With the
recent release of Pope Francis’ Encyclical on the environment it’s good to
reflect on last Wednesday’s ‘For the love of…’ lobby of Parliament.
Thousands of
people, including groups from Leicester West and Harborough constituencies, and
our own Reader, Colin Chettle gathered
in London to lobby Parliament and MPs to act on climate change and to limit its
impact on the world’s poorest communities.
The Bishop
of Salisbury, The Right Rev. Nicholas Holtam, spoke eloquently and movingly of
the effect of mankind’s actions on our planet and reminded us that, ’This is
not just our individual concern. It is our Christian concern together as the
Church. It is the concern of people of all faiths. It is our human concern in
solidarity with all people. The world is our home’. He went on to call for action by world
leaders in Paris and at the UN Climate Change summit at the end of the year for
further commitment ‘towards fair, ambitious, accountable and binding climate
change agreements, nationally and internationally.’
Incidentally,
Bishop Holtam seemed very pleased with the mode of transport used to ferry him
between the two ecumenical services running at the start of the lobby - a
bicycle rickshaw!
These
rickshaws were much in evidence on Lambeth Bridge as MPs were ferried from
Westminster to the lobby lines on the bridge and the south embankment. Sadly,
not all MPs could attend but, for those who didn’t, there were ‘green cards’ to
sign to leave them in no doubt that their constituents are serious about
addressing climate change.
The afternoon
finished with a rally on Millbank hosted by the alternative comedian and
writer, Arthur Smith. The rally included live music, videos, interviews and an
inspiring final address urging us to continue pressing for action on climate
change.
One placard
at the rally summed up the whole point of the lobby in this message, ‘There is
no planet B.
The
cosmologist, Carl Sagan, described our planet as, ‘The blue dot - a mote of
dust suspended in a sunbeam.’ What action can we take, however small, to save
this most beautiful and fragile of planets?
We were blessed as
a church when, five years ago, we were joined by the George family, as Mariam
came to Leicester to train as a Terminal Care Doctor. All four have entered
into every part of our church life – Mariam even preached at our day of
Pentecost service. Their enthusiasm, and that of their children, has been
infectious. Their presence has also taught us more about the life of the church
in South India, where they came from.
With the
recent release of Pope Francis’ Encyclical on the environment it’s good to
reflect on last Wednesday’s ‘For the love of…’ lobby of Parliament.
The charity, among
those we support, that we remember this month is the Africa Inland Mission (AIM).
Founded in 1895, AIM is an evangelical,
interdenominational organisation with the goal of seeing ‘Christ-centred
churches among all African peoples.’
A crowd of about
80 people met together in St Paul’s Church today for the funeral service of Ken
Griffin. They represented his family, the local congregation and the Aigburth community
– the residential home in which he had lived for the last nine years.