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Get your church involved in the RSPCA Cupcake Day!

Have some fun and put the cooking talents in your church to use for a good cause. 15th August 2011
Details at:
http://www.rspcacupcakeday.com.au/

Press Release: Canberra City Uniting Church Earns Environmental Award

(Now published at http://www.insights.uca.org.au/news/canberra-city-uniting-church-earns-environmental-award)

Canberra City Uniting Church was honoured for their environmental focus on Sunday with the presentation of a Five Leaf Eco-Award in the category of Eco-Worship.

The Five Leaf Eco-Awards are an ecumenical environmental change program targeting religious institutions, a part of the community that has been largely overlooked by the greater environmental movement. The awards are based on the creation care concept, which treats care for the environment as a basic tenant of religious faith. Armed with this message, the Five Leaf Eco-Awards assist churches in fulfilling set goals related to sustainability and community awareness of environmental issues. Canberra City Uniting Church are the sixth church in Australia, and the first in the ACT, to receive this prestigious award..

The award was presented during the congregation's City at Night service  in order to to acknowledge the particular dedication of this congregation to caring for the environment. This has included participation in a range of working bees that conducted weeding and established an environmental resource room at the Greenhills Centre on Cotter Road and holding discussions on issues around ecological footprints, greening the church and responses to the disappointment felt by many after the  perceived failure of the Copenhagen climate change summit last year. Some members of this congregation are also part of the church’s newly established student house, which was recently energy audited to help its residents live as sustainably as possible.

Rev. Myung Hwa Park accepted the award on behalf of the church. Rev. Park, who trained in eco-theology while living in Ireland and was one of the driving forces behind the campaign for the award, was very proud to see the church recognised.  "Receiving this award makes us feel even more committed to caring for the environmnet, which I see as a crucial responsibility for modern Christians,” Rev. Park said. She is already working on what they can do next, with a Cupcake Day event to raise money for the RSPCA being planned for a City at Night service later this year.

Five Leaf Eco-Awards Director and Canberra resident Jessica Morthorpe, who was there to personally present the award, said she was hopeful that Rev. Park and the Canberra City Uniting congregations would inspire other local churches to get involved in the program. Ms. Morthorpe said, "The word is slowly getting out, currently we have 15 churches nationwide involved in the program, as well as many more who have expressed their interest.

“There are lots of churches out there doing things for the environment that deserve recognition and many others who want to do something but are not sure where to start or need some support and advice. I want to encourage those churches to get involved in the Five Leaf Eco-Awards. In particular, I hope that this award presentation will bring the Five Leaf Eco-Awards to the attention of churches in the ACT region. The awards are based here, so churches in Canberra have the opportunity to invite personal involvement from myself, as well as the existing benefits of being involved in the program.”

For more information on the Five Leaf Eco-Awards visit http://greenchurch.victas.uca.org.au/what-are-churches-doing/five-leaf-eco-awards/ or check out Jessica’s blog at fiveleaf-crownofthorns.blogspot.com.

Image caption: From left: Five Leaf Eco-Awards Director Jessica Morthorpe, Rev. Myung Hwa Park and the City at Night congregation with the church's Eco Worship Award. Image supplied by the Five Leaf Eco-Awards.

Speech from Canberra City Uniting Church Five Leaf Eco-Awards Eco-Worship Award Presentation

Imagine a world where the church has become the leader of society that everyone looks to in order to find greener and more ethical ways of living. Imagine a world where churches have become the centres of their communities by embracing the sustainable agendas of sharing, recycling, reusing and reducing. Imagine a world where the supreme god is not consumerism, the supreme philosophy not capitalism, and the supreme achievement not wealth. Imagine churches spreading ripples of community and social capital out into the world and challenging our individualism and selfishness. Imagine a church that is not a reactive respondent to social concerns, but a proactive leader that forges new ways of living for society and bravely confronts and overcomes change. Imagine a church flocked with young people drawn by the relevance of the eco-theology and sustainable lifestyle messages of the church and engaged in the many environmental programs being run by churches around the world. Imagine a church revitalised, redirected and full of the Holy Spirit going about the Lord’s work in renewing all creation. Imagine the church today responding to this call to convert policy into praxis and words into action.

I know all this is hard to picture, but I suppose what I’m trying to say is that I believe our dreams for the church in this area are currently too small. There are some wonderful churches out there doing things for the environment at the moment, and there have been great successes through programs like community gardens in bringing churches into community and community into churches, yet how often do we think beyond trying to make our own church a little bit more sustainable?

Yet it is essential that we take a leadership role within the environmental movement because ultimately this is not about an ETS or a Carbon Tax, it’s not about multinational corporations or e-waste, it’s not about deforestation or even climate change. These are all important issues, but they are only a part of the problem. The root of all this is a spiritual crisis. Ultimately the ecological crisis is only the visible signs of a spiritual tumour. This is really about what role humanity should play in the global ecosystem. It’s really about the right and wrong of our interactions with other creatures. It’s about what is sacred. And ultimately it's really about who we worship – God or ourselves? The church is in a unique position to answer these questions.

Also, think about the many assets we have as a church: our social capital, the way faith can change people, our moral compass, the power of prayer, our long tradition of respect for the environment throughout the history of the church through leaders like St Francis of Assisi, and our tradition of leading social changes like the abolition of slavery, civil rights and the endangered species act in the USA. We have enormous potential clout, and an incredible ability to create change and act as God’s hands and feet in the world. We have done so many times before, and I believe the Holy Spirit is calling us to do so again, both as a church and as individuals.

Growing up, I never questioned that one person could make a difference.  With the books and movies I watched, it would have been hard to. As a kid, I watched the purple alien Widget the World Watcher save the planet from pollution countless times and was told “the power is yours” by Captain Planet and the Planateers until I believed it. Later, I was inspired by classic heroes like Simba the Lion King, Pocahontas, Frodo, Harry Potter, and Spider Man. I came to particularly love books with unlikely heroes, like Emily Rodda’s Rowan of Rin or Deltora Quest, where Lief, a lowly blacksmith’s son in a kingdom under the oppression of the evil Shadow Lord is sent on a quest to recover the lost gems of the Belt of Deltora, only to eventually find out at the end of the quest that he is the rightful king and the only one who can wield the power of the belt and save the kingdom. It’s a twist you don’t expect, having guessed that just about everyone else in the story might be the king, but never Lief. We are too close to Lief, too familiar with the character, to realise that there is more to him than meets the eye. In the same way, sometimes we don’t realise what we are capable of until we have done it.

We are the people we are for a reason, and God puts us into the places he has assigned for us for a reason. And while God doesn’t need us to bring about God’s will God chooses to use us anyway. In the same way, God could thunder from heaven and save the world from the ecological crisis, but that is not how God works, instead God raises up heroes for just such a time as this, and who knows, maybe you are one of those heroes? You don’t have to do anything big to be a hero.

Every time you recycle a can, fix a leaking tap, or have a shorter shower, you are being a hero. Every time you pull out a plug when you stop using an appliance, buy sustainable seafood or Fairtrade coffee, or tell someone about the importance of acting for the environment, you are being a hero. And by being a part of this congregation and helping Canberra City to earn this award, you have all been heroes. 

For any of you who don’t already know, the Five Leaf Eco-Awards are a pilot ecumenical environmental change program for churches and religious bodies that provides assistance, inspiration and recognition for environmental achievements. I have come here today to present this church with the Five Leaf Eco-Awards Eco-Worship Award in recognition of the many eco-themed services you have held, particularly in this evening service.

Can I please ask Rev. Myung-Hwa Park to come forward to accept this award on behalf of the church?

Thank you, and I look forward to working with you all to achieve more of the awards in the program.

Oh, before I go, a little PS. We are having an open day at Greenhills on the 7^th of August from 1pm – 4pm, and it would be really great if we could get a couple of volunteers to help guide tours around the environmental walks on the site. A script will be provided and it will mean a lot to the people of Greenhills to see some young people from the working bees, retreat etc. participating in the site again like this. Let me know if you can come.

New Salt and Light Issue Available

See pages to view.

Don't forget to get your church involved in the Season of Creation this September!

For more information see: www.seasonofcreation.com/

New Vision Speech

This speech was delivered at the Parramatta- Nepean Uniting Church Adults Fellowship gathering in Sydney on the 16th of July. 

It’s Sunday morning so I drag myself out of bed and ride my bike to church. As I enter the solar panels on the roof glint in the sun and I can see a water tank peeking around the side. I am greeted by a smiling face and handed a newssheet printed on recycled paper. I flick to the environmental tips and events section and scan the offerings. Then I move to a table to place some native flowers and a box of fruit from my garden on it for distribution. I grab a cup of Fairtrade coffee and sit in the sun to enjoy the building’s passive heating. In worship we sing thanks to God for the wonders of creation and as it is September and we are doing the Season of Creation we have an interesting sermon about the need to follow Biblical practices and values in our lives in order to reduce our environmental impact. When we share communion it is with bread made from organic flour and environmentally friendly grape juice. The gentle light of beeswax candles and sunlight illuminate the scene.

In our prayers for others our weekly endangered species prayer is for the endangered frogs we had a talk about at the youth meeting on Friday. We also thank God for the way he has blessed and added to our church through our environmental work.  After the service I pack up my copy of the Green Bible and join the communal lunch. Fresh, local, vegetarian food abounds and is shared with the homeless. After the meal I quickly make a couple of arrangements for the clothes and tool swap next week, then I meet up with the church greening group and we head out to the area of bushland we have adopted for a working bee. Our Christian Environmental Action group is going quite well, with our church teams and local conservation groups making quite a difference by dedicating a few hours per week. It is a testament to the way the church has now taken leadership in the environmental arena.

Ok, so you could say I’m dreaming. Yet increasingly churches are doing many of the things I have just mentioned in what is just one way of imagining what a greener future for the church might be like. Over the last few years, I have had the privilege of working with some of the most innovative and forward thinking churches in this country through the Five Leaf Eco-Awards, and every day I come to believe even more strongly in the importance of the church’s role in forging a new and more sustainable future for all creation. Because, after all, this is God’s creation, and we are God’s people. Who has a better incentive to care for the environment than we do?

When I visit churches, most think it’s a good idea and want to do more for the environment, but they are reluctant to commit to what they often see as just one more thing that needs doing. One minister expressed the sentiment perfectly to a parishioner who wanted their church to get involved recently, saying “that’s great, as long as I don’t have to do any of the work”. In some ways this is fair enough, I know how busy and under-resourced our church leaders (both lay and ordained) are, but today I would like to talk about why greening the church can be seen as an opportunity for growth and revitalisation of the church rather than just more work. The vision for an individual green church is one that I have shared with many people, but now I would like to extend that vision, to challenge you to think about the impact not just of an individual green church, but of the church as a whole, in all its denominations, becoming an eco-leader.

Imagine a world where the church has become a leader of society that everyone looks to in order to find greener and more ethical ways of living. Imagine a world where churches have become the centres of their communities by embracing the sustainable agendas of sharing, recycling, reusing and reducing. Imagine a world where the supreme god is not consumerism, the supreme philosophy not capitalism, and the supreme achievement not wealth. Imagine churches spreading ripples of community and social capital out into the world and challenging our individualism and selfishness. Imagine a church that is not a reactive respondent to social concerns, but a proactive leader that forges new ways of living for society and bravely confronts and overcomes change. Imagine a church flocked with young people drawn by the relevance of its eco-theology and sustainable lifestyle messages and engaged in the many environmental programs being run by churches around the world. Imagine a church revitalised, redirected and full of the Holy Spirit going about the Lord’s work in renewing all creation. Imagine the church today responding to this call to convert policy into praxis and words into action.

I know all this is hard to picture, but I suppose what I’m trying to say is that I believe our dreams for the church in this area are currently too small. There are some wonderful churches out there doing things for the environment at the moment, and there have been great successes through programs like community gardens in bringing churches into community and community into churches, yet how often do we think beyond trying to make our own church a little bit more sustainable?

Unfortunately, we let the train bolt years ago. Over the recent few centuries, we forgot our faith’s long and vital history of caring for creation until we got to the point where suddenly the rest of society started caring about the environment and then started blaming us for the ecological crisis. We realised we better start doing something. Yet even since then, we have reacted slowly and we are still just trying to catch up, especially in Australia. This is particularly disappointing because we may well be the missing piece in the puzzle to make a sustainable future work. A real, long term, sustainable future. I’m talking the bigger picture here, the next 50 – 200 years (if we are still alive), not just policies aimed at dealing with our current problems. We have the science to respond to climate change, but as we have all seen, that is not the problem. The problem is changing the way people think. The problem is making people want to change.

This is where religion comes in. As Sagan said in 1990, “Problems of such magnitude and solutions demanding so broad a perspective must be recognised from the outset as having a religious as well as a scientific dimension... The historical record makes clear that religious teaching, example, and leadership are powerfully able to influence personal conduct and commitment.”

It is essential that the church takes a leadership role within the environmental movement because ultimately this is not about an ETS or a Carbon Tax, it’s not about multinational corporations or e-waste, it’s not about deforestation or even climate change. These are all important issues, but they are only a part of the problem. The root of all this is a spiritual crisis. Ultimately the ecological crisis is only the visible signs of a spiritual tumour. This is really about what role humanity should play in the global ecosystem. It’s really about the right and wrong of our interactions with other creatures. It’s about what is sacred. And ultimately it's really about who we worship – God or ourselves? The church is in a unique position to answer these questions.

Think about the many assets we have as a church: our social capital, the way faith can change people, our moral compass, the power of prayer, our long tradition of respect for the environment throughout the history of the church through leaders like St Francis of Assisi, and our tradition of leading social changes like the abolition of slavery, civil rights and the endangered species act in the USA. We have enormous potential clout, and an enormous ability to create change and act as God’s hands and feet in the world. We have done so many times before, and I believe the Holy Spirit is calling us to do so again. After all, when we have been given all these talents and gifts, isn’t the master going to ask us how we used them when he returns?

It is hard to imagine now, but in the early 18^th century the notions of slavery as an abomination and fighting poverty as a Christian responsibility were simply unthinkable for the majority of the community. It was believed that the poor were poor by the will of God and the rich were favoured by God. This is in spite of Biblical mandates such as proverbs 31: 8-9 which had been handed down since around the fourth century BC. It is strange to think that humanity had so long ignored the intolerable, and even the church has seemed happy with the situation, despite the encouragement of the Bible. It took the power of the Holy Spirit opening the eyes of a small group of people, led by William Wilberforce, and then an immense struggle over thirty years to open the eyes of the rest of the country to bring about the end of the British slave trade in 1807 and then finally, the dream they couldn’t even mention when they started, the emancipation of slaves in 1833, 26 years later and only 3 days before William Wilberforce’s death.

In a similar fashion, I believe God is now calling us to open our eyes to the passages of scripture and the leadings of the Holy Spirit that reveal God’s desire to take this emancipation further. Since the industrial revolution we have often forgotten God’s creation in our haste to achieve progress. And yet there are over a thousand Bible verses that deal with Creation and how it relates to God and Man. We are called to be good stewards and neighbours to God’s creatures; revealing ourselves as children of God by redeeming creation and loving that which God has created and loved. It is a challenge that we all need to rise to, a challenge to make the impossible possible by finding ways for humanity to live in peace and righteousness on God’s earth.

Of course, even if we are inspired and carried away by this new and wonderful sustainable world the Lord is calling us to create, making it happen is still going to take some work. That is why you should get your church involved in the Five Leaf Eco-Awards. After all, the organisation exists to support churches and make their greening work easier. We can provide tonnes of resources, books, weblinks, information, sermon starters and Bible versesyou're your church to use, and we can even do your research or possibly write your sermon for you. Thanks to the Joan Stott UCAF Bursary, I’ve been given the opportunity to study theology at St Mark’s theological college in Canberra, so I’ve been able to really increase the depth of my understanding of the doctrine of creation, animal theology, and both basic and cutting edge eco-theology, all of which I hope to use serving the church. So don’t just struggle through on your own, why not ask if I can give you a hand? After all, Ecclesiastes tells us that two are better than one (Ecc. 4:9-12).  So let us walk into the challenges of the future together, and with faith. 

Thank you.

Breaking News: Crossroads Uniting Church in Werribee, VIC have officially signed up to the Five Leaf Eco-Awards!

Quote of the Day

"Sometimes we despair, we see that nothing changes, and we think, yes, it probably is too late. But then we keep going, because, who knows, we may be wrong." Doug Tompkins in Eco Barons

The Australian Marine Conservation Society's Sustainable Seafood Guide is now available online!

AMCS is proud to offer Australia's Sustainable Seafood Guide Online - the first online sustainability guide in Australia. Developed in response to growing public concerns about the state of our seas, it is designed to help you make informed seafood choices and play a part in swelling the tide for sustainable seafood.

Check it out at:
http://www.sustainableseafood.org.au/Sustainable-Seafood-Guide-Australia.asp?active_page_id=695


Now there is no excuse for buying unsustainable seafood!

Learn about Australia's Biodiversity and Report Sightings

Visit this awesome new website to explore information about Australia's animals and plants and to participate in citizen science by reporting what you have seen.

The Atlas of Living Australia:
http://www.ala.org.au/

PCNV Climate Change Seminar

The next meeting of the Progressive Christian Network of Victoria (PCNV) focuses on one of the most important issues affecting the future of our society - climate change - and asks how progressive Christianity connects with that.

TOPIC: "The Brewing Storm. Eco-justice, Climate Change and what Progressive Theology has to do with it"
SPEAKER: Rev Dr Morag Logan. Dr Logan is a biblical scholar who has also worked on international climate change projects in Europe and brings a special perspective to the issues that confront us.
WHEN: Sunday 15 May, 3.00 pm to 5.00 pm

WHERE: Glen Iris Uniting Church, Glen Iris Rd near High Street, Glen iris.

New Salt and Light Available!

Hi everyone,

Issue 17 (April 2011) of Salt and Light is now available from the "Most Recent Salt and Light" page on this blog or by emailing me.

Enjoy

Palm Sunday Sermon on Creation and Praise

This sermon was delivered at Springwood Uniting Church in NSW on the 17th of April 2011 (Palm Sunday) on the occasion of the presentation of their Five Leaf Eco-Awards Basic Certificate.


“The Lord is king! Let the earth rejoice; Let the many coastlands be glad!” (Psalm 97:1)

“Let the floods clap their hands; Let the hills sing together for joy at the presence of the Lord” (Psalm 98:8-9)

Today we celebrate Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem riding on the back of a donkey colt as he walked over the branches put before them. It is a happy occasion, one we like to re-enact by playing with palm fronds and donkey costumes. But have you ever thought about what we might get out of the story if we looked at it from an environmental perspective? According to the Christian Ecology Link, Jesus’ use of the donkey demonstrates his peaceful and positive mission which includes all God’s creatures and the use of the branches on the road can be linked to the sustainable use of plants and flowers to decorate our churches to the glory of God. But what I want to focus on today is stones that shout.

In Luke 19:37-40, we are told that “the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the deeds of power they had seen, saying ‘Blessed is the king who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven, and glory in the highest heaven!’ Some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to him, ‘Teacher, order your disciples to stop.’ He answered, ‘I tell you, if these were silent, the stones would shout out.’”

As a kid, I really liked that last verse. The idea of stones shouting was so exciting I kinda wished the disciples might have been quiet for a bit, just so the Bible could record the stones themselves actually praising God. Alas, we will never know what the stones would have said, but their readiness to step forward and praise God is significant. Jesus is basically saying that if his human disciples fail to bring sufficient glory to God, the rest of creation will take up the call.

The Psalms tell us many times that creation praises God. For example Psalm 19:1-4 tells us:

1 The heavens declare the glory of God;

the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

2 Day after day they pour forth speech;

night after night they reveal knowledge.

3 They have no speech, they use no words;

no sound is heard from them.

4 Yet their voice[b] goes out into all the earth,

their words to the ends of the world. (NIV)

Psalm 66:4 says: “All the earth worships you; They sing praises to you, Sing praises to your name” and Psalm 96:11-12 says: “Let the heavens be glad, and let the earth rejoice;

Let the sea roar, and all that fills it;

Let the field exult, and everything in it.

Then shall the trees of the forest sing for joy”.

As he often did, in our passage from Luke Jesus has extended the Old Testament understanding to fit a higher ideal. Psalm 150:6 in the Old Testament says, “Let everything that breathes praise the Lord” but Jesus corrects this, bringing even the inanimate objects of creation, like stones, into the family that praises the Lord.

Someone who seemed to intrinsically understand the importance of creation’s service to God was St Francis of Assisi, a man who preached even to birds and wolves, and who called the sun and moon his brother and sister. He follows Jesus’ theme, saying:

“All creatures of our God and king,

Lift up you voice with us and sing,

O brother wind, air, clouds and rain,

By which all creatures ye sustain,

O sister water, flowing clear,

Make music for thy Lord to hear,

Dear mother earth, who day by day

unfoldest blessings on our day,

O praise ye!

Alleluia”

We in the church have a tendency to think of ourselves as the main source of the praise and worship God receives, but in truth, all our praise makes up only a tiny fraction of the total. Just think about it, even though it is beyond our senses, every single rock, tree, bird, fish, blade of grass and stick is singing praises to God. It boggles the mind, doesn’t it? What an incredible chorus of praise that must be to hear, if we had the ears of God.

Of course, this praise is probably not actually in the form of a song. It has been suggested that animals praise God by existing, and by being true to their own design and nature. So a beaver building a dam is praising God, but so is a wolf pack hunting for a deer, or a plant growing towards the sunlight.

So we know that creation praises God faithfully, but it also brings us to praise by bearing a constant silent witness to God for all humankind. In the days before missionaries covered the world, the only way people could know God was through creation. According to Iranaeus (120-202) “the initial step for a soul to come to knowledge of God is contemplation of nature.” Even now, many people come to believe in God through nature before they understand God in a more church-related way. Others, hurt by the church or those in it, find comfort and continuing reassurance of God in nature.

Many people find that rainforests, mountains, wilderness areas, baby animals and other spectacular natural sights make them think of God and lead them to praise. Saint Augustine (354-430) said “some people, in order to discover God, read books. But there is a great book: the very appearance of created things. Look above you! Look below you! Read it. God, whom you want to discover, never wrote that book with ink. Instead He set before your eyes the things that He had made. Can you ask for a louder voice than that?”

The poem ‘I see his blood upon the rose’ by Irish poet Joseph Plunkett reflects how we can see Jesus in nature:

“I see his blood upon the rose

And in the stars the glory of his eyes,

His body gleams amid eternal snows,

His tears fall from the skies.



I see his face in every flower;

The thunder and the singing of the birds

Are but his voice—and carven by his power

Rocks are his written words.



All pathways by his feet are worn,

His strong heart stirs the ever-beating sea,

His crown of thorns is twined with every thorn,

His cross is every tree.”



In contrast, few of us find inspiration in rubbish dumps, grey city streets and recently logged forests. For myself, nature has always been the wellspring of my faith, and a constant call to prayer. Every time I see those rays of sunlight breaking through the clouds that they call the fingers of God – I praise the Lord. Every time I run into a plant or creature, even if it is just a beautiful little insect – I praise the Lord. When I see the seedlings in my garden grow – I praise the Lord. In the sunset, the rain and the waterfall – I see God, and it calls me to praise. I cannot immerse myself in a beautiful forest or grassland without my thoughts turning into a litany of praise. Trap me in a concrete jungle for long enough, I get depressed and my faith life suffers.

Many people respond to nature the same way I do, but not everyone does. We all have our different sources of spiritual connection with God – mine just happens to be nature. But whether yours is or not, it is important to reflect on our actions that impact the environment in the light of the large group of people who suffer spiritually, in addition to physically and psychologically, when nature is degraded.

But what if it is not only animals and people, but God who suffers from environmental degradation? My reflections on creation’s praise of God have led me towards some challenging thoughts. We believe in a great and almighty God. All loving, all powerful, all present, all knowing. A God worthy of praise right? Indeed, not just a God worthy of praise, but a God worthy of as much praise as possible, of all praise. So when I look around and see the destruction we have wrought upon the planet and its creatures, I have to ask – do we have the right to take away God’s praise and worship like this? Because when we kill an animal – be it tiger, shark, elephant or ant, we are removing a creature that praises God.

The next question that raises for me is what happens when we wipe out a species? Does every species have its own unique song or vocal range (like a soprano or an alto in a choir), which we are removing completely from the orchestra when they go extinct? How does God feel about the way this simplifies the tune and reduces its depth? We know God values diversity, otherwise why would God create an estimated between 5 and 8 million species of beetle alone?

I don’t have the answers to these questions, but I keep them in mind as spurs for action. They remind me how important the work I do for the environment is, and keep my passion for working to save endangered species from extinction alive.

So we have started with a celebration, but progressed to something more serious. The triumphant procession of Palm Sunday was a brief window of celebration and joy before Jesus faced the more serious work of the cross. In a similar way, our celebration with, and inspired by, creation has no meaning if it does not inspire us to act.

If you are wondering where to start, there are a series of challenges that arise from what we have discussed. Firstly to celebrate creation by promoting a connection with nature. If nature brings you to praise God, then make sure you experience as much of it as possible. Don’t trap yourself inside. Make some time each week to go out and just ‘be’ with nature, allowing your soul to sing in praise as you watch the flight of a bee or the sway of leaves in the breeze. Give yourself permission to watch the grass grow. Basil the Great (329-79) said “I want creation to penetrate you with so much admiration that wherever you go, the least plant may bring you the clear remembrance of the Creator.”

While you are doing this, be open to what creation can teach you about God. Creation is not God, but God is in creation, and if we look hard enough we can see God there. Psalm 111:2 says, “Great are the works of the Lord, studied by all who delight in them”. Martin Luther and King Solomon agree, saying “Whenever you listen to a nightingale, therefore, you are listening to an excellent preacher” and “Go to the ant, you sluggard, consider its ways and be wise!” (Prov 6:6). According to John Stott’s excellent book, “The Birds Our Teachers”, we can learn faith, repentance, self-esteem, gratitude, freedom, joy, love and more just from birdwatching. Meister Eckhart (1260-1327) says, “If I spend enough time with the tiniest creature – even a caterpillar- I would never have to prepare a sermon. So full of God is every creature.”

Think about every part of nature as belonging to God and praising God. As a Christian, does this change the way you believe you should relate to God’s creatures, and act as steward of the earth’s resources? Through prayer and reflection, think about how you might act on this.

In Saving God’s Green Earth, Tri Robinson says, “God speaks to all of us in many different ways, yet it’s through nature that He so easily grabs our attention. Among other things, Jesus primarily saw nature as a way of illuminating the Gospel and elements that are central to our faith. Parables of seeds, crops, soil, and trees abound in Jesus’ teaching, unfolding deep spiritual truths and revealing elements about God’s nature.... If there’s so much beauty in nature and we experience God speaking to us through it, doesn’t it make sense that the church should lead the way in caring for the environment?” (2006) p43-44

The good news is we are not alone. All around the world, Christians and the Church are rediscovering their connections and indebtedness to nature. Particularly in the UK and US, large movements have started to re-embrace creation theology and more peaceful ways of relating to the environment around us. The church is gearing up to play its part in finding solutions to the ecological crisis, helped along by the belief that at its root, this is really a spiritual crisis.

James Sire (Forward in Van Dyke et al.(1996)) says, “In 1967 Lynn White in his essay ‘The historical roots of the ecological crisis’ laid the responsibility for the crisis squarely on the shoulders of Christians and what he took to be the biblical view of nature. A case can certainly be made that Christians bear a major responsibility for our ecological crisis. But the fault is not their biblical but their unbiblical view of nature. Christians have long failed to understand what the Bible really teaches concerning nature and our responsibility for it. For this there is no excuse. Repentance must be our first response.

Our second response must then be to right the wrongs of our faulty understanding and act accordingly. We are responsible to know what can be known of God’s will for nature, and we are then responsible to act on that knowledge.”

Here in Australia, we are fighting as well, and churches like yours are leading the way in coming to more sustainable and eco-friendly ways of being church. This has brought me here today to present you with the Five Leaf Eco-Awards Basic Certificate for your work in greening your buildings, worship, congregation, outreach and leadership through actions like your water tanks, solar panels and guest speakers.

The Five Leaf Eco-Awards are a pilot ecumenical environmental change program for churches and religious bodies that provides assistance, inspiration and recognition for environmental achievements. There are currently about thirteen churches involved in the program and several more in process of applying for awards. It’s early days yet, but I am excited by the progress we have made so far.

So I wanted to say ‘hi’ today, congratulate you for your achievements, present this award and encourage you to keep fighting the good fight.

If I can now present Janice with this certificate on behalf of the congregation…

Please give yourselves a round of applause.

Clapping

And I hope you will invite me back to present you with more awards in the near future.

Thanks.

It’s not all lost, just remember to compost

By Michael Rhydderch

It is very easy to become disillusioned with what “you” as a single entity can do about Global Warming, or as it’s widely referred to now “Climate Change” (more user-friendly). Most people in the community want to have a positive effect on keeping this Earth in a liveable condition, but with the Government talking about complicated schemes like “carbon tax” and “clean coal” it is easy to become annoyed and confused as to what you can do yourself.

There is no doubt that renewable energy usage like wind and solar power is a big way to move toward the future in our homes. This change is much needed but the reality is that these devices come at an expense. There must be something more that we can do; something that can happen right away without taking too much out of our pocket...

The answer is COMPOST!!! No matter how small the space you live in you can turn your green waste into a useful and tasty bi-product for your garden. 

What is compost and what does it generate

Compost is made from “our” organic waste. It consists mainly from food-wastes, garden refuse (including green clippings and weeds), non-treated wood clippings, coffee and tea waste and many other things.

 Most of what we throw into the bin each week could be instead become compost. Compost is created by the breakdown of organic material by microbes, and it is happening constantly all around us on the forest floor.

The most amazing thing about compost is that you can take waste and make it into something so nutrient rich your plants will be thanking you forever. This product is called humus. Humus is the altered organic material that you put in at the start, broken down with a little bit of bacteria and fungi thrown in (Thompson 2007). It is extremely nutrient rich, will add to your soil organic content hugely and your plants will thrive.

Why should we compost

All of what we put into our rubbish bins ends up at the local landfill.

Landfills are not bottomless pits and they are rapidly running out of room. The last thing anyone wants is a landfill on their doorstep, especially when that is avoidable. Even more problematic than landfills filling up though, is that they can leak. When organic waste from our household breaks down in landfill it does so anaerobically (without air). This means that it turns into an acidic compound. This acidic compound can then break down all the plastic in the landfill, creating a toxic concoction caused leachate. If a landfill is not properly layered with material to prevent this leachate from escaping it will leak out of the landfill into the waterways and potentially into our water supply. There is a bad case of this happening in Rhodes in Sydney. A big issue was how to clean up the land for residential use after so many years of careless dumping of waste, some forms much more toxic than house-hold green waste.

By composting we can reduce over half of what ‘we’ put into our bin each weak, which means, over half of what was ending up in landfill each week is now being recycled into a useful product that will help your plants, vegies and/or herbs thrive at any time of the year.

From global perspective, as waste breaks down in landfill it releases gases, the majority of which are greenhouse gases. The two major gases are carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4). These are commonly known as major climate change contributors, although naturally occurring, because we are increasing their presence in the earth at an unnatural rate.

On average, CO2 makes up 57% of gas released in landfill and methane makes up 40%. Here methane is the concern, because although not widely talked about as CO2 it is actually 27 times more damaging as a greenhouse gas than CO2 (www.environment.nsw.gov.au). So, 40% of the total gases released in landfills being methane is quite significant. Therefore by composting you are actually doing a great deal for the world.

How do we compost, what do we need:

No matter how much space you have in your home you can compost. Whether you’re on a farm, in a suburban family home or an inner city apartment, and anything in between. All that will change is the type of compost design it is most appropriate for you to use.

Here is a simple list of what to put and what not to put in your compost:

IN

Vegetable and food scraps

Fallen leaves (in layers)

Tea leaves and tea bags

Coffee grounds

Vacuum cleaner dust

Soft stems

Dead flowers

Old potting mix

Used vegetable cooking oil

Egg shells

Old newspapers (wet)

Grass cuttings in layers

Weeds

Sawdust (not from treated timber)

Wood ash

Human and animal hair

OUT

Meat and dairy products

Diseased plants

Metals, plastic, glass

Animal manures (especially the droppings of cats and dogs)

Fat

Magazines

Large branches

Weeds that have seeds or underground stems

Bread or cake (may attract mice)

Bones

Sawdust from treated timber

(http://www.cleanup.org.au/PDF/au/cleanupaustralia_factsheet_composting.pdf).

Your compost needs four important components for it to be successful. (Where successful is defined as compost that produces humus, doesn’t smell, and does not produce greenhouse gases.)

Firstly your compost needs carbon, and secondly your compost needs nitrogen. But it is the ratio of carbon to nitrogen that is the key in making it work.

The microbes in the compost need a balanced diet just like we do (Thompson 2007). The microbes need the energy which they get from the carbon and they need the nitrogen to make vital proteins. The ideal C:N ratio is 30:1.

The best way to think of it is to add 30 times as much carbon based waste to the compost as nitrogen.

When you’re thinking carbon, think brown. Dry leaves, wood clippings, hedge clippings, paper, and broken branches. It is important not to have too much carbon though; otherwise your compost will take so long g to break down you will forget about it.

When thinking nitrogen, think green, think moisture. Things like green garden clippings, most leftover food from the house and coffee grinds are rich in nitrogen. Nitrogen is very important but don’t add too much of it or all the moisture can turn your aerobic compost into anaerobic compost. This will start to turn smelly and produce greenhouse gases…..and nobody wants that.

The third thing your compost craves is air. Air is what stops greenhouse gases being produced like they are in landfills. Air helps the microbes in our compost to survive. Once again you need a balance, if there is too much air it will cause the compost to break down very slowly, probably because there will not be enough moisture. On the other hand, if there is an odour coming from your compost, you don’t have enough air. Turning your compost always helps to introduce more air and cut down on the anaerobic processes that may have started.

The fourth thing that compost needs is moisture. The tiny little microbes we need for our compost live inside the films of water. Obviously, as discussed before, if we have too much moisture in our compost this will turn it anaerobic and lead to smelly gassy compost. The aim is for a 50-60% moisture level, which is equivalent to a well wrung out sponge.

So, if you have dry compost, give it a quick spray with water and turn it or add some more nitrogenous material. On the opposite side of the coin, if your compost is too wet any paper or cardboard (not magazines) you have lying around the house will be perfect to add to the compost to dry it out.

Ideally your compost should be layered with tough carbon organic material and soft nitrogen rich material. You can put a few spadefuls of soil in to help the process of the microbes along. Even better would be putting a few spadefuls of compost that has already broken down onto the new heap.

Aim to put the compost in the sunniest part of your backyard and the bigger the better. The bigger the compost is the better the insulation will be, and the more successful your compost will be at making humus. The ideal size is around 1 cubic metre in size (Thompson 2007), which is basically the size of a bin. For the backyard compost, basically you want a paper/cardboard type layer at the bottom, followed by the kitchen wastes/green clippings. After that it can be in any order you like.

A key ingredient that I have not included as of yet are worms. You want worms in your compost. They will keep the air circulating through the compost without you having to turn it all the time. They help the compost breakdown. The few spadefuls of soil you put in will hopefully give you the worms you need to start with.

There are many different ways to construct a composting operation. It is possible to just have the compost in a heap with no cover. The material will compost, though it may take longer to get the final product and there is a higher chance of windblown seeds entering the compost. It is also less tidy. Having an open compost might work for you if you are living on a large area of land, but may not work for you if you have a small backyard. 

There are simple bins that are available, not unlike the bins we use for our garbage. These have an access at the top to put the waste in, and when you want to get to the humus underneath you lift off the whole bin.

It is also possible to go out and buy a fancy compost bin for your home, but is even easier and cheaper to make your own from things you would probably be putting out in the next council clean-up.

All you need to do is create a structure like a bin that has an easy access at the top for you to put the compost in, not too many gaps along the side (otherwise too much air will slow down the process of decomposition), and easy access for you to collect the humus at the end.

Here is a list of things that you can make compost bins from:

1.      Untreated wood-will last a few years, however if in constant contact with moist soil, it will eventually rot.

2.      Treated wood- will last longer than untreated wood, but double check what it is treated with.

3.      Chicken wire/wooden or metal poles- stick the four poles in the ground and wrap the chicken wire around it.

4.      Old tyres- these can be stacked up, providing good access and good insulation.

5.      Bricks/concrete blocks-easy and effective. If you are using untreated wood aim at putting a few bricks or blocks at the base. This will slow the decomposition of the wood.

6.      Cupboards- provide support and easy access.

These are just a few things you can make a compost heap from. I think you get the idea that you can make it from pretty much anything. This is important to know because people can be creative in what they make their compost bin from. They don’t have to go out and buy anything. It is extremely cheap to begin composting.

Composting without a Backyard?

I did mention at the beginning of this article that anyone can compost no matter what their living arrangements are. However most of the options I have talked about (bins, open heaps, and DIY from bricks, wood, concrete or even cupboards) are not suitable for someone living inside an apartment.  This high density style of living does not allow you a lot of room to take up practices like composting.

But all is not lost, you can still compost…..Just think smaller.

Any plastic/metal container around the size of your normal bin can be turned into a compost maker. You want to store it in a warm place, like under the sink, in the sun on the balcony or even in the closet. Punch holes in the sides at the bottom to give it sufficient aeration, and place it on a large tray so it doesn’t get all over the floor the (plastic lid of a large container will do the trick).

Apply the same rules as any other compost. Layer the bottom with carbon rich material, and follow with a nitrogen rich layer and so on. Add some soil (from a friend’s house or anywhere where soil is….which is everywhere). The soil is to add of worms. These wonderful worms will help breakdown the keep the compost nice and aerated. Finally turn the compost every two weeks and you will have successful compost (http://planetgreen.discovery.com/home-garden/apartment-compost-guide.html).

This small compost may take longer than a larger compost to create the final product-humus. But it will work, and while it’s busy doing its thing you are doing your thing for the environment.

It would also be handy to have another spare bucket at your disposal so that when your compost is full and almost ready you can take the top layers of that compost and put it into the next container to help that compost along.

So what do we do now?

Now that we have all this compost, what do we do with it? The first answer is to feed it to your plants. Humus is the “wonder-drug” for you plants. It gives them everything they need for healthy living. It provides all the nutrients they will ever need, helps to keep the soil aerated and retains water for the plant to drink.

If you aren’t growing any plants or vegies/herbs….What a great reason to start! Not only will they thrive with the addition of your humus, you will be having another positive environmental impact on this world. By growing a couple of your own vegetables and herbs you are stopping yourself from buying as many from the supermarket. It is imperative that we support our local farmers, don’t get me wrong, but a lot of the produce we are buying is from overseas. Overseas food produce (which allows us to buy any vegetable, fruit and or herb at any time of the year) is damaging not only to ‘our’ farmers, but there are also has environmental costs to getting that produce here. Therefore, by saving yourself from buying as many vegetables at the supermarket and growing your own, you are saving yourself money, saving food miles, putting your compost to use and also wasting less.

How much compost you create should be more or less be relative to what you could realistically grow in your home. For example: a suburban house with a backyard has the possibility of growing plants as well as vegetables and herbs on a small scale, whereas someone living in an apartment could grow herbs and maybe some climbers on the balcony (eg. snow peas).

Splashing some cash on compost

If your DIY skills are few and far between (like mine), and you don’t feel like testing them, there are fancy compost bins you can purchase that will do the work for you. You won’t have to worry about sorting out the smell and the humus produced, and the compost will be exactly of the same quality as if you constructed your compost out of old tyres.

Here are some examples of things that are out there:                                   

NatureMill Plus- $ 299.                                NautureMill Pro- $399.

                                      

                                                                                                           Figure 2:http://tinychoices.com/2008/06/05/naturemill

Figure 1:http://www.redferret.net/?p=16896

                                      

Both the NatureMill Plus and the NatureMill Pro are electric composters the size of a normal bin. They will heat, mix and aerate your food scraps (though your microorganisms in the compost would normally do most of that anyway), and then deposit the ready humus into a tray at the bottom where you can collect it at your convenience (planetgreen.discovery.com/home-garden/apartment-compost-guide).

The Bokashi Bin- $59

Figure 3:http://www.ecoathome.com.au/Bokashi-Bucket-White-6BBW1060/

The Bokashi Bin is even smaller. At just 20litres this can store up to 3-4 weeks food waste. You need to add microbial inoculants to help the process along. You can either buy this stuff as well, or basically just add some soil. This will still require manual handling but it is a nice and tidy, and not too expensive, way of keeping your compost hidden (planetgreen.discovery.com/home-garden/apartment-compost-guide).

End note from Jessica:

One of the things I learnt on the Christians in Community Gardening Exposure Tour I attended in early April was that compost is like gold for gardeners. Some of the gardens we visited had communal compost heaps so people could put their scraps in and these would be broken down into humus for use on the communal plots of the garden. A good way to get rid of some organic waste people didn’t want I thought. I was wrong. In fact, most of the gardeners in the community garden didn’t use this communal compost heap because their compost was too valuable to them. Instead they had their own small composts within their plots so that their humus could go straight onto their garden plots to enrich their vegies. So I suppose it is time to stop seeing apple cores and potato peelings and waste and start seeing them as gardener’s gold!

Speaking of gardening… I know many of you are expert composters already, so if you have any magic tricks to share with those of us who are just learning, please email me and I will put them in the next issue. And if you have heard most of this before, why not pin a copy of this article to your church notice board so your whole community can get involved? Just don’t fight over the scraps from your next church lunch!

Liked this month’s article? Let me know so I can pass your encouragement on to Mike…

References:

Thompson, Ken.  2007, Compost, Dorling Kingsley Limited, London.

http://www.arrcc.org.au/index.php?option=com_content&view=section&id=16&Itemid=19

http://www.cleanup.org.au/PDF/au/cleanupaustralia_factsheet_composting.pdf

http://www.ecoathome.com.au

www.environment.nsw.gov.au

http://planetgreen.discovery.com/home-garden/apartment-compost-guide.html

http://www.redferret.net

http://sunnyfortuna.com/gardening/soil/humus-compost.htm

http://tinychoices.com