Category: Uncategorized

Feast of St Stephen

2 Chronicles 24:20-22

Then the spirit of God took possession of Zechariah son of the priest Jehoiada; he stood above the people and said to them, ‘Thus says God: Why do you transgress the commandments of the Lord, so that you cannot prosper? Because you have forsaken the Lord, he has also forsaken you.’ But they conspired against him, and by command of the king they stoned him to death in the court of the house of the Lord. King Joash did not remember the kindness that Jehoiada, Zechariah’s father, had shown him, but killed his son. As he was dying, he said, ‘May the Lord see and avenge!’

Psalm 31:1-5

1 In you, O Lord, have I taken refuge;
let me never be put to shame; *
deliver me in your righteousness.

2 Incline your ear to me; *
make haste to deliver me.

3 Be my strong rock, a castle to keep me safe,
for you are my crag and my stronghold; *
for the sake of your Name, lead me and guide me.

4 Take me out of the net that they have secretly set for me, *
for you are my tower of strength.

5 Into your hands I commend my spirit, *
for you have redeemed me,
O Lord, O God of truth. 

Acts 7:51-60 

‘You stiff-necked people, uncircumcised in heart and ears, you are for ever opposing the Holy Spirit, just as your ancestors used to do. Which of the prophets did your ancestors not persecute? They killed those who foretold the coming of the Righteous One, and now you have become his betrayers and murderers. You are the ones that received the law as ordained by angels, and yet you have not kept it.’

When they heard these things, they became enraged and ground their teeth at Stephen. But filled with the Holy Spirit, he gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. ‘Look,’ he said, ‘I see the heavens opened and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!’ But they covered their ears, and with a loud shout all rushed together against him. Then they dragged him out of the city and began to stone him; and the witnesses laid their coats at the feet of a young man named Saul. While they were stoning Stephen, he prayed, ‘Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.’ Then he knelt down and cried out in a loud voice, ‘Lord, do not hold this sin against them.’ When he had said this, he died. 

Matthew 10:17-22

     Beware of them, for they will hand you over to councils and flog you in their synagogues; and you will be dragged before governors and kings because of me, as a testimony to them and the Gentiles. When they hand you over, do not worry about how you are to speak or what you are to say; for what you are to say will be given to you at that time; for it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you. Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child, and children will rise against parents and have them put to death; and you will be hated by all because of my name. But the one who endures to the end will be saved.

Reflection 

There is a theme in the readings of people who do not want to hear God’s message when it is not the message they want to hear. 

Is that true of us? And do we then want to kill/ silence the messenger? Certainly there have been messages we have not wanted to hear: the climate emergency warnings of Extinction Rebellion and more recently the campaign of Insulate Britain. The UK government is taking increasingly harsh action to prevent such protests being made. In Hong Kong the umbrella movement was suppressed; in Myanmar opponents of the military have been silenced; environmentalists have been killed in the Philippines. Maybe it is always this way when a minority challengers the status quo. 

The words in Psalm 31 reflects the situation from the view point of the one who is being martyred. And who finds strength in God. 

Persecution and suffering are more prevalent in the Christmas story than we might wish to hear. Mary was likely to have suffered persecution or at least disapprobation, for becoming an unmarried mother. Joseph was likely to have been scorned for marrying such a woman. Zechariah was probably castigated for becoming mute. Both he and Elizabeth may have been frowned upon for naming their son John and not ‘Zechariah’. Herod suffered fear when he heard of a potential new King. The magi had to make an alternative exit. The holy family had to flee for their lives taking up refugee status in Egypt. The young boys of Bethlehem were slaughtered, their families traumatised. Even Simeon’s prophecy in the temple is a mixed message of salvation and suffering.

Even today, Christmas has its mix of suffering. Domestic abuse. Family arguments. Heightened loneliness for some. Depression. And the waste of uneaten food, discarded presents, abandoned pets.

So where is the good news? People are more generous at Christmas time. Giving to charities increases. More effort is made to provide for accommodation for those who are homeless, meals and company for those who are alone, cheer for those in hospitals, and ceasefires where there is fighting. There is the glimmer of hope, a light that can be seen by those walking in darkness. The incarnation means that in Jesus God has experienced viscerally what humanity experiences. Jesus had experienced what Stephen experienced. Stephen was the first Christian martyr and so his feast day is placed next to the feast day that marks the incarnation – the being humanness – of God. 

What the prophets, what Stephen, what Jesus himself, all shared was an immense faith, a belief that even when the odds are against you, God is with you. A conviction that they were doing the right thing, that what they believed  was worth standing up for, that there was some glimmer of hope. In Stephen’s story we hear how, as he dies, he sees Jesus in glory at the right hand of God. We don’t know whether Zechariah had any comparable experience, but he certainly so strong in his faith that he stood up and faced King Joash and asserted his belief that because Joash had gone against God’s will, he, Joash,  would suffer. 

That kind of faith, of hope, shared by Stephen and Zechariah, comes from a deep and close relationship with God – and for Stephen a relationship that had an even greater depth through knowing Jesus. The measure of faith and hope comes, I think, in proportion with the depth and closeness of the relationship. 

The gospel readings at Christmas tell of the incarnation, of Jesus’ birth in Bethlehem, and of mystery of God who has been with creation from the beginning and yet then becoming one with us in human form. The Word, that was from the beginning, is with us now – is born again in us. The Word is one half of a dialogue in which we can grow closer to God. 

Counting on … day 40 

24th December 2021 

A word for whales. Whales are important as tiller of the oceans. They circulate nutrients that are essential parts of the food chain and in particular nutrients needed by phytoplankton. These serve the same function as leaves, absorbing carbon dioxide and sunlight to create oxygen. As we count on whales doing their bit to maintain the global ecosystem, so they should be able to count on us not to harm them. 

However as has been widely reported, various groups are launching a last-chance bid to stop Shell using shockwaves in the Wild Coast of South Africa – a fragile ecosystem that is a vital whale breeding ground. The applicants, which included Greenpeace Africa and fishing groups, had been seeking to stop the survey on the basis it could cause “irreparable harm” to the marine environment, especially to migrating humpback whales in the area. (Yahoo News)

Do check out this Green Peace petition:  https://pages.greenpeaceafrica.org/shell-wild-coast?_ga=2.165965239.820789156.1640103673-781902025.1640103673

Green Tau: issue 28 

22nd December 2021

Sugar sweet?

Sugar cane is the source of about 80% of the sugar consumed across the world. It is a plantation crop that goes back centuries and has a history linked with exploitation and slavery. As a plantation crop it has been responsible for the deforestation of tropical landscapes and as demand for sugar continues to increase this is still on going – especially in Brazil where sugar cane is also grown to produce the fuel ethanol: ‘The Atlantic Forest, or Mata Atlântica in Portuguese, is found on the Atlantic coast of Brazil. It should be full of life, supporting thousands of species of plants and animals, many of which are found nowhere else. It’s different from the Amazon rainforest but equally important. Around 500 years ago it would have covered an area of more than 1.5 million square kilometres. Now, more than 90% of it is gone, cleared mostly for timber, pasture and sugar.’ (https://www.nhm.ac.uk/discover/sugar-a-killer-crop.html)

 Sugar cane occupies approximately 2.4 million hectare world wide. 70% of production is for domestic use (which for example would include the production of ethanol in Brazil) but for some countries the production of sugar for export constitutes a significant part of their national income eg Cuba and Belize. Volatile global prices makes for great uncertainty for local growers/ plantation workers who can do little to control their incomes. Whilst the premium paid through the Fair Trade scheme undoubtedly helps, the production of fair trade sugar – 528,000 tonnes – is a fraction of the 200 million tonnes of sugar  produced globally (2019). 

Sugar cane as a crop, aside from the issue of deforestation, has unwanted adverse affects on people and the environment.

  • it requires large amounts of water, often taking the water away from other crops and  natural vegetation 
  • It requires large amounts of pesticides and fertilisers which flow into the water system damaging other ecosystems 
  • Before harvesting, old leaves are burnt off to assist the harvesting process. This kills wildlife, important natural organisms and pollutes the air. As nutrients in the leaves are burnt rather than being returned to the soil, the fertility of the soil is reduced requiring additional fertilisers to be used
  • It is an annual crop requiring the land to be cleared each year and the exposed soil is then susceptible to loss during the rainy season and with not roots to absorb moister, flooding too increases.
  • It is a labour intensive crop where child labour still happens.

Alternative sugar crops are grown, of which the main one is sugar beet – accounting for about 20% of world production – which is grown mainly in Europe. It too can be reliant on pesticides and fertilisers: organic sugar beet is grown in Europe but not as yet in Britain. Other sugar crops include coconut palms and oil palms where the sap is harvested. 

There is a further downside to all sugars: sugar damages our health, causing major problems such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes and tooth decay. The WHO urges that sugar consumer should be reduced to between 5 and 10% of a person’s daily calorie intake. The NHS advises sugar consumption be limited to less than 30g per day: https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/eat-well/how-does-sugar-in-our-diet-affect-our-health/ Yet sugar consumption globally is still rising. The USA tops the charts with an average consumption of 126.4g per person per day. Britain comes in at number 7 with 93.2g per day (2019).

As well as being concerned about the damage sugar growing causes to the environment and it’s work force, should we be acting to reduce the demand for this commodity?

“Too often, divisions in civil society can be exploited by powerful commercial interests. ‘Don’t go too hard on health, as it will threaten jobs’ or ‘Don’t raise pollution standards, as they’ll be undercut by another country somewhere’ or ‘Don’t mention labour pay rates, or we’ll drop the preferred status.’ Or ‘Don’t stop sugar beet as it’ll affect tourism brought by geese feeding on sugar beet tops in winter’. Such horse-trading happens in realpolitik, of course, but we think now is the time to take the sugar debate back to ecological public health basics: land, labour, capital, health and culture…We see this future food world as one where less not more sugar is produced and consumed, and land use and labour are liberated from the folly of sugar production. This is hardly a vital product. It has been injected into culinary culture on a scale it does not deserve. Nor should a sugar reduction strategy be compensated for by a growth in use of artificial sweeteners which industry constantly seeks. Artificials, whether relatively ‘old’ such as aspartame or ‘new’ such as stevia, merely normalise the sweetening of diet as well as maintain the processing industries’ option to sweeten a product to sell it.”  https://foodresearch.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/8/2015/06/Does-Sugar-Pass-the-Environmental-and-Social-Test-23-june.pdf

 Counting on … day 37

21st December 2021

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? 

Recycling

Paper and card: fold and flatten and place in recycling bin. In the Borough of Richmond, this is the blue box. Cardboard and paper should be clean with plastic tape removed. It should be dry and  free from paint and glue etc – although Richmond’s recycling company says small amounts are not a problem.

Glass: jars and bottles should be rinsed clean before going into the recycling box. In Richmond this is the black box. Lids can be left in place.

Tins: steel and aluminium tin food and drinks can all be recycled. Clean and flatten them (if possible) before placing them in the recycling bin. Again in Richmond this is the black box. You can also recycle aerosol cans. Aluminium foil can also be recycled. Ensure it is clean and squash the foil together to make one lump. This prevents small pieces of foil getting lost.

Batteries and light bulbs: these can usually be recycled at the stores where they are sold. In East Sheen batteries can be recycled at Waitrose, Boots and Robert Dyas and the latter also recycle light bulbs.

Plastics 

Milk cartons and bottles, shampoo and laundry/ cleaning liquid bottles,  ice-cream and margerine tubs, food trays, and yogurt, dessert or cream tubs: these should be cleaned and flattened before being placed in your recycling box. In Richmond this is the black box.  

Plastic bags: these can be recycled at most supermarkets along with other thin plastic wrappings such as from around magazines and toilet rolls, bubble wrap, bread bags and bags for frozen foods.

Scrunchable or soft plastics: these can be recycled at some supermarkets including some Tesco and Sainbury stores and most Co-ops. Local to East Sheen this includes Tesco Metro in Richmond (ask at the customer services desk) the Coop store in Putney and the Coop service station at Roehampton Vale. These plastics include biscuit and sweet wrappers, crisp packets, cling film, plastic bags for salads, pouches from both food and cleaning products, as well as the previously described plastic bags.

Blister packs from medicines etc: these can be recycled at Superdrug – ask at the pharmacy counter.

Polystyrene and plastic foam: these plastics cannot currently be recycled.

Compostable plastic-looking bags: some manufactures pack their newspaper, magazine, dried goods etc in bags made from corn starch or similar. This is not plastic and must not go in with plastics for recycling. It will be clear.y marked as compostable and should go into your garden compost bin or your food recycling bin. Domestic compost heaps don’t reach high temperatures and these bags may take a couple of seasons to break down – be patient!

Compostable cutlery, cups and bowls etc: these may look like plastic, especially the cutlery. They should be marked as compostable and should go into your garden compost bin or your food recycling bin.

Pens: worn out pens including felt tip pens and highlighters are recycled via TerraCycle and can be dropped off at your local Ryman store. 

Postage stamps: you will probably get more of these at this time of year. They are often collected by charities as a means of raising funds. Eg RNIB https://www.rnib.org.uk/donations-and-fundraising/fundraising-your-community/stamps-appeal  and Against Breast Cancer https://www.againstbreastcancer.org.uk/recycling/used-stamps/

Counting on … day 36

20th December 2021

 ‘“Supermarket chains play the role of gatekeeper, deciding how food is produced, the (low) prices paid to farmers and what fills the shelves,” as authors of the People’s Food Policy put it. Based on convenience and the suggestion of low prices, supermarkets maximise profit margins often at the expense of people and the environment.’ This short quote comes from a review of supermarkets by Ethical Consumer + https://www.ethicalconsumer.org/retailers/shopping-guide/supermarkets

If we cannot count on supermarkets to act sustainably, we should we be using our purchasing power to show what kind of world we want to live in. You might choose to subscribe to the Ethical Consumer magazine to keep up to date with the ethical performance of retailers and their products.  

Counting on … day 35

19th December 2021

Mincemeat griddle scone: quick to make without the need to heat the oven.

230g flour (I used spelt) plus 2 tsp baking powder or use self raising flour.  60g vegan butter

Rub the butter into the flour. Mix to a soft dough using vegan milk. Divide the dough into two and roll/pat out each into a circle a little smaller than your frying pan.

Start warming up your frying pan. 

When hot add a little oil and one round of scone mix. Place mincemeat on top of the dough leaving a 2cm edge. Cover with the second round  of dough and press firmly around the edges.

Bake until cooked on the bottom (8-10 minutes). The turn over to cook the other side.