Around the Congregation

Rather to my surprise I was sent in March on a two day (Zoom) carbon literacy course with a number of clergy and laity across the province. This course was less to do with cutting down plastic use and more to do with our carbon emissions, for example from our heating (by using insulation or changing power supply), or our food waste, or indeed how we buy our food and how far it comes to reach us. It would be difficult to sum up the course here, but instead I’ll offer a few facts and thoughts I took away from it aside from the general statistics of global warming.

A kilogram of tomatoes produces a certain amount of CO₂ equivalent, which varies depending on the tomatoes:

If they’re grown locally, in season, and are a variety that is appropriate for our climate – 1.3kg

If they’re grown in UK summer or Spanish winter and are a variety that needs more heat/light, e.g. baby plum tomatoes – 4.9kg

If they’re brought out of season from heated greenhouses – 28.2kg.

It’s worth checking to see if your bank and pension funds are still investing in fossil fuels.

One person travelling from Glasgow to London will travel most efficiently by coach. After that, the modes of transport we looked at are ranked as train, then small electric car, then efficient small petrol car, then plane, then worst of all an SUV.

Some churches have cut down their meat consumption (cows and sheep are particularly bad producers of methane) by having default vegetarian meals on their social occasions – that is, vegetarian unless meat is specifically asked for.

Hierarchies of waste and carbon:

Best

Waste prevention                                            Avoid emissions

Preparation for reuse                                      Reduce emissions

Recycling                                                        Substitute with low-carbon alternatives

Recovery                                                         Sequester emissions

Disposal                                                          Offset emissions

Worst

Some places to find information:

Tearfund Climate Emergency Toolkit (www.climateemergencytoolkit.com)

Centre for Alternative Technology (Wales) (www.cat.org.uk)

Ecodrive.org – hints and tips on how to drive more ecologically, also with information on courses.

Some books:

Mike Berners-Lee: How Bad are Bananas? The Carbon Footprint of Everything

Ruth Valerio: Saying Yes to Life

Nicolas Holtam: Sleepers Wake – Getting Serious about Climate Change

Nicola Mills

My name is Ian Duguid and I am an Ambassador of the Holocaust Education Trust. I am writing this in an effort to reflect on this year’s Holocaust Memorial Day, that being the 27th of January.

I started off as a participant in the “Lessons from Auschwitz Project”, which saw an educational visit to the former death camp. What I learned on that trip is something I consider worth “reflecting” on. I wouldn’t say I learned something new in terms of statistics or specific facts. I didn’t learn any new names of German officers who inflicted atrocities I hadn’t heard before. But I learned the true meaning of the word “humanity” when referring to the Holocaust.

My primary example is Jannine Webber. Mrs Webber is someone I got the magnificent opportunity to meet and speak with at an Edinburgh Conference last November. She herself had not actually seen a death or concentration camp, but she spent time in the Lvov Ghetto, where her mother and brother died. She spent time in a convent hiding with the local Catholic community. And that is humanity, the fear, the need for strategy in times of crisis, the need to survive. And of course, the humanity of those few Catholics in the community who would likely have known her true identity, but chose to protect her. That she was by nature a criminal under Hitler’s Europe, she was guilty only of being Jewish.

But of course the word humanity is not always a positive word. Humanity can sometimes be cruel, unfair and deeply prejudicial, this is shown particularly in Jannine’s story which included her brother being buried alive. I find her story to be both heartbreaking and also vital in understanding that not all suffering in the Holocaust circled around a camp.

That being said, I don’t think I will ever forget going to Auschwitz, and a couple hours alone in that place is enough to squash the opinions of any genocide denier. The bit that stuck with me, and I haven’t fully been able to shift it from my thoughts, was the nail marks. Because if you look carefully into the walls of the gas chamber, you will see nail scratches. It’s enough to either make you cry or to make you feel violently sick, or in my case, to make you silent in shock. What happened in that room, and many rooms like them is simply unimaginable to me or you. What they would have gone through in their final minutes is unnatural and monstrous. With that in mind, however, we can describe the Holocaust as monstrous, barbaric and the worst example of human behaviour, without dehumanising the perpetrators. Originally this was not something I understood. It was said by a guide at Auschwitz 1 that we can’t see the Nazis as monstrous: I really did not sympathise with this to begin with if I’m honest. But that’s because being told that Rudolf Hoss was not a monster is a difficult thing to stomach after having just walked through a gas chamber. However, I think I understand it now. Because if you paint perpetrators as demons, you rob them of what they actually were. They were human. They were the worst example of humanity, but they were still human. Hoss would kill innocent people in their hundreds and then proceed to go home and play with his children, like a normal dad. And the issue with saying that Nazis are monsters is that you make them seem unique. You make them seem like a scary nightmare that couldn’t possibly happen again because “society is more understanding now”.  I’m afraid to say it simply isn’t. Anti-semitic attacks in some areas of this country are up 1350%, and it is certainly not my business to make any intellectual view on the conflict in Gaza. However, we need to understand as a society that no one people are responsible for the acts of a terrorist group, or of a country’s government. And that, and that alone is the reason we have Holocaust Memorial Day events. And why we send children in bulk to Auschwitz-Birkenau, Bergen-Belsen, Dachau, and Treblinka.

Any one of us would like to think that we are above such things as propaganda brain-washing. But we are not, we are like ordinary Germans in the 1940s, we are human, and therefore deeply flawed creatures. I hope this is a message that the Trust, and I, have been able to deliver in big ways like speeches at Parliament, right down to writing an article like this. Because God help us if we don’t make an effort to stamp out the inhumanity of humanity.

Ian Duguid (Ambassador of the Holocaust Education Trust)

I wonder how Lent has been for you this year? 

This year I’ve followed daily readings and reflections in the ‘Through Lent with Pope Francis’ book.  This book features passages from scripture in both New International Version (NIV) and New Catholic Bible (NCB) translations.  I’m not familiar with the NCB translation and although it only has some minor differences with the NIV translation, taking the time and concentration to read and reflect on passages in this translation has felt like an awakening.  The book also features artwork I’ve not encountered before and it has been a treat to take the time to appreciate these.

I have written in previous editions of this magazine about hope and anticipation.  You may recall my wondering as to whether my Amaryllis bulbs would open in time for Christmas.  The good news is that the bulbs did open in time and from each of the bulbs I had two very tall stems and three beautiful flowering heads on each stem. 

I also have another Amaryllis bulb which has only now started to flower during Lent.  I wonder if it was caught sleeping, but whatever the reason, it has eventually started to respond after the investment I made to care for and nourish the bulb.  As you can see below, the stems have very little height but there are three heads opening up. 

This reminds me of the following passage:

Then he returned to his disciples and found them sleeping. “Couldn’t you men keep watch with me for one hour?” he asked Peter. “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
(Matthew 26: 40-41 NIV)

Even after Jesus caught His disciples sleeping when they should have been praying and keeping watch, Jesus never gave up on them.  Jesus was subsequently able to restore, equip and enable His disciples which allowed them to find their way and blossom later in life.

I recently went on a ceramic painting afternoon with some members of my family.  It was a wonderful afternoon where there was such pure free flowing creativity taking place in a very peaceful atmosphere.  I would highly recommend this activity to anyone wanting to give it a try.  These are our finished creations and we are looking forward to seeing them once they have been glazed and fired:

are the mushrooms’ eyes wide open,
struggling to stay awake or are they in awe at what they are seeing?

My granddaughter’s giant mushroom welcomes dreamers.  That’s honesty for you.  God welcomed and spoke to dreamers quite often in the Bible.

 

this puppy bowl provides
a new vessel from which to drink from.

Has your journey into Easter or even the celebration of Easter itself resulted in your awakening, staring in awe, dreaming, becoming a new clay pot or receiving a new vessel ready to drink anew the water of life?

Hallelujah Jesus Has Risen.

Easter Blessings to you all,

Margaret McKinnon