Forthcoming Events

On Saturday 10th May Trinity Church (near Asda) will be holding a soup lunch in aid of Christian Aid from 12-2.

On Sunday 11th May Little Owl's Preschool will be holding a Gruffalo themed open garden in the very beautiful Harris Garden at the University of Reading from 1 pm with delicious refreshments available. (This is not a church event - but it is a chance to enjoy an especially lovely open space in Reading)

On Saturday 24th May St John Bosco will be holding a Creation Walk in Woodley at 10.30 am:

Local Election Hustings Next Week organised by GREN

Tue 13 May 2014 7:45 PM - 9:30 PM

GREN Local Election Hustings
Reading Quaker Meeting House, 2 Church Street, RG1 2SB

GREN’s Environmental Hustings for the 2014 Reading Local Elections will be on Tuesday 13th May at 7:45 pm in Reading Quaker “Friends’ Meeting House” 2 Church Street, off London Street, Reading RG1 2SB.

Councillors Tony Page (Labour), Ed Hopper (Conservative), Ricky Duveen (Liberal Democrat) and Rob White (Green) have agreed to present their policies and to take part in a ‘Question Time’ style debate chaired by Prof. Gavin Parker, Chair of Planning Studies, Reading University.

Come along to quiz the politicians and tell them your concerns. Questions should focus on local environmental issues such as climate change adaptation and mitigation, planning, transport, pollution, provision for biodiversity, and waste.
 

Please Pray for the CofE Synod decision 12th February

The following is taken from the national Christian Ecology Link website

Statement to the Church of England General Synod debating Environment on 12th February 2014

STATEMENT FOR GENERAL SYNOD
A Rocha UK, Christian Aid, Christian Concern for One World, Christian Ecology Link, Climate Stewards, CTBI Environmental Issues Network, the John Ray Initaitive, Operation Noah, Progressio, the Quakers, the Speak Network and Tearfund are joining together to welcome the debate on climate change and the environment taking place at General Synod on February 12th.
We recognise the crucial importance of this issue to all life on earth, both human and non-human, and the imperative for the Church to be acting on its Biblical mandate to care for God’s world. As England’s national church, the Church of England occupies a unique position of authority and visibility and is thus ideally placed to take a lead on these issues.
Together, we encourage General Synod to address this debate with the utmost seriousness and support the proposed motion, and we commit ourselves to supporting the Church of England and relevant bodies in their future endeavours.
The motion, proposed by Southwark Diocesan Synod, is:
 ‘That this Synod:
(a) recognising the damage being done to the planet through the burning 
of fossil fuels;
(b) aware of the huge reserves held by gas, oil and coal extraction industries;
(c) committing itself to taking seriously our Christian responsibility to care for the planet (“the earth is the Lord’s”);
(d) acknowledging the financial responsibilities of the Church’s national Investing bodies; and
(e) noting that a review of recommended ethical investment policy with regard to climate change has been begun by the Church of England Ethical Investment Advisory Group (‘EIAG’):
(i) call upon the national investing bodies to ensure that their investment policy (including the option of disinvestment) is aligned with the theological, moral and social priorities of the Church which find expression in the reports “Sharing God’s Planet” and “Church and Earth 2009-2016” and in the “Shrinking the Footprint” campaign;
(ii) call upon the EIAG to publish the report of its review by the end of 2014; and
(iii) agree to the establishment of a General Synod Working Group on the Environment, to monitor this and other environmental issues.’

---

NOTES
The General Synod of the Church of England is being invited to discuss environmentally responsible investment on Wednesday 12th February 2014. See links below for more details.
Please support this with Twitter and Facebook. If using Twitter, please hashtag as #GSClimate as well as using hashtags from the wider climate movement, such as #divest #ClimateAction and #FossilFree. Please also consider using the hashtag #GeneralSynod and include mentions of @GenSyn and @c_of_e
LINKS
http://www.churchofengland.org/about-us/structure/general-synod/agendas-and-papers/february-2014-group-of-sessions.aspx
http://www.churchofengland.org/media/1910033/gs%201942b%20-%20background%20note%20from%20eiag.pdf
http://www.churchofengland.org/media/1910003/gs%201942a%20-%20southwark%20dsm%20background%20note.pdf
http://www.operationnoah.org/PR_southwark_resolution
http://blueandgreentomorrow.com/2014/01/20/church-of-england-unlikely-to-ditch-fossil-fuel-investments/
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/01/17/us-britain-religion-investment-idUSBREA0G1CK20140117
http://brightnow.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/08/CofE_guidance_BrightNow_21Jan2014.pdf
http://www.churchofengland.org/media-centre/news/2014/01/agenda-for-february-2014-synod.aspx
http://www.thinkinganglicans.org.uk/archives/cat_general_synod.html
http://www.thinkinganglicans.org.uk/archives/006392.html
http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/18611
http://www.indcatholicnews.com/news.php?viewStory=22894
http://www.churchestogethercumbria.co.uk/ll-news/454-environment-supports-disinvestment-from-fossil-fuels

Upcoming Event in Reading

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.