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.

Counting on … day 148

22nd September 2025

Lack of political will can also worsen the impact climate change. Ilan Kelman, Professor of Disasters and Health, UCL explains it thus: “The IPCC’s summary entirely avoids the phrase “natural disaster”. This reflects decades of work explaining that disasters are caused by sources of vulnerability – such as unequal and inequitable access to essential services like healthcare or poorly designed or built infrastructure like power plants – rather than by the climate or other environmental influences.

“The [2022 IPCC] report states, with high confidence, that “climate change is contributing to humanitarian crises where climate hazards interact with high vulnerability”. In other words, vulnerability must exist before a crisis can emerge. Climate change is not the root cause of disaster. The report explains that places with “poverty, governance challenges and limited access to basic services and resources, violent conflict and high levels of climate-sensitive livelihoods” are more vulnerable to climate change impacts.”

“The report explains that disaster risk and impacts can be reduced by tackling fundamental issues which cause vulnerability, no matter what the weather and climate do. It places high confidence in risk management, risk sharing, and warning strategies as key tasks for adapting to climate change.” (1)

(1) https://theconversation.com/ipcc-report-how-politics-not-climate-change-is-responsible-for-disasters-and-conflict-178071

Proper 20 14th Sunday after Trinity

21st September 2025

Reflection with readings below

This passages from Jeremiah seems to express both the grief and frustration of God and of Jeremiah – and it is not always clear to the listener which of the two is speaking. But that shouldn’t be surprising as a prophet is someone who is tuned into what God feels and desires, and what God is saying. The closeness of the relationship is both a joy and a stress: joy from sharing in God’s presence; stress from knowing God’s grief over the waywardness of humans. For both God and prophet it is not black and white. It is not as simple as God hating and dispensing with the one who sins, nor as God loving and rewarding the one who is righteous.

In last week’s gospel we noticed that the sinner rescued by God was no different from the ones who didn’t need rescuing. They were all sheep of which one had gone astray. They were all coins of which one had been lost. Nor is either sheep or coin discarded: both are retrieved and loved with an overriding passion. We should not then be surprised to read in Letter to Timothy that Jesus ‘gave himself a ransom for all’. Salvation is salvation for all – not just a few, not just most – but for all.

Knowing that salvation – healing – for all has always been God’s desire. Again from the Letter to Timothy ‘God our Saviour … desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.’

All and everyone is more than just humankind, but envelopes all that God has created. We should not imagine that salvation in just for humans and that other creatures, other living beings – and even ecosystems – are not part of God’s vision of healing and restoration. Indeed if only humans were rescued, life would be very bleak. What delights would we have to eat? What fresh waters would be there for us to drink? What flowers and trees would be there to delight our eyes? What sounds of bird song would enchant our ear?

And yet we humans often live as though all the other parts of creation were of no value and can be ignored, wasted and discarded with no repercussions. We seek to consume ever increasing amounts of the Earth’s resources as if there were no limits to supply. We seek to discard what we don’t want as if  the Earth could endlessly absorb our waste and are surprised when that waste returns to pollute our rivers and coasts! We seek to take more and more land away from wildlife and still expect our fields, hedgerows and gardens to be abounding with wildlife. We seek to fill the atmosphere with more and more carbon dioxide and yet are surprised when this upsets the Earth’s natural balance, triggering rising temperatures and extreme weather events.

Not only that, we also seek to live as if we were the only ones that mattered. That our actions will not affect the lives of others. Bizarrely we seem to believe that if those who are rich get richer, that growing wealth will not make others poorer. Bizarrely we seem to believe that if the rich get to buy more and bigger houses, more and bigger cars, that that will not mean fewer and smaller houses, and  fewer transport options for those who are poorer. Bizarrely we seem to believe that if larger companies take bigger and bigger profits, that smaller companies will not struggle to earn a fair share. Bizarrely we seem to think that if the rich can pay to lobby governments and authorities to shape the world to suit their wants, that those of us who can’t afford to pay lobbyists, will not find their needs excluded from decision making processes.

Yet everything could be so different. 

This week saw the CEO of Barclays calling on the government to curb public sector pay and resist calls to increase taxes in banking profits – this the same Venkatakrishnan, who can ‘earn’ a maximum annual package worth £14.3m, up from £9.8m previously. The average UK income was, in 2024, £37,430 although research suggests that a comfortable income for a family of two adults and one child is around £60,000. 

Would it not be more equitable for everyone to have a sufficiently generous income? 

A report by the Guardian last week revealed that through the privatisation of publication services – such as water, buses, mail, rail and energy – around £200bn has been paid to shareholders, diverting wealth from the common society to a private elite. In effect privatisation has cost £250 per household per year.

Would it not be better for public services to be owned by and run for the benefit of society as a whole? 

We need to use wisdom and discernment, honesty and compassion, if we are to live equally good lives one with another. Truly it is because of God’s wisdom that we are told to love our neighbours as ourselves. Unless we can act with generosity towards one other – both human and non human beings, unless we can work cooperatively with one another, unless we can live within the limits of the Earth’s resources, we are not to find salvation. To live in this way is to truly love God.

This past week the daily reflections from the Centre for Action and Contemplation have been on the theme of love: https://cac.org/daily-meditations/the-work-of-grief-and-love/

Jeremiah 8:18-9:1

My joy is gone, grief is upon me,
my heart is sick. 

Hark, the cry of my poor people
from far and wide in the land: 

“Is the Lord not in Zion?
Is her King not in her?” 

(“Why have they provoked me to anger with their images,
with their foreign idols?”) 

“The harvest is past, the summer is ended,
and we are not saved.” 

For the hurt of my poor people I am hurt,
I mourn, and dismay has taken hold of me. 

Is there no balm in Gilead?
Is there no physician there? 

Why then has the health of my poor people
not been restored? 

O that my head were a spring of water,
and my eyes a fountain of tears, 

so that I might weep day and night
for the slain of my poor people!

Psalm 79:1-9

1 O God, the heathen have come into your inheritance;
they have profaned your holy temple; *
they have made Jerusalem a heap of rubble.

2 They have given the bodies of your servants as food for the birds of the air, *
and the flesh of your faithful ones to the beasts of the field.

3 They have shed their blood like water on every side of Jerusalem, *
and there was no one to bury them.

4 We have become a reproach to our neighbours, *
an object of scorn and derision to those around us.

5 How long will you be angry, O Lord? *
will your fury blaze like fire for ever?

6 Pour out your wrath upon the heathen who have not known you *
and upon the kingdoms that have not called upon your Name.

7 For they have devoured Jacob *
and made his dwelling a ruin.

8 Remember not our past sins;
let your compassion be swift to meet us; *
for we have been brought very low.

9 Help us, O God our Saviour, for the glory of your Name; *
deliver us and forgive us our sins, for your Name’s sake.

1 Timothy 2:1-7

First of all, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone, for kings and all who are in high positions, so that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and dignity. This is right and is acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour, who desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For

there is one God;
there is also one mediator between God and humankind, 

Christ Jesus, himself human,
who gave himself a ransom for all

— this was attested at the right time. For this I was appointed a herald and an apostle (I am telling the truth, I am not lying), a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and truth.

Luke 16:1-13

Jesus said to the disciples, “There was a rich man who had a manager, and charges were brought to him that this man was squandering his property. So he summoned him and said to him, `What is this that I hear about you? Give me an accounting of your management, because you cannot be my manager any longer.’ Then the manager said to himself, `What will I do, now that my master is taking the position away from me? I am not strong enough to dig, and I am ashamed to beg. I have decided what to do so that, when I am dismissed as manager, people may welcome me into their homes.’ So, summoning his master’s debtors one by one, he asked the first, `How much do you owe my master?’ He answered, `A hundred jugs of olive oil.’ He said to him, `Take your bill, sit down quickly, and make it fifty.’ Then he asked another, `And how much do you owe?’ He replied, `A hundred containers of wheat.’ He said to him, `Take your bill and make it eighty.’ And his master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light. And I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of dishonest wealth so that when it is gone, they may welcome you into the eternal homes.

“Whoever is faithful in a very little is faithful also in much; and whoever is dishonest in a very little is dishonest also in much. If then you have not been faithful with the dishonest wealth, who will entrust to you the true riches? And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own? No slave can serve two masters; for a slave will either hate the one and love the other, or be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.”

Prayers for peace

20th September 2025 – tomorrow is the UN day for world peace 

Turn from evil and do good; seek peace and pursue it. Psalm 34:14

You Lord, are the source of all good things: 

We praise you.

You bless us with a world that is good 

and look to us to be peace makers and peace keepers:

May we strive to do your will.

You have made us as brothers and sisters: 

May we live together in peace.

Reading Micah 4: 2- 5

  And many nations shall come and say:
‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord,
    to the house of the God of Jacob;
that he may teach us his ways
    and that we may walk in his paths.’
For out of Zion shall go forth instruction,
    and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

He shall judge between many peoples,
    and shall arbitrate between strong nations far away;
they shall beat their swords into ploughshares,
    and their spears into pruning-hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
    neither shall they learn war any more;

but they shall all sit under their own vines and under their own fig trees,
    and no one shall make them afraid;
    for the mouth of the Lord of hosts has spoken.

For all the peoples walk,
    each in the name of its god,
but we will walk in the name of the Lord our God
    for ever and ever.

We cannot read these words today and not weep with distress and anger at what we have seen and heard these last two years in Gaza and Israel. 

Lord  of mercy and healing, 

be a source of comfort to all who are suffering, 

all who are in pain, all who terrified and fearful, 

all who feel lost and without hope.

Lord in your loving mercy, restore peace on earth.

How can humans allow relationships to sink to this level of violence, hate  and revenge?

Open our hearts and minds to perceive all that eats away at peace.

Pause our snap judgments that cannot see the bigger picture.

Remove our blinkers of prejudice and hate.

Lord in your loving mercy, restore peace on earth.

How can humans created in the image of God, cause such pain and suffering on those equally created in the image of God?

Open our hearts and minds to empathise with those who suffer

Pause our urge to look away and forget

Remove our hardness of heart.

Lord in your loving mercy, restore peace on earth.

How can communities and tribes believe that they can create a better future through warfare and violence?

Open our hearts and minds – and our purses – to rebuild peace: 

To build a world where all have food and homes, 

Where all can work and all can rest,

Where all are loved and all are valued.

Lord in your loving mercy, restore peace on earth.

Devastated by our ignorance and impotence, we realise that we are not the wise and clever people we though we were. 

Transform our urge to disparage and find fault,

Transform our urge to put focus on our own interests,

Transform our lack of will.

Lord in your loving mercy, restore peace on earth.

Peace is not just the absence the war. 

Peace provides clean water and sanitation.

Peace provides an ample sufficiency of healthy food.

Peace provides a loving home.

Peace provides protection from the elements.

Peace provides security from danger and freedom from fear.

Peace provides energy and resources to sustain daily occupations.

Peace provides health care.

Peace provides education.

Peace provides the freedom to worship.

Peace provides the means to listen to others and to tell your own story.

Peace encourages respect.

Peace provides the means to discuss and plan shared futures.

Peace enables fresh food to be grown and harvested.

Peace shares resources equitably.

Peace provides space to rest and time to enjoy friendship.

Peace it is a way of living that provides for the wellbeing of everyone.

Amen.

Counting on … day 147

19th September 2025

Interestingly, lack of political will is seen as a key factor in the failure of governments to address climate change. 

“Political cowardice is hindering European efforts to face up to the effects of the climate crisis, even as the continent is pummelled by a record-breaking heatwave, the EU’s green transition chief [Teresa Ribera]  has warned.…A major part of the problem, she added, was that some political parties “continue to insist, quite vehemently, that climate change does not exist”, or else say that taking decisions to adapt to environmental realities is too expensive. ‘You can’t tell people that climate change is the great existential problem of our generation, and then say, “I’m sorry, we’re not going to do anything”’. (1)

Whilst here in the UK, successive governments are reluctant to enact the recommendations of the Climate Change Committee – a committee set up by Parliament and tasked with researching how the UK can successfully transition to net zero, mitigating our environmental footprint and adapting our infrastructure commensurate with the already built -in  impacts of climate change. Twice now Friends of the Earth and Client Earth have challenged the adequacy of government plans in the courts and won the legal argument. (2) The government has now to issue a new climate plan which should be published October 2025. (3)

(1) https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jul/02/political-cowardice-hindering-europe-climate-efforts-eu-green-chief-teresa-ribera

(2) https://friendsoftheearth.uk/climate/whats-uks-climate-plan-and-why-do-we-need-new-one

(3) https://friendsoftheearth.uk/latest/govt-publish-new-climate-action-plan-october

Counting on … day 146

18th September 2025

Introducing alternative ways of managing our economies will require a high degree of political will – and especially the willingness to shift from short term (before the next election) to long term goals. 

One organisation that has done research on how this can be achieved is Nesta (a UK innovation agency for social good).

“Why long-termism doesn’t often happen…Part of the problem is that so much of our system of government pushes in the opposite direction. Decision makers get stuck in “firefighting traps”, a symptom of which includes focusing on the urgent instead of the important.

“Rather than simply indulge in well-intentioned hand waving about the need for greater long-termism in government, we need practical ways of encouraging future thinking that are hardwired into the system. Fortunately across the globe there are pockets of government innovation where we can find just that.”(1) 

Do read the full article. And ask questions when we next have elections – how will the candidate/ party ensure better long term planning to ensure intergenerational justice?

  1. https://www.nesta.org.uk/blog/how-to-build-long-term-thinking-into-government/

Counting on … day 145

17th September 2025

Intergenerational justice asks us to embrace “the interconnectedness of all things, the recognition of the inherent value of nature and its interdependence with the human world.” (1) Such insights are not new – in 1624 Donne wrote ‘no man is an island’ and in1224  St Francis wrote about all creation as being our brothers and sisters. Rather is seems as if it is our industrial world, our market economy, that has separated our activities into discrete silos. Traditionally economic theory only considered demand and supply of a product and not its impact on society (for good or ill) nor any damage it may cause in terms of pollution or diminishing future supplies. Indeed as regards the latter, a diminishing supply can in fact boost profits for the supplier!

The free market economic model does not protect future generations – it is not even capable of caring for present generations. We need alternative approaches to manage our economies – such as Kate Raworth’s Doughnut Economics (2) (More on this next week).

(1) https://gceurope.org/intergenerational-justice-or-how-to-be-a-good-ancestor/

(2) https://doughnuteconomics.org/about-doughnut-economics

Counting on … day 144

16th September 2025

Intergenerational justice as described by the  United Nations, is grounded in the idea that the “pursuit of welfare by the current generation should not diminish opportunities for a good and decent life for succeeding generations”. For example if a group of islanders cut down all the trees on their island such that none remained for their children to enjoy, that would constitute an intergenerational injustice. (1)

More pertinently in terms of the climate, if the lifestyle of one generation through the burning of fossil fuels, means that their children have to live with unfriendly climatic conditions, then the behaviour of the earlier generation has been unjust vis a vis the subsequent generation. Equally, if one generation farms the land such that its feeds that generation but so damages the soil that it can not provide food for the next, then that too is an instance of intergenerational injustice. 

Intergenerational justice asks us to think and act beyond the short term and consider the long term – that of subsequent generations – to ensure that both present and future generations can live on a healthy planet: “Intergenerational justice states that the rights of past, present and future generations to live on a healthy planet are equal. Nothing future generations will do will affect the present, but everything that happens now will affect the future. In this sense, intergenerational justice requires a radical mindset change that considers the long-term impact of today’s choices and actions, instead of focusing on short-term gains.” (2) 

We are called to be good ancestors now!

  1. https://www.lse.ac.uk/granthaminstitute/explainers/what-is-meant-by-intergenerational-climate-justice/
  2. https://gceurope.org/intergenerational-justice-or-how-to-be-a-good-ancestor/

Counting on … day 143

15th September 2025

Climate inequalities don’t have to be accepted.  Change is possible. Friends of the Earth have produced a report entitles the Big Climate Plan detailing what could be done in the UK to address climate inequalities. (1) And they have produced another report showing how the costs could be met by taxing those causing the climate crisis (2) 

“The “polluter pays” principle is the idea that those most responsible for emissions and pollution should pay the most towards tackling them. The “polluter pays” principle is the idea that those most responsible for emissions and pollution should pay the most towards tackling them.“ 

(1) https://cdn.friendsoftheearth.uk/sites/default/files/downloads/Fairness Report_Friends_of_the_Earth_Digital.pdf

(2) https://friendsoftheearth.uk/climate/taxing-polluters-pay-climate-action

Proper 19, 13th Sunday after Trinity

14th September 2025

Reflection with readings below

Jeremiah’s message was clear: God’s people needed to know how to do good not evil. For when their behaviour was evil, their fruitful land would become a barren desolation. Prophets don’t so much predict the future, as spell out the consequences of different course of behaviour, highlighting what may happen when the wrong course of action is taken – and this is seldom a message people want to hear. The calling of a prophet was – and is – not easy. No one likes being told they’ve got it wrong. Jeremiah was always outspoken in his role as a prophet – regardless of the consequence for his own safety. He ended up being put down an empty well as well as being taken against his will to Egypt.

Jeremiah’s words and actions however came from his deep closeness to God and  his knowledge of God’s wisdom. This wisdom revealed to Jeremiah that when people lived in opposition to God’s will, in opposition to the ways in which the Earth – God’s creation – worked, the results would be suffering and disaster. 

When we read the words of other prophets such as Isaiah (whose words are expounded in this year theme for the Season of Creation – Peace with Creation – Isaiah 32:14-18) we find the same message: when we humans do not engage with God’s wisdom, when we do not pursue justice, when we do not live in harmony with the world God has created, then suffering and disaster ensues. 

For decades now, we humans have been ignoring the consequences of burning ever greater quantities of fossil fuels. We have turned a blind eye to the unjust systems that mean the poorest suffer the most.   We have failed understand that the Earth can not provide a limitless supply of resources to meet our growing appetite for more and more luxuries. If Jeremiah or Isaiah were here today they would be shouting out from the rooftops, calling us to repent and transform the way we live. They would be disrupting our lives with prophetic actions. They would be challenging the systems of rule and money that perpetuate the disregard for God and planet. 

This week Christian Climate Action launched a document entitled ‘Stop Crucifying Creation’ which calls on the Church to take up that same prophetic role exercised by Jeremiah and Isaiah. In response to the accelerating climate crisis and the growing inequalities between rich and poor – both within and between nations – the Church is being called upon to use its corporate position to speak about the truth of these crises, to challenge those in positions of power who are aiding the unfolding suffering and disaster – governments and corporations. The Church is also being called to renew the vision of the early church which sought to nurture loving, caring  and sharing communities.  

Loving, caring and sharing communities have to be places where everyone is included and valued. In today’s gospel story, the Pharisees want to draw a distinction between themselves and those others who were tax collectors and sinners. So Jesus tells the parable of the lost sheep – and then of the lost coin. In each case, the one that is lost is not indistinguishable from the others: the one hundred are all sheep and all to be cared for; the ten coins are all coins to be equally valued. Jesus’s message is a reminder not to ‘other’ the person – or community – that we perceive as not being ‘PLU’s. For those of who are climate activists, we need to remember that fossil fuel directors, insurance brokers and investment bankers are just as important in God’s eyes – not because of what they do but because of who they are: children of God. Indeed as the epistle writer tells us, it is the grace of Jesus that should overflow through us with faith and love. 

And it is the  message of the prophets and the psalmists that God does seek out and care for those who have gone astray so that all may flourish.

Jeremiah 4:11-12, 22-28a

At that time it will be said to this people and to Jerusalem: A hot wind comes from me out of the bare heights in the desert toward my poor people, not to winnow or cleanse– a wind too strong for that. Now it is I who speak in judgment against them.

“For my people are foolish,
they do not know me; 

they are stupid children,
they have no understanding. 

They are skilled in doing evil,
but do not know how to do good.” 

I looked on the earth, and lo, it was waste and void;
and to the heavens, and they had no light. 

I looked on the mountains, and lo, they were quaking,
and all the hills moved to and fro. 

I looked, and lo, there was no one at all,
and all the birds of the air had fled. 

I looked, and lo, the fruitful land was a desert,
and all its cities were laid in ruins
before the Lord, before his fierce anger. 

For thus says the Lord: The whole land shall be a desolation; yet I will not make a full end.

Because of this the earth shall mourn,
and the heavens above grow black; 

for I have spoken, I have purposed;
I have not relented nor will I turn back. 

Psalm 14

1 The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.” *
All are corrupt and commit abominable acts;
there is none who does any good.

2 The Lord looks down from heaven upon us all, *
to see if there is any who is wise,
if there is one who seeks after God.

3 Every one has proved faithless;
all alike have turned bad; *
there is none who does good; no, not one.

4 Have they no knowledge, all those evildoers *
who eat up my people like bread
and do not call upon the Lord?

5 See how they tremble with fear, *
because God is in the company of the righteous.

6 Their aim is to confound the plans of the afflicted, *
but the Lord is their refuge.

7 Oh, that Israel’s deliverance would come out of Zion! *
when the Lord restores the fortunes of his people,
Jacob will rejoice and Israel be glad.

1 Timothy 1:12-17

I am grateful to Christ Jesus our Lord, who has strengthened me, because he judged me faithful and appointed me to his service, even though I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and a man of violence. But I received mercy because I had acted ignorantly in unbelief, and the grace of our Lord overflowed for me with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. The saying is sure and worthy of full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners– of whom I am the foremost. But for that very reason I received mercy, so that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display the utmost patience, making me an example to those who would come to believe in him for eternal life. To the King of the ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honour and glory forever and ever. Amen.

Luke 15:1-10

All the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to Jesus. And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, “This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.”

So he told them this parable: “Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it? When he has found it, he lays it on his shoulders and rejoices. And when he comes home, he calls together his friends and neighbours, saying to them, `Rejoice with me, for I have found my sheep that was lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there will be more joy in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who need no repentance.

“Or what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbours, saying, `Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.’ Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”