15th June 2023
Refill stores offer more than just refills of detergents. At the Source I regularly take jars and bottles to fill up with peanut butter, tahini, maple syrup, soy sauce, and olive oil. (I’m still hoping that this will extend to yeast extract!) And as previously mentioned, I can now buy coffee beans from a refill point at the local Artisan café.
Refilling reduces the cost – financial and ecological – of packaging. It is interesting to reflect in why we need packaging.
14th June 2023
Milk and More are supply “Fill” laundry and washing liquids in return and refill bottles. There are an increasing number of shops that offer a refill service for soapy liquids for laundry, dishes and bodies – just take along an empty bottle to fill. Locally we have Apple and Bees in Sheen Lane and the Source Store in Richmond. And if it’s bikes you are cleaning, the London Cycle Workshop has a refill point for bike wash detergent.
Why not find out where or what are your local refill options?
14th June 2023
Milk and More are supply “Fill” laundry and washing liquids in return and refill bottles. There are an increasing number of shops that offer a refill service for soapy liquids for laundry, dishes and bodies – just take along an empty bottle to fill. Locally we have Apple and Bees in Sheen Lane and the Source Store in Richmond. And if it’s bikes you are cleaning, the London Cycle Workshop has a refill point for bike wash detergent.
Why not find out where your local refill outlets are?
13th June 2023
From the Guardian – “Plastic bottled water is a scar on our society,” said David Hall, the UK managing director of Brita. “Plastic bottled water takes about five seconds to make, five minutes to use, and a staggering 500 years to break down in landfill. It’s one of the main culprits of the worldwide plastic pollution crisis.”
Using refilled glass bottles has to be a better solution. The delivery service, Milk and More, includes in its range of products still and sparkling bottled water in bottles that you return to be refilled. They also provide Belvour Farm ginger beer and non alcoholic peach Bellini, and Coca Cola Zero sugar, in return and refill bottles.
12th June 2023
Compostable plates, cups and cutlery is a convenient option for parties, church events etc but disposal is a problem. They don’t go in the paper recycling – although they are similar to paper -but need to be composted at a commercial site where high, controlled temperatures can be maintained. Our garden compost heaps do not get hot enough for long enough.
For small scale applications, waste companies do offer a collection service eg First Mile provided bags and boxes for four separate (precooked) collections for £140 (say £35 per event) – https://www.thefirstmile.co.uk/online-waste-services/business-waste-and-recycling/return-and-recycle-bin-pack
9th June 2023
The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of her hands. Psalm 19:1
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 from Psalm 119: 4-6, 18-19,27:
You, O Lord, have charged that we should diligently keep your commandments.
O that my ways were made so direct that I might keep your statutes.
Then should I not be put to shame, because I have regard for all your commandments.
Open my eyes, that I may see the wonders of your law.
I am a stranger upon earth; hide not your commandments from me.
Make me understand the way of your commandments, and so shall I meditate on your wondrous works.
If the idea of obeying commandments sounds too authoritarian, too black and white, think of God’s commandments as the instruction manual for the world, the user’s guide, best practices for living – or even as an expanded set of the rules of nature.
A further reading from Isaiah 55: 6-9:
As the rain and the snow come down from above, and return not again but water the earth,
‘Bringing forth life and giving growth, seed for sowing and bread to eat,
‘So is my word that goes forth from my mouth; it will not return to me fruitless,
‘But it will accomplish that which I purpose, and succeed in the task I gave it.’
For the sun and moon
that mete out the seasons,
and measure out the days and weeks:
We thank you, Sovereign Creator.
For chlorophyll and photosynthesis,
for leaves and phytoplankton,
that turn sunlight into energy:
We thank you, Sovereign Creator.
For H2O in all its forms,
for evaporation and precipitation that waters the earth
and quickens life.
We thank you, Sovereign Creator.
For the air we breathe,
a fluctuating mix of gases
whose balance must be conserved for life to bloom:
We thank you, Sovereign Creator.
For rocks and mountains,
erosion and sedimentation,
that lays out a rich blanket of soil:
We thank you, Sovereign Creator.
For DNA building blocks
that see life adapt and evolve,
reminders of our network of kinship:
We thank you, Sovereign Creator.
For flora and fauna that twist and twine,
building habitats and
grounding ecosystems:
We thank you, Sovereign Creator.
As ‘Johnny-come-lately’ to this world,
Holy One, grant us the humility to learn from what is already here,
to look with awe and wonder at what is happily established,
to treat with respect ecosystems built up over millennia,
to study and understand the laws of nature,
to observe and respond to the natural cycles that maintain life,
to cooperate with others
and with sensitivity to share this space where all can be at home.
Amen.
The Grace
11th June 2023
Now and then something will make us stop and marvel.
On the window sill in the spare room we have a growing number of cacti, all the offspring of a large cactus that belonged to my grandmother.
As I walked past the door a waft of strongly perfumed scent alerted me that they were blooming. The larger ones may produce one or two blooms a year. They are short lived flowers but make up for that by their vibrancy of the pink petal, their elongated neck, and their overwhelming perfume.
11th June 2023
Reflection (readings are below)
God tells Abraham that though him all nations will be blessed. What an amazing prophecy! And would it not be wonderful if through human actions and behaviour – through living righteously – all nations were be blessed? Is this what God is saying? If all Abraham’s descendants are equally righteous in their way of life, then truly all nations will be blessed – and to enact that prophesy we too need to live lives of righteousness!
Psalm 33 highlights for us some of the features of righteousness – ie rejoicing, honouring God, seeking justice, and regarding God’s creation with awe and wonder.
Can you legislate for righteousness? Laws can be useful for defining right and wrong, for setting limits – but laws can be inflexible and constraining, and they can be manipulated or misused. Currently there are a number of climate activists who have been found guilty of breaking the law not because their actions were felt to be disproportionate to the dangers they were protesting about, but because their motivation was not discussed. The judge had ruled that they would not be allowed to speak about the climate crisis even though that was the reason that they had undertaken the protest. The defendants were in effect prohibited from speaking the ‘whole truth’. The jury were not allowed to hear the full facts of case nor were they allowed to determine whether or not the defendants’ actions were justifiable.
Righteousness is a different kettle of fish. Righteousness – what is right and good – is responsive to the circumstances, is flexible and adaptive, is un-constrained, is life enhancing.
Today’s gospel tells of Jesus calling Matthew to ‘follow me!’. Perhaps initially it was a literal call – follow me to the place where we are going to dine together. Ultimately it was a call to be righteous, a call to follow the lifestyle, the example, of Jesus.
Jesus demonstrated in his life his willingness to be disruptive of social norms and traditional expectations. He would eat with sinners, with outcasts, with those who were disrespected, because God’s love is for everyone and therefore God’s call is that we love everyone. If the social norm is not loving, is not caring of others, then disruptive action is the right response.
We are called by God to follow Jesus, to love our neighbour – whoever or whatever they are – without compromise. And if that means disrupting social niceties, then that is what we are called to do. It is by being righteous, rather than simply law abiding, that we will be a blessing for all nations.
Genesis 12:1-9
Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
So Abram went, as the Lord had told him; and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. Abram took his wife Sarai and his brother’s son Lot, and all the possessions that they had gathered, and the persons whom they had acquired in Haran; and they set forth to go to the land of Canaan. When they had come to the land of Canaan, Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. Then the Lord appeared to Abram, and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built there an altar to the Lord, who had appeared to him. From there he moved on to the hill country on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east; and there he built an altar to the Lord and invoked the name of the Lord. And Abram journeyed on by stages toward the Negeb.
Psalm 33:1-12
1 Rejoice in the Lord, you righteous; *
it is good for the just to sing praises.
2 Praise the Lord with the harp; *
play to him upon the psaltery and lyre.
3 Sing for him a new song; *
sound a fanfare with all your skill upon the trumpet.
4 For the word of the Lord is right, *
and all his works are sure.
5 He loves righteousness and justice; *
the loving-kindness of the Lord fills the whole earth.
6 By the word of the Lord were the heavens made, *
by the breath of his mouth all the heavenly hosts.
7 He gathers up the waters of the ocean as in a water-skin *
and stores up the depths of the sea.
8 Let all the earth fear the Lord; *
let all who dwell in the world stand in awe of him.
9 For he spoke, and it came to pass; *
he commanded, and it stood fast.
10 The Lord brings the will of the nations to naught; *
he thwarts the designs of the peoples.
11 But the Lord’s will stands fast for ever, *
and the designs of his heart from age to age.
12 Happy is the nation whose God is the Lord! *
happy the people he has chosen to be his own!
Romans 4:13-25
The promise that he would inherit the world did not come to Abraham or to his descendants through the law but through the righteousness of faith. If it is the adherents of the law who are to be the heirs, faith is null and the promise is void. For the law brings wrath; but where there is no law, neither is there violation.
For this reason it depends on faith, in order that the promise may rest on grace and be guaranteed to all his descendants, not only to the adherents of the law but also to those who share the faith of Abraham (for he is the father of all of us, as it is written, “I have made you the father of many nations”) —in the presence of the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist. Hoping against hope, he believed that he would become “the father of many nations,” according to what was said, “So numerous shall your descendants be.” He did not weaken in faith when he considered his own body, which was already as good as dead (for he was about a hundred years old), or when he considered the barrenness of Sarah’s womb. No distrust made him waver concerning the promise of God, but he grew strong in his faith as he gave glory to God, being fully convinced that God was able to do what he had promised. Therefore his faith “was reckoned to him as righteousness.” Now the words, “it was reckoned to him,” were written not for his sake alone, but for ours also. It will be reckoned to us who believe in him who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was handed over to death for our trespasses and was raised for our justification.
Matthew 9:9-13, 18-26
As Jesus was walking along, he saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax booth; and he said to him, “Follow me.”
And he got up and followed him. And as he sat at dinner in the house, many tax collectors and sinners came and were sitting with him and his disciples. When the Pharisees saw this, they said to his disciples, “Why does your teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?” But when he heard this, he said, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. Go and learn what this means, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ For I have come to call not the righteous but sinners.”
While he was saying these things to them, suddenly a leader of the synagogue came in and knelt before him, saying, “My daughter has just died; but come and lay your hand on her, and she will live.” And Jesus got up and followed him, with his disciples. Then suddenly a woman who had been suffering from haemorrhages for twelve years came up behind him and touched the fringe of his cloak, for she said to herself, “If I only touch his cloak, I will be made well.” Jesus turned, and seeing her he said, “Take heart, daughter; your faith has made you well.” And instantly the woman was made well. When Jesus came to the leader’s house and saw the flute players and the crowd making a commotion, he said, “Go away; for the girl is not dead but sleeping.” And they laughed at him. But when the crowd had been put outside, he went in and took her by the hand, and the girl got up. And the report of this spread throughout that district.
10th June 2023
Carry a keep-cup or re-usable coffee (or tea) cup and guard against the waste of single use cups. Whilst many cafes do serve their drinks in reusable, ceramic cups or glasses, others offs single use cups instead.
A typical single use cup requires 0.58 litres of water to produce and has a carbon footprint equivalent to up to 60.9 grammes of carbon dioxide ( https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/apr/26/why-britains-25-billion-paper-coffee-cups-are-an-eco-disaster) and as few as 1 in 400 are actually recycled with most ending up,in landfill sites.
NB cups etc labelled as ‘compostable’ will not rot down in a garden compost bin – they need to be recycled via an industrial composting site.
Items labelled as biodegradable will break down but the process may take years and may leave a residue of harmful chemicals. (https://www.biffa.co.uk/biffablog/2021/january/recyclable-compostable-and-biodegradable-what-do-these-mean-for-our-planet)
9th June 2023
Next Friday, 16th June, is World Refill Day – ‘a global day of action to prevent plastic pollution and help people live with less waste. Together with our partners and supporters around the world, we’re building a global movement, inspiring action and demonstrating that the world is ready for a refill and reuse revolution.’
There are simple ways we can all get involved.
Use a refillable water bottle. The trick is to remember to take it with you!
Why pay for water? Tap water in the UK is safe to drink and largely free – there are water refill points at all mainline railway stations, there are refill points in the streets provided by local authorities (eg Bath, London), and most cafes will happily refill your bottle.
Why pay for a plastic bottle that will be used once and may not be recycled? (About 40% of these bottles are not recycled).
The Green Tau 