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.

Lent Reflection

9th March 2022

Frankincense comes from a genus of tree called Boswellia. It is their fragrant resin that forms the grains of frankincense that are used in churches. it has long been associated with prayer and holiness. These trees grow in the tropical regions of Africa and Asia. The resin also has pharmaceutical uses.

Let my prayer be counted as incense before you, and the lifting up of my hands as the evening sacrifice. Psalm 141:2

Prayer is not asking. It is a longing of the soul. It is a daily admission of one’s weakness. It is better in prayer to have a heart without words than words without a heart. Mahatma Gandhi

Green Tau: issue 36

8th March 2022

Suddenly the war in Ukraine is revealing anew our (in the UK and across the world) dependency in gas and oil and our lack of self reliance in the supply of energy. This week the IPCC issued its most recent support on the world’s position vis a vis the climate crisis and things are not looking good. We are as individuals, companies and governments are not reducing our carbon emissions at anything like the rate needed to safeguard a comfortable future, nor are we doing enough to adapt to those dangers of climate change that are already locked in by our current lifestyles. Surly this is the time to be urgently and radically addressing our production and consumption of carbon emitting energy.

The Need for Fossil Fuel Divestment

Oil and coal both began their existence about 300 million years ago as dead plant materials or marine life. When conditions allowed for anaerobic decay, the first stage of formation began. Later after another 200 millions of years of compression by overlying layers of debris, and exposure to high temperature found at geological depths, the decaying material slowly formed either seams of coal, or reservoirs of oil and/or gas. 

The earliest records of coal being mined and burnt date back to about 200BCE when it was being traded in China as a fuel. In the UK coal was mined and used by the Romans to heat water for their baths as well as for smelting metal.  In the mediaeval period the burning of coal in London was prohibited because of the issues of pollution. It was in the 1700s that the demand for coal rapidly increased as part of the industrial revolution – and has continued to increase across the world. Peak coal production probably  occurred in 2013, when 8 billion tonnes was demanded. Since then global demand has been declining but that is not to gainsay that in some countries demand for coal is still rising. 

The use of oil in the form of asphalt and pitch has been in use for at least 4000 years whilst the refining of crude oil to create, initially, lubricating oil, dates back to 1848. Since then the processing of oil has led to the creation of all sorts of materials – plastics, paints, fabrics, lipstick and nail varnish, weed killers and fertilisers – as well as its use a fuel for heating and for powering all manner of vehicles. Demand for oil has been even greater than that for coal. Peak oil is widely considered to be  imminent but as the date can only be seen in hindsight, its actual date is not yet clear. World oil production was 88.4  million barrels a day in 2020 and 99.5 in 2019.

Coal, oil and gas are major emitters of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that are the root cause of the climate crisis. To contain the adverse affects of the crisis, these emissions need to be reduced to a net zero level by 2050. The International Energy Agency produced in  2021 a report –  Net Zero by 2050: a Roadmap for the Global Energy Sector – outlining the means by which such a target can be achieved. These include an end, as of 2021, to any further investment in new fossil fuel projects, no further sales of new internal combustion engine cars after 2035, and a net zero emissions global electricity sector by 2040.  By 2050 fossil fuel use would be solely in goods where the carbon produced can be embodied, such as recyclable plastics, and in a limited number of areas where  carbon emissions can be captured and where there is no other alternative resource.  (https://www.iea.org/news/pathway-to-critical-and-formidable-goal-of-net-zero-emissions-by-2050-is-narrow-but-brings-huge-benefits) The IEA was clearing stating that no new oil and natural gas fields were needed in this net zero pathway – all necessary supplies of fossil fuels can be met from existing extraction sites.

The imperative is to invest in alternative renewable energies, materials and technologies. Many Christians, individuals and organisations, are doing this as part of their commitment to the care of God’s creation. In the run up to COP26 37 faith institutions in Britain affirmed their decision to divest from fossil fuels investments – ie that they would withdraw from any investments that supported fossil fuels and would maintain that position thereafter. This groups included the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Scotland; the Central Finance Board of the Methodist Church; the Presbyterian Church of Wales; the Presbyterian Church in Ireland; 15 Catholic dioceses in the UK and Ireland, including the Archdioceses of Glasgow, St Andrews & Edinburgh, Birmingham and Southwark; and from the Church of England, the Dioceses of Truro and Sodor & Man. This latter group has since been joined by the dioceses of Bristol, Oxford, Norwich and Durham. (https://brightnow.org.uk/news/global-faith-divestment-announcement-cop26/)

Bright Now, part of Operation Noah, campaigns on the issue of fossil fuel divestment and actively  encourages all parishes and churches to get involved in this campaign, which has at its heart the care of God’s creation. In the parish where I live, Parish funds are (in common with most Anglican churches) invested with CCLA Investment Management Limited, part of The CBF Church of England investment Fund – and as of July 2020, CCLA no longer holds any fossil fuel investments. However my local diocese, The Diocese of Southwark, which holds money on behalf of its parishes, has approximately £2.7 million in fossil fuel investments. This is the largest such holding pertaining to any of the Anglican Dioceses. 

As individuals we may feel we have no fossil fuel investments but (as with my church connections) it is highly likely that we do, even if only indirectly. Many of the companies who supply us with mortgages, insurance, pensions etc also hold investments in fossil fuels. The campaign group, Make My Money Matter, contends that swopping our pensions to a green provider is the most powerful thing we can do to reduce carbon emissions – UK pension funds invest £2.6 trillion on our behalf! (https://makemymoneymatter.co.uk/21x/) It is important that we as consumers ask how our money is being used when we hand it over to the care of others. Our money should be being used to create a better, kinder, just and peaceful world. 

Lent Reflection

8th March 2022

Common Ash Ash Fraxinus Excelsior Tree European Ash

The ash – fraxinus excelsior – is the third most common tree in Britain. it grows to 20m in height – but sometimes even twice that – and can live for 400years, longer still if it is coppiced. Its straight grain and strong flexible wood makes it useful for furniture, tool handles, snooker cues, bows, bell stays and walking sticks. ash keys – its seed – have a wonderful flight pattern, spinning like helicopter wings. The timing of the ash coming into leaf can also serve as a weather forecast:-

“If the oak before the ash, then we’ll only have a splash; if the ash before the oak, then we’ll surely have a soak!”

“To dwellers in a wood, almost every species of tree has its presence voice as well as its feature.” Thomas Hardy, Under the Greenwood Tree

“Then let the trees in the forest sing out in praise, for the Lord is coming to judge the world.” 1 Chronicles 16:33

Lent Reflection

7th March 2022

Pine Tree Scots Pine Pine Organic Single Tree http://www.maxpixel.net

The Scot’s pine – pinus sylvestris – is one of the three conifers native to Britain. It can grow to a height of 35m and can live up to 700 years. Its strong wood is widely used in the construction industry and for ships’ masts, telegraph poles, pit props, fence posts etc. Its resin can be used to make pitch and turpentine. The high resin content of its sap means that the wood is slow to decay.

The Scot’s pine is known as a pioneer tree – a tree that can grow in a hostile environment whilst at the same time making the place more hospitable for other plants.

“Momo listened to everyone and everything – even to the rain and the wind and the pine trees – and all of them spoke to her after their own fashion.” ‘Momo’, Michael Ende

‘The voice of one crying out in the wilderness: “Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight”’ Mark 1:13

Counting on …day 115 

7th March 2022

Another potential garden pest is the aphid. There are about 500 different types of aphid in the UK, most of whom are partial to a particular type of plant: eg the mealy cabbage aphid likes brassicas, the black bean aphid likes broad beans,  and the plum leaf-curling aphid likes plum trees. Whilst they can damage young leaves that one hoped to eat, they do not diminish the  productivity of the plant as much as one would expect. On the other hand aphids do provide food for a large number of other insects – Lady birds, hover flies, lace wings, wasps, earwigs, and beetles. These insects themselves are a source of food for other creatures such as small birds. In other words aphids are an important part of the food chain and an important contributor to biodiversity. 

The RHS recommend various ways of curtailing aphids should that be necessary – eg early in the season when there are fewer predators at hand to keep numbers in check. https://www.rhs.org.uk/biodiversity/aphid-predators

Counting on ….day 114 

6th March 2022

Slugs and snail are not pests but essential members of the garden ecosystem. As well as new shoots (which is where gardeners feel aggrieved) slugs and snails eat dead and rotting leaves, algae, dead animals and even animal faeces. They help keep their local environment clean. They are essential workers in compost heaps. Their own faeces are nitrogen rich and fertilise the soil. 

Slugs and snails are important as food for other creatures, especially birds, frogs and toads,  and hedgehogs. A thriving eco system needs all its key members to be present. 

Gardeners can of course be proactive in choosing when and where and what plants to grow so as to minimise their losses.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/mar/04/planet-friendly-rhs-to-no-longer-class-slugs-and-snails-as-pests

Sunday Reflection

First Sunday of Lent

6th March 2022

Deuteronomy 26:1-11

When you have come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance to possess, and you possess it, and settle in it, you shall take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground, which you harvest from the land that the Lord your God is giving you, and you shall put it in a basket and go to the place that the Lord your God will choose as a dwelling for his name. You shall go to the priest who is in office at that time, and say to him, “Today I declare to the Lord your God that I have come into the land that the Lord swore to our ancestors to give us.” When the priest takes the basket from your hand and sets it down before the altar of the Lord your God, you shall make this response before the Lord your God: “A wandering Aramean was my ancestor; he went down into Egypt and lived there as an alien, few in number, and there he became a great nation, mighty and populous. When the Egyptians treated us harshly and afflicted us, by imposing hard labour on us, we cried to the Lord, the God of our ancestors; the Lord heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. The Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with a terrifying display of power, and with signs and wonders; and he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. So now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground that you, O Lord, have given me.” You shall set it down before the Lord your God and bow down before the Lord your God. Then you, together with the Levites and the aliens who reside among you, shall celebrate with all the bounty that the Lord your God has given to you and to your house.

Psalm 91:1-2, 9-16

1 He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High, *
abides under the shadow of the Almighty.

2 He shall say to the Lord,
“You are my refuge and my stronghold, *
my God in whom I put my trust.”

9 Because you have made the Lord your refuge, *
and the Most High your habitation,

10 There shall no evil happen to you, *
neither shall any plague come near your dwelling.

11 For he shall give his angels charge over you, *
to keep you in all your ways.

12 They shall bear you in their hands, *
lest you dash your foot against a stone.

13 You shall tread upon the lion and adder; *
you shall trample the young lion and the serpent under your feet.

14 Because he is bound to me in love,
therefore will I deliver him; *
I will protect him, because he knows my Name.

15 He shall call upon me, and I will answer him; *
I am with him in trouble;
I will rescue him and bring him to honour.

16 With long life will I satisfy him, *
and show him my salvation.

Romans 10:8b-13

“The word is near you, on your lips and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because if you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For one believes with the heart and so is justified, and one confesses with the mouth and so is saved. The scripture says, “No one who believes in him will be put to shame.” For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; the same Lord is Lord of all and is generous to all who call on him. For, “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

Luke 4:1-13

After his baptism, Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where for forty days he was tempted by the devil. He ate nothing at all during those days, and when they were over, he was famished. The devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command this stone to become a loaf of bread.” Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘One does not live by bread alone.'”

Then the devil led him up and showed him in an instant all the kingdoms of the world. And the devil said to him, “To you I will give their glory and all this authority; for it has been given over to me, and I give it to anyone I please. If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.” Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Worship the Lord your God, and serve only him.'”

Then the devil took him to Jerusalem, and placed him on the pinnacle of the temple, saying to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down from here, for it is written,

‘He will command his angels concerning you, to protect you,’ and ‘On their hands they will bear you up,
so that you will not dash your foot against a stone.'”

Jesus answered him, “It is said, ‘Do not put the Lord your God to the test.'” When the devil had finished every test, he departed from him until an opportune time.

Reflection

“You are my refuge and my stronghold, my God in whom I put my trust.”

What does it mean to put our trust in God? What effect does it have?

The reading from Deuteronomy tells of the richly rewarded life being enjoyed by those who once been wandering Arameans, who had been subject to slavery and oppression a foreign land, but who had slight help from God. But our knowledge of the Book of Exodus would suggest that the people’s trust was not always 100%, that there were times of wavering and doubt. Certainly the teaching that comes from Jesus whilst in the wilderness, is that trusting in God is not about expecting or demanding material gain. 

Today’s psalm from which the opening quote comes, also gives praise to God for the protection and deliverance from evil. It is also the psalm from which the devil quotes as he tries to persuade Jesus to parade God’s power. But trusting God is not about expecting or demanding God to shield us from either danger or our own recklessness. 

The passage from Paul’s letter to the Romans reminds us God’s concern for us is affected by neither our nationality, nor our background. Rather there is but one Lord whom we should honour and who will save us. The divisions of nationality which the devil claims to control, are a false diversion. 

To put our trust in God, is not to expect everything to magically come right in our favour.  It is not to expect that what we want will fall into our laps. To trust in God is not to act carelessly or selfishly, and then expect God to pick up the pieces. To trust in God is not to have predetermined the answer, nor is it to force the issue. To trust in God is to want what God wants – what God wants for our neighbours, what God wants for creation, as well as what God wants for us. 

How do we know what God wants? Prayer; studying the Bible; studying the book of nature;  listening prayerfully with others; paying attention to what builds up the community, to  what enhances life, to  what allows creation to flourish. To love God with all our being, and to love our neighbours as ourself. 

“You are my refuge and my stronghold, my God in whom I put my trust.”

Where does all this find us today? 

How do we reconcile the conflict, the suffering and the destruction we are seeing in Ukraine, with the assertion that God is a refuge, a source of strength and trust? Our hearts ache with concern for the people and whilst we can send aid, we feel helpless. We urgently hope for an end to the hostilities but can so no way of resolution, no quick or easy way of establishing peace. We harbour the fear that this conflict will spill out beyond Ukraine’s borders and that our way of life too will be in peril. How can we pray if we cannot imagine how our prayers can be answered?

Above we noted that trusting in God is likely to be separate from knowing the answer to the problem. Trust is about continuing to hope without knowing. We noted that trusting is not about testing God,  nor trying to force a particular solution. But is is about aligning our selves with God, of endeavouring to want what God wants, to act the way God wants. God wants us to love our neighbours. So we should pray for them. We should give consolation to one another, listen to one another, give each other support. We should give practical support. For the wellbeing of Ukrainians practical support in this instance is best provided through financial donations to charities who can provide the aid they need. Later we may be able to offer more direct help when Ukrainian refugees come into our communities. 

Lent Reflection

Grassland Autumn Forest White Birch Trees

The silver birch – betula pendula – can grow up to 30m in height. Its widely spread roots enables it to draw nutrients from a large area enabling it to grow where the soil’s fertility may initially be low. Its trunk often provides nesting spaces for woodpeckers as well as supporting various types of fungi.

Birch wood is often used in making ply wood. Its bark can be used to make bowls, boxes, baskets and even small boats. 

In Celtic mythology, the silver birch symbolised renewal and purification.

“…the birch trees which grew on this margin of the vast Edgon wilderness had put on their new leaves, delicate as butterflies’ wings and diaphanous as amber.” Thomas Hardy, The Return of the Native, Book VI, Chapter 1

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and put a new and right spirit within me. Psalm 51:10 

 Counting on…113

5th March 2022 

‘Toads which live on Ham Common are currently breeding and will make the 100-metre journey from their habitat to pools on the other side of the road to spawn for approximately three weeks.’ Our local council is temporarily closing this road to ensure the safety of the roads. Toad number have fallen by two thirds over the last 30 plus years largely because of the disappearance of ponds, ditches and wet ground which are part of their natural habitat. Toads are a gardener’s friend because they eat slugs and snails.