The Green Chalice by Mark Coleman

The Guardian reports that global C02 emissions totalled 29,195m tonnes in 2006 – up 2.4% on 200. That's really heavy. Their interactive map highlights how each country is doing. Our slowing economy results in no change to our carbon emissions in the year - still at around 585 million tonnes. How will we make the change to an 80% cut in our carbon emissions ? At heart the problem is a spiritual one - something to do with the movements of the heart, a sense of relation to others and about hope. That's why we in the Church should be ever more involved. We have a lot to say.

You have read about the cut in VAT to encourage a Christmas shopping spree. You will also read, if you look deeper into your newspaper of the Bishop of Liverpool suggesting that now is a good time to change the tax system:Bishop James Jones, said once the recession was over, the tax system should be shifted against the profligate consumerism that helped to fuel the unsustainable boom of the past decade. 'The more you use, the greater the amount of tax you should pay, to create a system that is socially and environmentally just. And I think now is the time to take a new approach.' Today we celebrate the feast of Christ the King. A relatively new feast in the Church's calendar - Pope Pius XI created the feast day on Dec. 11th 1925. His thesis, expressed in a letter was that “these manifold evils in the world are due to the fact that the majority of men have thrust Jesus Christ and his holy law out of their lives; that these had no place either in private affairs or in politic...

In the interesting web magazine The Other Journal I read the following wise words: Scott Bader-Saye (SBS): I would say, first, that we cannot rightly resist fear tactics by seeking to be fearless. Although fearlessness might seem an attractive option, Thomas Aquinas rightly observed that fearlessness is a vice, not a virtue. Fear is born of love, because it is only when we love something that we fear its loss. So one way to be fearless is to refuse love, to refuse the attachments (even the attachment to life itself) that make us vulnerable. For Christians, such a response proves to be vicious because it turns us away from the great command to love God and to love the neighbor as ourselves. Fear is so often seen as a bad thing. Rather let's see it as the beginning of hope in action.

I have been thinking about this idea of the household. George Monbiot wrote this week: Ecology and economy are both derived from the Greek word oikos - a house or dwelling. Our survival depends upon the rational management of this home: the space in which life can be sustained. The rules are the same in both cases. If you extract resources at a rate beyond the level of replenishment, your stock will collapse. We can get our heads round running our own household in a responsible way, balancing the needs of the residents, even caring for the animals. We never doubt for a moment that it is our responsibility - it's our house and most of s understand that we need to at least let our neighbours live in the same sort of way: so we don't throw rubbish over the wall. When we talk about the economy we make ourselves into passive victims. It's God's world and our (large and complex and beautiful) household. We should not leave it to the experts who run the Economy.

Animal Welfare Sunday Sermon extract from ther sermon delivered at St Mary's October 2008 Do you have a pet ? Yes, I do too. Do you eat meat ? yes, I do too. Aren't we a mass of contradictions ?! Today is Animal Welfare Sunday, and we are asked to think about something which we tend to take for granted, that we have relegated well down the list of importance, something that we take for granted - the welfare of animals. There is a very tricky philosophical question. It gets harder to answer the more you think about it. The question is what is the animal world ? We would have to say that it is a different world to ours' - it is "other" than us and not something we can easily pigeon hole. We may think that is a world inferior to ours, that the animals are there for our pleasure ..... but how do we justify treating the animal world like that ? And yet whilst we use and consume animals we are fascinated by them and watch their beauty and mystery and strength ...

I have written this for my parish Magazine: "Viewpoint": You may have heard of the film "An Inconvenient Truth" by Al Gore. It's very good and a number of us at St Mary's West Derby looked at it early this year before we gathered for a course on climate change called the Omega Course. The film is powerful and well worth watching. I think it's been on TV and you may well have seen it. The Church has a few copies of it on DVD if you would like to borrow it. A book has been produced too and that is well worth a look. With the same title as the film it is subtitled "The planetary emergency of global warming and what we have to do about it". When I went away on a short course the other week with some other clergy we were asked to review the book. It shows how climate change is a reality and juxtaposes facts and figures with beautiful pictures of forests and ice caps. I can lend it to anyone who is interested. One graph in the book brings the messa...

There is almost no doubt now that climate change , caused by humankind, is well underway. We are suffering because of it with more extreme weather - mostly rain storms. Others in less developed countries suffer much more, and drought is killing many millions of people each year. This blog will explore the interface between climate change and the Christian faith. What can the Bible and theology offer us ? What resources can we draw on to help us find hope and act in hope ? Like many I suspect, I wilt under this issue. It feels a bit like the 1980s when we believed that there was a possibilty of nuclear war. (there still is !) But we could blame cruise missiles on the USA and maintain a "holier than thou" sense. But I can't enjoy that sort of piety now. We are very much part of the problem. Climate change is well underway and with the various tipping point scenarios there is an increasing risk to life as we know it. But those of us who are Christians continue to believe in...