often causing premature deaths (pictures of Delhi with obscured views of the city illustrate the density of these particles). (2)

“Scientists have proposed a PB for total anthropogenic radiative forcing at +1.0 W/m², relative to pre-industrial levels. This threshold is based on the climate system’s sensitivity to greenhouse gas forcing, observed responses of polar ice sheets to warming, and growing evidence of climate instability at forcing levels above +1.5 W/m². Exceeding this boundary increases the risk of irreversible climate impacts and long-term system feedback loops.” (3)

We exceeded this safe point in 1986.

https://climatechange.academy/introduction-to-climate-change/radiative-forcing-explained-climate-change/

(2) https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/ckg4d9kq2eno

(3) https://www.planetaryhealthcheck.org/boundary/climate-change/

Sunday before Lent

15th February 2026

Reflection with readings below

Reading today’s passages one thing that struck me was the word ‘liminal’. It is a word that comes from the Latin ‘limen’ meaning a threshold, cross-piece, or sill. It is describes an in between space, somewhere between, say, inside and outside. Or between what has been and what will be. It can be a physical – on the threshold of a door, or in the no-man’s land between borders, or in A and E, between the ambulance and the hospital ward. Or it can be mental – standing on the chancel step as a couple make their wedding vows, or at midnight making New Year’s resolution, or on the edge of the pool preparing to dive in.

Both the story of Moses going up Mount Sinai and of Jesus going up a high mountain have a liminal character. Both Moses and Jesus are momentarily standing outside their normal pattern of daily life. It is as if they are pausing before taking the next momentous step in their journey. For both it is a transformative moment. They both have a close encounter with God. And because we know what happens afterwards, we know that for both this is turning point or rather a point of no return. The gift of the Ten Commandments is a defining moment for God’s people. They may sin and fail, but they cannot undo or un-become God’s people. For Jesus there is no turning back, no disappearing back into the crowd of Galilean peasantry. He is now set in Jerusalem and a confrontation with the powers that be.

The etymology of the word liminal gives us not just the idea of a threshold but also of a cross-piece, which of course suggests the cross. The transfiguration of Jesus prefigures his resurrection which is probably why this gospel passage is chosen for this the last Sunday before Lent.

Can we then see Lent as a liminal period? A time in which we will be on the threshold of what was and what will be, between ‘ordinary time’ and the new era of resurrection? If so, it will also be a time of encounter with God, a time of preparation and empowerment. It will be a turning point, a point of no return, for we are called by God to be an Easter people.

All this reinforces the need for Lent to be a time of prayer, of reflection, of freeing ourselves from unnecessary trappings and letting go of unnecessary burdens, a time of drawing near to God. Lent is a time to ready ourselves for what God is next going to ask of us. Lent is a liminal time when we rediscover or discover a new, what it is to be God’s people, to be participants in bringing in God’s kingdom here on earth.

Exodus 24:12-18

The Lord said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain, and wait there; and I will give you the tablets of stone, with the law and the commandment, which I have written for their instruction.” So Moses set out with his assistant Joshua, and Moses went up into the mountain of God. To the elders he had said, “Wait here for us, until we come to you again; for Aaron and Hur are with you; whoever has a dispute may go to them.”

Then Moses went up on the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain. The glory of the Lord settled on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it for six days; on the seventh day he called to Moses out of the cloud. Now the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel. Moses entered the cloud, and went up on the mountain. Moses was on the mountain for forty days and forty nights.

Psalm 2

1 Why are the nations in an uproar? *
Why do the peoples mutter empty threats?

2 Why do the kings of the earth rise up in revolt,
and the princes plot together, *
against the Lord and against his Anointed?

3 “Let us break their yoke,” they say; *
“let us cast off their bonds from us.”

4 He whose throne is in heaven is laughing; *
the Lord has them in derision.

5 Then he speaks to them in his wrath, *
and his rage fills them with terror.

6 “I myself have set my king *
upon my holy hill of Zion.”

7 Let me announce the decree of the Lord: *
he said to me, “You are my Son;
this day have I begotten you.

8 Ask of me, and I will give you the nations for your inheritance *
and the ends of the earth for your possession.

9 You shall crush them with an iron rod *
and shatter them like a piece of pottery.”

10 And now, you kings, be wise; *
be warned, you rulers of the earth.

11 Submit to the Lord with fear, *
and with trembling bow before him;

12 Lest he be angry and you perish; *
for his wrath is quickly kindled.

13 Happy are they all *
who take refuge in him!

2 Peter 1:16-21

We did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we had been eyewitnesses of his majesty. For he received honour and glory from God the Father when that voice was conveyed to him by the Majestic Glory, saying, “This is my Son, my Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” We ourselves heard this voice come from heaven, while we were with him on the holy mountain.

So we have the prophetic message more fully confirmed. You will do well to be attentive to this as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts. First of all you must understand this, that no prophecy of scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, because no prophecy ever came by human will, but men and women moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.

Matthew 17:1-9

Six days later, Jesus took with him Peter and James and his brother John and led them up a high mountain, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became dazzling white. Suddenly there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. Then Peter said to Jesus, “Lord, it is good for us to be here; if you wish, I will make three dwellings here, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.” While he was still speaking, suddenly a bright cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud a voice said, “This is my Son, the Beloved; with him I am well pleased; listen to him!” When the disciples heard this, they fell to the ground and were overcome by fear. But Jesus came and touched them, saying, “Get up and do not be afraid.” And when they looked up, they saw no one except Jesus himself alone.

As they were coming down the mountain, Jesus ordered them, “Tell no one about the vision until after the Son of Man has been raised from the dead.”

The Joys and Sorrows of Civilisation

14th February 2026

There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. Isaiah 11:1

You Lord, are the source of all good things:

We praise you.

You call us to tend and care for your creation:

May we strive to do your will.

You have made us as brothers and sisters with all that lives:

May we live together in peace.

A reading: So Paul stood up and with a gesture began to speak: ‘You Israelites, and others who fear God, listen. The God of this people Israel chose our ancestors ….. he made David their king. In his testimony about him he said, “I have found David, son of Jesse, to be a man after my heart, who will carry out all my wishes.” Of this man’s posterity God has brought to Israel a Saviour, Jesus, as he promised. Acts 13: 16, 17a, 22b,23

Reflection

Roots secure us to the past, ensure that we are part of the continuity of creation; shoots and branches take our lives forward into the as yet unformed future. Without the next generation there will be no ongoing continuity. The gospels of Luke and Matthew both locate Jesus within a human family tree; the prologue of John’s gospel locates him as co existent with the beginning of all creation. Later in John’s gospel, Jesus affirms his coexistence with the Father and the ongoing coexistence, through him, of all believers, all God’s children.

For gifts of past generations:

We thank you God.

For the gift of fire for cooking and heating

For the gift of clean water and sewers:

We thank you God.

For the domestication of cattle and horses,

Cats and dogs, sheep and pigs,

Hens and geese:

We thank you God.

For the gift of gardening and arable cultivation,

sowing and reaping,

growing and harvesting:

We thank you God.

For the gift of healing and caring,

of medicine and surgery

For the understanding of the intricacies of mind and body:

We thank you God.

For the gift of story telling and drama,

of art and observation

means of sharing grief and joy:

We thank you God.

For the gift of learning and research,

of teaching and sharing:

We thank you God.

For the gift of exploration and endeavour,

of travel and communication:

We thank you God.

For the gift of worship,

of self realisation

and of the knowledge of God:

We thank you God.

But what shall we pass on to generations to come?

Do we offer gifts or burdens?