Church Green Action News from Devon, UK
Items of interest for this month:
1. Exeter Community Food Network is a new forum set up locally in the last year to bring together organisations concerned with tacking food sustainability and poverty in the city. See: http://www.dcga.org.uk/news/exetercommunityfoodnetwork. Through its work Exeternow hopes to join Plymouth in becoming a UK ‘SustainableFood City’! For details see: http://sustainablefoodcities.org/
2. Climate Lobby of Parliament takes place on 17th June with groups and individuals travelling to London from across the region, including a contingent from EcoChurch SouthWest. Do join us if you are going! This is being organised by the Climate Coalition through Christian Aid, CAFOD, Oxfam and other agencies. http://www.theclimatecoalition.org/events/speak-love-climate-lobby
3. News from national Christian green organisations: A Rocha http://arocha.org.uk/; Green Christianshttp://www.greenchristian.org.uk/; Operation Noahhttp://operationnoah.org/; Climate Stewardshttps://www.climatestewards.org/
4. Devon Development Education. June events at the Devon Global Centre in Exeter:
- Thursday 4th June 1pm to 2pm - World at Lunch Special: Exeter's Architectural Geography when Belle Clarke, a final year Geography student at ExeterUniversity, will present her recently completed dissertation on architectural geography.
- Saturday 13th June 7:00pm to 10:00pm - Ugandan Social Evening when Victor Muwanguzi Bukenya together with the Errington Family are hosting a social evening to give you a broad view about the culture, food, schools and welfare of Uganda. Cost £12 per head, to include a typical Ugandan supper, to raise funds for DDE’s Food For Thought, School Linking Programme.
- Wednesday 17th June 7:00pm to 8:30pm - Gown meets Town: Domestic Violence: The Limitations of a Legal Response when Dr Charlotte Bishop (LawSchool, University of Exeter) will highlight the tendency within legal understandings to view domestic violence as an individual problem rather than a social problem, and the ways this has lead to a misplaced focus on physical violence.
- Thursday 18th June 1pm to 2pm - World at Lunch Special when Alex McLaughlin, a postgraduate student atSouthampton University will talk on issues of emissions and Climate Change.
4. Transition Exeter. Many events taking place this month, including Exeter Respect Festival (6-7 June) andRecycle Devon is offering a day (13 June) to help people mend and transform their clothing and household textiles. Please see details: http://us2.campaignarchive.com/?u=49e1e3b9637d9cc876b11e7dd&id=5537f2eaac
5. Paris Summit. James Buchanan has now been appointed at Church House, London to work as Project Coordinator on the pilgrimages to Paris around the UN climate talks in December this year. He would be grateful to know of any plans for upcoming events in Devon around the issue of climate change, and also if you already have plans to participate in the pilgrimage toParis. It is hoped there will be vigils in Exeter and Plymouth Cathedrals during the Summit and also services in other churches too. Worship material is now being collated as we seek to increase the pressure for world leaders to work for a fair, ambitious and binding climate change agreement at the UN. If you now of anything happening please let me know -martyn [dot] goss
exeter [dot] anglican [dot] org
6. Devon Community Renewables have produced a short 4 minute video on the benefits of community energy projects based on local experiences. http://bit.ly/1d2ITc5
7. EcoChurch SouthWest is organising a free day conference on 10th September to explore how churches can produce energy, provide food and use water as part of their community ministry. St. James church, Exeter (flier attached – booking advised)
8. For your interest here is a new five minute film on how we are addicted to fossil fuels and what this means!http://www.filmsforaction.org/watch/300_years_of_fossilfueled_addiction_in_five_minutes/
9. Advance notice. Devon Earth & Faith Network(DEFAN) is holding a workshop with Satish Kumar at the Old Deanery, Exeter on Sunday 1st November form 11.00am. Please note the date now – further details in due course. If you are interested please let me know.
10. God and PV. A brief theological reflection from a local Devon church on making a decision not only based on energy or finance! http://www.dcga.org.uk/news/theologyandsolarpv
Final Quote:
The greatest type of ruler is one of whose existence
the people are hardly aware.
Next best is a leader who is loved and praised.
Next comes the one who is feared.
The worst is the one who is despised.
When a leader doesn’t trust the people,
they will become untrustworthy.
The best leader speaks little.
He never speaks carelessly.
He works without self interest
and leaves no trace.
When the work is accomplished,
the people say: “Amazing:
we did it all by ourselves.
(Lao Tzu)