Arts and Crafts Wall
On the panels along the corridor is a display of art and craft relating to the climate and ecological emergencies that has been created by members of our congregation and their friends.
Images from the Arts and Crafts wall.
“Water that blesses”
In the Fellowship Room (on the right) you will find a water themed space in which you can sit, pause and reflect on what you have experienced.
He makes me lie down in green pastures;
he leads me beside still waters;
He restores my soul.
He leads me in right paths for his name’s sake.
Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I fear no evil.
Psalm 23
Irises growing by the pool.
When despair for the world grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water,
and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting with their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.
Wendell Berry
“Using us gently”
When you are ready, move into the Back Hall. Here you will find information about what you could do in response to what you have learned about the climate and ecological emergencies.
We are offering you the opportunity to make a pledge to do something differently in the future (or to acknowledge a change you have already made). Please write your pledge on one of the leaves and then hang it on the central pledge tree. The leaves are made from recycled maps, representative of the planet for which we are caring. After the festival the pledges will be recorded (anonymously) and listed on our website.
Reducing the causes of climate change
is essential to the life of faith.
It is a way to love our neighbour
and to steward the gift of creation."
Archbishop Justin Welby
A pledge leaf on the pledge tree
Refreshments
In the other half of the Hall we are serving refreshments. We have a limited, but varied, choice, catering for all tastes, avoiding waste packaging and extravagant air miles. By keeping it simple we also hope to avoid waste.
On the posters on the walls there is information about the food and drink we commonly consume.
Singing for the Planet
Earlier in the year our church held a series of webinars in which cliamate and environbmental scientists who are also Christians talked about their science and how it affected their faith. We commissioned Manchester hymn writer Andrew Pratt to write a new hymn in response to each talk and these are displayed on blue and green boards in the back hall.
Introductory board and two of Andrew’s hymns.
Rowley Projects
In the UK we tend to regard Climate Change as having a relatively mild effect in the future. Across wide areas of the global south, and particularly in Africa however, it is already having a devastating effect on the lives of some of the world’s poorest people. This is particularly unjust as it is those of us in the more affluent north who are principally responsible.
Rowley Projects is a local charity which has supported a community in Nyandiwa, Western Kenya for over 20 years. That community is increasingly affected by climate change and any profits from this festival will be donated to support Rowley Projects in addressing these. If you would like to make an additional donation you can do so as one of your pledges in the back hall or by visiting their website (www.rowleyprojects.com).
A watertank installed in Kenya with money raised by Rowley Projects
The environment is God's gift to everyone, and in our use of it we have a responsibility towards the poor, towards future generations and towards humanity as a whole.
Pope Benedict
Our green credentials
It is not possible to put on a festival like this without some cost to the environment. It is our belief that this is justified by the broader awareness we can raise within our local community. We have, however, taken steps to reduce that cost. Most of
the flowers are from British sources,
the paper we have used is fully recycled,
our installations and advertising are made from recycled materials and will be disposed of appropriately afterwards.
This guide is printed on 100% recycled paper.
Touch the earth lightly
Touch the earth lightly,
use the earth gently,
nourish the life of the world in our care:
gift of great wonder,
ours to surrender,
trust for the children tomorrow will bear.
We who endanger,
who create hunger,
agents of death for all creatures that live,
we who would foster
clouds of disaster-
God of our planet, forestall and forgive!
Let there be greening,
birth from the burning,
water that blesses and air that is sweet,
health in God's garden,
hope in God's children,
regeneration that peace will complete.
God of all living,
God of all loving,
God of the seedling, the snow and the sun,
teach us, deflect us,
Christ reconnect us,
using us gently, and making us one.
Shirley Erena Murray
Words © 1992 Hope Publishing Company, Illinois. Used with permission (Licence Number RP021221-1).
As you leave …
Why not visit our thrift shop for a spot of recycling?
