Environment Newsletter for January

Our Diocesan Environmental Officer, Madeleine Holmes, has just circulated this message to the people of the Diocese. It can also be found on the diocesan website.

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My Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ
I pray you had a Christmas Celebration of joy and hope and now wish you every blessing for 2014

We have many challenges to face both in our church life, our personal lives and in the security and caring of our Wonderful World, for which we give thanks to God .

The first challenge will be the debate at General Synod in February on the Environment and the Environment team are working hard to make sure this is a good and encouraging debate. Please pray for this.

Our second challenge is to have taken account of the Report which we had on website last year telling us how the scientists view our progress with caring for our world and to act.

Our next challenge is to continue the progress but press on towards our goal of saving the planet and actually achieving change before the next Summit in Paris in 2015.

We have 24 months until the Paris Summit, the meeting that world leaders have decided will determine the fate of our efforts to fight climate change. It might seem like a long time - it's not.

This is what the experts warned us about. As the earth warms, it creates many "tipping points" that accelerate the warming out of control. Warming thaws the Arctic sea ice, destroying the giant white 'mirror' that reflects heat back into space, which massively heats up the ocean, and melts more ice, and so on. We spin out of control. In 2013 everything -- storms, temperatures -- was off the charts.

I am asking, suggesting, that the Environment features strongly on your Prayer Chains in your churches this year.

Secondly, that you look at the ‘wheel’ below, which was introduced at the Diocesan Environmental Officers' Conference in September by Elizabeth Gentil of Chester Diocese.
Environment WheelWheel in action











Elizabeth suggests you make one of these wheels and display it in your church.  Looking at each section the congregation can monitor what they are doing as a church and perhaps what more they can do.  You could perhaps get the Sunday School children to help make the wheel.  You may well find that you are doing more than you thought, which will encourage you to perhaps stretch and do a little more!

Please let me know how this works for you and send me a report and a picture that we can display as part of a collage on our website. I really care about our planet and I know you do too, so let’s getting cracking!!!!

With love and blessings,
Madeleine
madeleine@peladis.plus.com

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