Thorium . . . and cycling

There's a very interesting piece in this week's Church Times on thorium - a more plentiful and safer nuclear fuel that was apparently not developed because it is harder to weaponise than uranium. China are currently leading research on it.

In more local news - Greater Reading's Cycling Challenge 2013 has begun, encouraging businesses to get more people to cycle to work for this month.

Wild Play

Quite a few friends on facebook posted a link to an extract from Jay Griffith's new book, 
Kith: the Riddle of the Childscape. The book was also the subject of yesterday's very interesting Start the Week.

Responses to the posting inevitably talked about excessive fear of stranger danger and more realistic fears of road danger in letting children play wild. I realised one of my inhibitions is not fear of the very tiny minority of strangers who could want to harm a child, but of the very large number of people afraid to help or take any responsibility for other people's children, like the crowd of visitors to Reading museum who simply parted to allow my escapee two year old to run out into the road (through doors that would not have opened were it not for their adult presence activating the sensors). Nonetheless, I believe she is absolutely right that we have to find a way to let our children spend time unsupervised in the wild.

Enough Food For Everyone IF

Many RCEL members turned up on Friday 25th January to be part of the launch of a major new campaign to reduce global poverty, along with local MPs and activists from other churches plus a fantastic band from Leighton Park School.

Rev Robert Weston, of Park United Reformed Church explained the reason for the IF campaign:

‘The world produces enough food for everyone, but not everyone has enough food.

Hunger is the greatest scandal of our age.

This year, with the G8 coming to Britain, we can make a real difference if we act together and act now.

The aim of the IF campaign is to tackle the scandal that sees 1 in 8 people in the world go to bed hungry. The food system is broken. There’s enough food, but it’s not going to hungry people who need it to live. We know we can change this. All this suffering and death is preventable IF we persuade our governments to act.

Nearly 100 leading charities have joined together to demand an end to hunger. In June the G8 Summit comes to Britain. This is our chance to end the scandal of hunger. Our leaders will listen IF we act together and act now.’

The Mayor of Reading, Councillor Jenny Rynn gave her support for the IF campaign saying that this could be a major help in achieving the UN’s Millennium Goal to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger.

MP for Reading West, Alok Sharma, gave his full support to the IF campaign emphasising the importance of the government’s commitment to ensure that 0.7% of the United Kingdom’s GDP (Gross Domestic Product) is spent on international development and aid. This contribution helps to alleviate some of the worst poverty and hunger across the globe.

The Bishop of Reading, Bishop Andrew, reflected on his 9 years of ministry in Ethiopia, where he saw first-hand the impact of multinational companies on the lives of poor communities. The displacement of local farmers, to create vast fields of crops to produce biofuels is having a negative effect on the provision of locally grown food for people in Ethiopia, creating food shortages. Bishop Andrew encouraged the crowd outside St Lawrence Church, saying that together we can make a difference and build on the success of the ‘Make Poverty History’ campaign.

MP for Reading East, Rob Wilson, also gave his full backing to the project and drew attention to the scandal of food waste, a contributing factor to the global problem of food shortage. Rob has been involved in an innovative local project to use the fruit grown in local gardens, parks and allotments – which can be used to produce fruit juice, jams and other products.

The crowd of supporters were delighted to enjoy a piece of music written specially for the launch event and performed by students from Leighton Park School. The piece composed by Leighton Park music teacher Chris Mitchell is in a Latin American style, featuring brass and percussion, and the performance is named "Jubilee Shout".

Maranda St John Nicolle, co-ordinator of Christian Concern for One World was delighted with the level of support for the campaign in Reading; saying, ‘It is always encouraging to see such a vibrant community seeking to raise awareness of global issues. I hope others will want to get the message out there: the world produces enough food, but not everyone has enough food. IF we get together, we can make a difference and we can solve this problem.’

At the launch event were:

Mayor of Reading, Councillor Jenny Rynn

Bishop Andrew, Bishop of Reading

Rob Wilson MP

Alok Sharma MP

Rob White, Reading Borough Councillor

Rev Robert Weston, Minister, Park United Reformed Church, East Reading

Rev Neil Warwick, Vicar, St Nicolas Church, Earley

Rev Ali Marshall, Minister, St John and St Stephen Church, Newtown

Maranda St John Nicolle of Christian Concern for One World, Oxford

Hamish Preston of Reading Campaigning Network

There will be Enough Food for Everyone….

• IF we stop poor farmers being forced off their land, and use the available agricultural land to grow food for people, not biofuels for cars.
• IF governments keep their promises on aid, invest to stop children dying from malnutrition and help the poorest people feed themselves through investment in small farmers.
  IF governments stop big companies dodging tax in poor countries, so that millions of people can free themselves from hunger.
  IF we force governments and investors to be honest and open about the deals they make in the poorest countries that stop people getting enough food.We want our leaders to act on the four big issues that stop everyone getting enough food.

To sign up to the campaign www.enoughfoodif.org

Food Matters

Last Thursday Oxford diocese launched their new Food Matters project with a panel of speakers talking about "What Food Means to Me": Roy Lambourne (farmer), Ruth Valerio (theologian, author and activist), Mike Rayner (priest and public health expert) and  Paul Valentin (International Director of Christian Aid). It was a really inspiring evening in a packed church with a lot of focus on food as gift to be received gratefully, respected and shared. At the Food Matters website there are resources to download focussed on four Sundays through the year for a practical and spiritual focus.

Happy New Year 2013

 

2013 is set to be a year of campaigning on food with all that implies for the environment and poverty.





 The University of Reading Chaplaincy New Year Lecture on 16th January will be given by Christian Aid's Director Loretta Minghella on 'Christianity, Capitalism and the Poor - Where's the Good News?' The lecture is free but booking is essential - for further details click here.
Then on 24th January Oxford Diocese will be launching their Food Matters campaign - for further details click here.