Tag: environment

The beauty and life in green slime

The climate crisis terrifies me. It is a hard fear to deal with because it is both overwhelming but rationally based. Sometimes I veer towards the cliff edge of full blown anxiety-paralysis about it. But then, sooner or sometimes a bit later, deep down in my diaphragm faith kicks in and corrects my steering. I am still overcome but also back on course and somehow able to feel light and joy along with the terror. Continue reading “The beauty and life in green slime” →

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Job | Midwife to the sea

At a time of catastrophic climate change and oceanic collapse, the Book of Job offers a vision of hope. (Listen.)

Today is Ocean Sunday: and if the preaching helps are any guide, then I should be telling you to care for the sea. But I think that would be a waste of breath. Some of us here have protested and spread the word against drilling for oil in the Great Australian Bight. Some of us have written to politicians, objecting to the Adani coal mine and the catastrophic effect it will have on the Great Barrier Reef. Some of us have created stunning pieces of art which highlight the prevalence of plastics on our beaches and in our oceans, and which challenge us to change. Some of us have spent hours on hands and knees, picking up nurdles from Shelly Beach; most of us come home from any beach trip with other people’s plastic in our pockets; and many of us are planning to be at the local climate rally on 20 September. So no, you don’t need me to tell you to care for the oceans. Continue reading “Job | Midwife to the sea” →

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From compost toilets to mountaintops

“Anyone can sense the holy on a mountaintop,” says a friend of mine. “The Christian challenge is much more difficult, and that is to see God in wounded, vulnerable people; in victims; in groups of struggling humanity.” For the most part I, and the wider church, agree, which is why we spend most of the year focussing on Jesus Christ and the people he charged us to love, serve and live in solidarity with: those who are poor, sick, abused, marginalised, imprisoned, foreign, and scapegoated. Continue reading “From compost toilets to mountaintops” →

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Blow through me, Breath of God

Did you know that, in both Greek and Hebrew, the word we translate as ‘spirit’ means ‘air-in-movement’? In Hebrew, it’s the feminine ruah, or breath, which hovers over the waters of chaos in Genesis. In Greek, it’s the gender neutral pneuma which descends from heaven and fills Jesus’ disciples. You get a sense of the Greek word from the English words ‘pneumatic’ (containing air), and my ten-year-old’s favourite word: ‘pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis’, a condition seriously restricting air flow caused by the inhalation of silicate, possibly from a volcano. Phew! Continue reading “Blow through me, Breath of God” →

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#37: Expect apocalypse: #40ways40days

Jesus said to his disciples, ‘There will be signs in the sun, the moon, and the stars, and on the earth distress among nations confused by the roaring of the sea and the waves. People will faint from fear and foreboding of what is coming upon the world, for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then they will see “the Son of Man coming in a cloud” with power and great glory. Now when these things begin to take place, stand up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.’ (Luke 21:25-28)

When I started in Year 7 it was a bit of a shock to go from Primary School where we all did all our work together as one class in the same classroom to High School where each subject was in a different room with a different teacher and I did not know many other kids at the school. I found it extremely daunting to look at the year 12’s and I thought that I would never be able to pass Year 12 as the work was so hard. This was what terrified me and gave me anguish. Continue reading “#37: Expect apocalypse: #40ways40days” →

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Luke | Returning to the source of life

The first followers of Jesus read their Bibles differently. Based on their experiences, they read their Bibles with new eyes and connected with the stories of their faith in new ways. Over the last week, as I was reading the parable of the prodigal son again, I found myself doing the same thing: connecting with the story in a different way, and putting myself into the story in a different way. Continue reading “Luke | Returning to the source of life” →

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Luke | Terrified by global warming? Follow the children

This week, thousands of children around Australia participated in the School Strike 4 Climate Action, and it was magnificent! Like too many adults, whenever I think about climate change, I feel overwhelmed. We are facing the catastrophic collapse of vast ecosystems on which our lives depend; countless other species are hurtling towards extinction. Out-of-control wildfires dot the globe; terrifying hurricanes and storm surges wreak havoc; formerly arable land has been turned into desert. All around us, governments and disaster capitalists and environmental hoodlums keep chopping down trees and mining the land and opting for coal and pumping carbon into the atmosphere. They will not change, and there seems to be nothing I can do. Continue reading “Luke | Terrified by global warming? Follow the children” →

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