| Resources for the Climate Resilient Church | BCDM Creation Care Course | |
| Giving to Creation Care organisations | Climate Finance gets personal | |
Tiny Forests were started in Japan about 50 years ago by the Japanese botanist, Dr Akira Miyawaki, and have been rolled out in various parts of the world since then, when people catch the vision. See https://earthwatch.org.uk/tiny-forests-partnership-with-ovo-foundation-wins-edie-award/ and, discussing the practicalities, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53Uo4IE-VBI. Perhaps you have space for a tennis court sized piece of woodland in your church. If you are interested, contact the Diocesan Environment Officer to discuss this.
A personal creation care journey by Gary Stocker , All Saints Leamington, can be found at https://www.coventry.anglican.org/news/how-individuals-can-do-their-bit-to-support-the-environment
Resources for the Climate Resilient Church
Church buildings are often solidly built and, when maintained well, have withstood the weather over the centuries. However, as the climate changes, and weather events becomes more extreme, they can become vulnerable. We need to be protect these precious buildings from harm. Visit the new Church of England resource on the Climate resilient church to become aware of how to protect your buildings, and also provide sanctuary, for example as places of refuge during floods or cool places during heatwaves.
This module, through consideration of scripture and science, looks at God’s creation, our place in it and the hope that we have for the future in a time of environmental crisis. By the end of the five x 2 hour sessions, you should see that care for the environment is integral to our call as Christians to discipleship. For further information about this, please contact the Diocesan Environment Officer.
Watch this film, The Letter, at https://www.theletterfilm.org/watch/, which tells the story tells of a journey to Rome of frontline leaders to discuss the encyclical letter Laudato Si’ with Pope Francis.
If you have members of your congregation who do not believe that the climate is changing, show them this BBC Climate Check for 2020: https://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/features/55280683. For the February 2022 Climate Check, go to https://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/features/60377589 to see more records being broken.
Giving to Creation Care organisations
God has given us the privilege of caring for the world he lovingly created. See https://www.stewardship.org.uk/causes/creation-care for links to Christian environmental charities.
Andy Clark reflects on Climate Finance and Christian Ethics on this John Ray Initiative blog
Radical Presence: Green Christian's initiative to help churches build a more sustainable, just and compassionate world after the pandemic. See Documents panel.
Posted on 4th October 2019, the Feast of St Francis of Assisi, the State of Nature Report 2019 made grim reading as we see continued loss of biodiversity in the UK. This very comprehensive review is packed with important statistics and will remain a valuable resource fro some years to come.
NEW: Webinar resouces on Natural History from Warwickshire Wildlife Trust to help you get to know more about God's amazing natural world at https://www.warwickshirewildlifetrust.org.uk/TakePart/webinars with Debbie Wright, a regular attendee at our Diocesan Environment Group.
Unlocking Nature's Secrets: The Serengeti Rules was an excellent examination of how ecosystems can be degraded by removal of 'keystone species' and also on causes for hope and restoration. 'Five scientists, who began their research in the 1960s, revisit their field studies across the globe and how they discovered a single set of rules that govern all life on earth.' However, it can still be viewed at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AT3X5hKkgOE. Highly recommended.
Also, see the webinar on Biodiversity and Ecology given by your Diocesan Environment Officer as part of the 2021 Churches Count on Nature webinars at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a0b3e5yu7Oc.
Nature based Solutions and Climate Change Andy Atkins of A Rocha UK summarises this in this May 2021 article (https://arocha.org.uk/nature-based-solutions-to-the-climate-crisis/) and a more detailed account can be found here. https://www.arocha.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Nature-based-Solutions-to-climate-change-A-Rocha-worldwide-family-position-October-2021.pdf).
For an informative webinar by the British Ecological Society, look at https://www.britishecologicalsociety.org/applied-ecology-resources/updates-and-events/aer-live/nature-based-solutions-fri-15-oct-2021/ in which one of the contributors was Dr Mike Morecroft, one of our 2015 Reconciling a Wounded Planet Conference speakers.
*Space for Nature: The UK in 100 seconds is an excellent short video resource showing how the UK landscape is made up at https://cdn.friendsoftheearth.uk/nature/space-nature-uk-100-seconds
To inspire and help people explore and celebrate Creationtide the Church of England created new liturgies and pulled together examples of services and prayers from across the C of E (also see Section 1): http://www.churchofengland.org/more/policy-and-thinking/our-views/environment-and-climate-change/creationtide/creationtide
*Christian Rural and Environmental Studies (CRES): Time to start thinking about applying for the CRES Certificate course; applications for the new academic year are already starting to come in and places are limited. For information, see below and see the CRES Admissions web page. CRES is a John Ray Initiative distance learning course run jointly with A Rocha UK.
A Parish Resource: Thanks to St Mary's Cubbington for sharing their Eco Tips, suitable for your weekly parish news sheet or in youir monthly magazine. See the pdf in the Documents section.
*Ideas for preventing rural flooding: https://vimeo.com/167391533
*How to plan ahead for flooding: This Government website gives information under the following headings. Find out if you are at Risk. Sign up for flood warinings. Know what to do. Know how to turn off your water, gas and electricity. Protect your property. Check your insurance. Note where you will find flood forecasting websites. Find out where you can get help. Could your church be a place of refuge and help in a local flood?
Save water: visit the Waterwise website at https://www.waterwise.org.uk/save-water/to see many good tips for saving water, cutting your carbon emissions as a result and cutting your costs too.
Essential viewing: Nature's Emergency: where we are in five graphics, available at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-48104037 and two short official trailer youtube clips, An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power and Scarred Lands and Wounded Lives.
How to start, at home or in your churchyard, your own butterfly garden. Sarah kindly provided us with details of this resource through her teacher, Ms Rachel Martin. Thank you Sarah and Ms Martin! Jen Miller, of Jen Reviews, has also given us another excellent butterfly garden site for you to check.