Living Sustainably; Protecting the Earth; Loving God
Author: Judith Russenberger
Environmentalist and theologian, with husband and three grown up children plus one cat, living in London SW14.
I enjoy running and drinking coffee - ideally with a friend or a book.
Ten plus years ago we bought 6 solar panels which have paid for themselves (income earned from generation against capital cost) plus when the sun is shining we have free electricity. We wait for a sunny day before running the washing machine – yesterday we cleared a backlog with two loads and hung out the washing in the south facing bedroom where solar gain aided the drying.
Solar panels, domestic and commercial, are part of the achievable renewal energy revolution.
Today’s Guardian reported on the rewilding of Swindale Beck: ‘For Schofield, an ecologist who is senior site manager at the RSPB in Haweswater, restoring the natural process to the beck was emotional work. “The stream as it was just looked like a canal, with stone banks and levees built up as time passed from years of dredging and dumping material on the sides. So we had to be quite interventionist ourselves, using diggers, creating a channel, removing spoil. For many conservation projects you do not see the results for a very long time, but with this one, we completed it on a Friday. It rained all weekend and on the Monday when we went to look at the beck, there was just this completely restored river, that curved and meandered and looked like it had been there for ever. It was a really powerfully emotional moment.” Within about three months, the rewards continued as salmon began spawning again in the gravel bed, made possible by the slowing down of the stream and the creation of still pools and shallows. Schofield said the restoration had improved numbers of common sandpiper, kingfishers, dippers and grey herons and increased the diversity of invertebrates in the stream.’
Similar rewilding projects are happening across the country including our nearby Beverley Brook. It’s name means beaver meadows indicating who used to inhabit its waters.
Like the last few years, this year has been overshadowed by the ongoing climate crisis. The oddly shaped seasons with an early spring and a long warm autumn and in between a heat melting summer – not just here but across the world. Amazingly the trees and plants that seemed dead during the drought, have bounced back with new growth and new blooms well into November. I am not sure that the birds and insects have been as resilient.
This nativity picture spoke to me of vulnerability, and I feel that the world is in a similarly vulnerable state. It seems that it won’t take much in terms of a temperature rise, to trigger a series of tragedies – disappearing glaciers and ice caps, floods and rising sea levels, burnt out summers, crop failures, hunger and drought. Will we humans look on bemused, and simply fail to act?
In this nativity scene, the onlookers are in awe of this new life, worshipping this gift. They are looking on with love and compassion, and each in their own way will change their lives to care for that new life that lies before them. They will keep a flame of hope alight, not knowing what blaze of glory it will ignite.
Have a happy Christmas filled with love and awe for all that is good in the world. And may 2023 be a year of hope and transformation, a year in which we rise to the challenge of averting the worst of climate crisis, a year in which peace and joy and sufficiency will be our reward.
‘It’s a lifeline’ reported Euronews as it wrote about the colourful letters and postcards that help climate protesters cope with imprisonment here in the UK. Being part of a supportive community helps people be stronger and happier. It helps us be both givers and receivers. It makes for a better world.
Christmas is often a time when we have more to recycle and possibly a reduced collection service. Both recycling bins and recycling lorries have a limited capacity in terms of volume. Now is a good time to see your recycling box as a Tetris puzzle. By careful stacking, interlacing and flattening, how much can you fit it?
The census at Bethlehem by Peter Bruegel the younger 1605-1610
This is the day before Christmas. For some who are skating, spinning tops, fighting with snowballs or supping beer in the impromptu tavern set up in the hollow of a tree trunk, the holiday has already started. Others are still working. Two men improbably are building a house. For others the ‘shopping’ still has to be completed: sacks of corn and barrels are being loaded and despatched. A couple are carrying there stuff home in two large baskets. Food is being prepared. Two pigs are being butchered – one is blocking the inn door. The inn itself has been taken over by officials who are collecting taxes.
Does this feel like your Christmas Eve?
Nevertheless the Christmas mystery is slipping into the scene. Mary and Joseph are arriving, Mary grasping a wicker basket and sat on a donkey. Whether we are ready or not, God always finds a way into our Christmas.
In the tender compassion of our God
the dawn from on high shall break upon us,
To shine on those who dwell in darkness and the shadow of death,
and to guide our feet into the way of peace.
Luke 1:9,10
‘Look, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall name him Emmanuel’,
What an amazing door! I wonder what your front door says about you? Does it suggest a
warm welcome, a place of Christian hospitality?
In many European countries there is a tradition of blessing one’s house on the 6th January when the arrival of the magi is celebrated. The doors or lintels are marked in chalk with the sign of the cross, the year and the letters C M B – Caspar, Melchior and Balthazar or Christus mansionem benedicat, “May Christ bless the house.”
+ 20 + C + M + B + 23 +
Whatever house you enter, first say, “Peace to this house!” Luke 10:5
This painting by Camille Pissarro shows a small space outside the door, where a woman is sewing and at her feet a child playing. A couple of cats mouch about. Just inside the door is a second woman also working with her hands. The vine over the door is not yet in leaf, so perhaps this is early spring and the participants are taking the opportunity to enjoy a little sunshine. There is a blurring of the boundary between inside and outside.
Advent is a cold dark time of the year and we may be reluctant to go outside. But why not wrap up warm and make the most of the daylight hours? It can be a wonderful tonic.
Ginger biscuits have the smell of Christmas. Rather than using just ginger, add other spices too such as cinnamon, allspice and cardamon.
The following is a simple recipe
75g margerine, 2 tablespoons of sugar and 1 tablespoon of syrup. Melt these gently in the microwave.
Add 225g plan in flour plus 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda and 1 tsp of more of your choice of spices. Mix and add oat milk/ the juice of an orange to bind as necessary to for a firming dough.
Chill.
Roll out and cut into shapes.
Bake at 180C until cooked. They will still be slightly soft but leave on the baking tray. This completes the cooking and gives rise to the term biscuit meaning twice cooked.
The Green Tau 