We Are All Infused With Light

Nine hundred years ago, a Benedictine nun called Hildegard living in the German city of Bingen, would have visions during her prayers. She was inspired to see what she called God’s ‘living power of light’ in all creation. She named this power, in Latin, viriditas. Hildegard was seeing the interconnectedness of everything. In the C12th she seems to have understood how plants transform the light of the sun into energy - what today is called photosynthesis. The divine presence, this whole world, each sacred creature - we are all infused with light.

And we are all called to look after this earth from which we come and to which we return.

This page offers a sketch of some of the ways our small community of faith is trying to adapt to life in a climate emergency, to live more lightly on this planet, to care more generously for all God’s people.

This is usually somewhere in our minds when we meet on Sunday mornings for instance in our liturgy like these lines:

Because human knowledge seems endless,
and we may believe we can save ourselves.
Because this world is warming and species disappearing
and the life of all creatures is in jeopardy.
Because we often have the best of intentions
and yet we do not know what we do not know,
we need you, God.

All: We need you, God. We need each other. 

And sometimes our friendship with the good earth features in the morning talk, like those on this page including Holly Petersen talking about ‘No Ordinary Time - Climate Activism’, Apricot Irvine on The Gospel of Trees, Kieran Kettley’s Eco Gospels, Dave Mellows on his journey from Evangelical to Eco and Becky Hall on The Art of Enough.

Perhaps we are reminded in our prayers, like this one from Ute people of North America

Earth teach me freedom as the eagle which soars in the sky.
Earth teach me resignation as the leaves which die in the fall.
Earth teach me regeneration as the seed which rises in the spring.
Earth teach me to forget myself as snow forgets its life.
Earth teach me to remember kindness as dry fields weep with rain.

(Traditional Ute Prayer (native North American), with thanks to CAFOD)

Climate Justice

And our prayers may send us out after we meet to ‘do justice’, which has involved groups from the church joining XR demonstrations with Christian Climate Action in London or campaigning outside Church House to persuade the Church of England to accelerate its environmental commitments.

Building

We want to walk our talk which and with the help of our local charity Cloudesley we are in the process of environmentally retrofitting our church buildings. We have reduced our carbon emission by 80% with the installation of an air source heat pump (summer 2023) and 32 solar panels on our south facing roof (February 2024)

Our 5 yearly building inspection identified that our south aisle roof was in need of replacement. We had experienced several leaks, damaging the inside of the church. Cloudesley helped us fund a full replacement of the roof including an upgrade of sheep’s wool insulation and a full roof of solar panels. While the scaffold was in place we repaired areas of crumbling stonework, rusted gutters and old lead flashings.

We now have a new Welsh slate roof, new lead flashings and repaired and new gutters that will keep the building dry and maybe last another 165 years (the age of the church). We have repaired some stonework - with more to do - and the quality of the work carried out by the contractor, Universal Stone, was excellent. We feel that we have done our old church justice, repairing and maintaining it to the high standard of workmanship that the Victorian builders applied in 1860.

The new sheep’s wool insulation and airtight roof construction will keep the church and its occupants warmer in the winter and reduce our heating bills and carbon footprint going forward.

Our 32 solar panels with a peak output of 15kW will meet about half of our historic electricity use, and reduce our bills by up to £3,000 a year.

Garden Group

On the first Saturday of the month we hold a gardening group that’s welcome to all, with no experience needed.
We provide the tools, coffee and cake!

Community Lunch & Fairtade

We are a recognised Fairtrade church: all the tea, coffee and sugar we use are Fairtrade. When we serve meals we use Fairtrade products wherever possible.

Community lunches are prepared with sustainability at the forefront. Meals are predominantly vegetarian. A vegan option is always provided. Sometimes, as in October’s curry feast, the whole meal is vegan. The ingredients we use are bought with the aim of the lowest environmental impact: local, seasonal, organic, or using OddBox or other scheme that avoids food waste.

Eco Fair

Every October we hold an Eco Fair with preloved books, clothes, handmade goods and information on how to live more sustainably.

Wildlife Events

We also host wildlife events. Here are some photos from the wildlife tour of the church gardens with Bob Gilbert last June and annual birdwatching walks with Andy.