In 2016 at Synod a motion was passed that each parish should appoint a parish climate catalyst, charged with co-ordinating initiatives for the care of creation in that parish. Their job ‘to encourage, and facilitate education of, parishioners in reducing their individual, household, and community transport emissions.’ A small step but a step in the right direction and every little bit helps.

The physical evidence is that something is going badly wrong with the state of our planet. Scientists claim that our planet is getting warmer. How much of that is anthropogenic (human-generated) and how much is the result of natural forces is debatable, but given that the levels of carbon dioxide, among other nasty’s, in the atmosphere has increased astronomically since we humans came up with a little thing called ‘the Industrial Revolution’, the answer is ‘certainly some of it, probably a lot of it.’

Our planet is getting wetter. Rising global temperatures mean melting icecaps, which in turn lead to rising sea levels. At high tide in the Pacific Islands, salt water comes bubbling up through the low-lying coral atolls and into people’s fields, houses, and fresh water supply. The entire nation of Kiribati (Christmas Is.), with a population of over 100,000 people, is preparing to evacuate permanently to Fiji before their country disappears beneath the waves completely. Tiny Tuvalu’s population of around 10,000 has appealed to the New Zealand government to recognise their status as ‘climate refugees’ and offer them sanctuary here before the same fate befalls their nation. You know something is wrong with our oceans when hundreds of pilot whales are stranding themselves on the beaches.

The huge forest fires in California this year and Australia now annually are a massive "climate crisis" all by themselves, human beings need to take more care not to trigger these and our world needs prayer.

Is there HOPE - yes, ironically Covid-19 helped the planet, it gave it a break from pollution for a few weeks while everyone was in lockdown, the planet got to heal a little bit. World leaders and peoples have accepted and are fighting "climate change" trying to decrease the problem and save the planet. Our own Government we all know has taken steps - planting millions of trees, banning single use plastic bags (which were adding the most to the plastic mess in the oceans) some people have taken it on themselves to lead the way in trying to save the planet and make changes for the better of the world and they should be an inspiration for us all - in that vain I will try to share one of two of the video's I have seen - please note they are longer than usual. Some idea's are radical - if I owned my own property I would forget having a lawn - we don't need neat swathes of green grass that have to be mowed - we need vegetable gardens and native bush. put the vege garden around the house as a fire break and let the rest go native. The only place lawn needs to be is a cricket pitch or a rugby field. There are things you can do to speed up the process and you won't have to go far to pick dinner. At least plant some trees (not conifers), and let the next vechicle you buy be electric or hybrid, electric is expensive, we went hybrid and save heaps on petrol. Get with the program.

This is the world that God made and loves. The problem is that we have been bad stewards. We have been the steward who ‘says to himself “my master is taking a long time in coming,” and begins to beat the menservants and the maidservants, and to eat and drink and get drunk.’ (Luke 12:45). The servant being beaten is our planet. – We need to pray God has mercy on us, and to do what little things we can to shrink our “ecological footprint.”

The Celebration of Sukkot continues and we have included several elements here for those Christians who are choosing to celebrate a Christian version of Sukkot - The Feast of Tabernacles.