Along the pilgrim way, near Canterbury we came to All Saints Church, Boughton Aluph where refreshment abides. Flicking through the books for sale there I picked up ‘Ideas for Retirement’ and thumbed through. The phrase ‘PUT YOUR HOUSE IN ORDER’ jumped off the page. The explosive imperative of ‘put’ being a call to action – some motivation to do something.
First I thought of tidiness. Some work to do. Next, write a will. Already done. Then check on fabric. Not bad. No major faults at the moment. Now, more importantly, there’s legacy.
However, there is another house – the church and another home – the planet. I hear the prophetic voice of Greta who says the world is our house and ‘our house is on fire!’. One thing is clear; we need to put our world house in order. We have imperatives, more importantly there is legacy.
In Eco Church we are considering an appropriate response to putting the house in order to reduce our carbon footprint, our legacy for future generations.
‘What can I do?’ is a question asked recently during the Being With Creation course. Sometimes we feel disempowered, guilty, listless. In Mauritius, the pink pigeon had declined to 9. Then humans provided feeding stations. Now there are nearly 500. Take heart. Feed the birds – or better still provide a rich environment for them to feed themselves. Little steps make for big changes.
We face choices. ‘Choose life that you might live’, says the prophet. Carbon capture is the thing. That’s what we need to lock away. Carbon negative is a target – a step beyond our carbon neutral targets.
Nothing beats planting trees. It was the Lord God who first planted a garden including trees and put us in it. Our forebears had the insight to cultivate Plane trees – so that we have our own London Plane trees – the best for carbon capture and making oxygen. Plant a tree or sponsor somebody who knows what kind of tree to plant and where to plant it. Just do it!
Steve Adams
