Synergies between international peace making and caring for creation

27^th October is the annual anniversary of climax of the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.  The Revd Arthur made a case for environmental activists and anti-military activists to learn from one another and to find new ways of making a distinctively Christian contribution.

Click here for the video 

Participants

Jerry and Sue Barr

Revd Dr Daniel Button

Revd Arthur & Margaret Champion

Martin Davis

Peter & Brenda Emberson

Revd Joe Knight

Huw Richards

Rosemarie Richardson

Kitty Morgan

Revd Julie & Ernest Nelson

Alison Talbot

Paul W

Discussion afterwards: 12.45 - 1.15pm

Brenda - Recommends wearing a white poppy for Remembrance Sunday.

Martin - Buy your white poppy here: https://shop.ppu.org.uk/collections/frontpage

Huw : https://www.stroudnewsandjournal.co.uk/news/17713586.fury-stroud-war-memorial-defaced/

Julie: https://www.rosecastle.com/rcf/home

Kitty: has made a film of Coventry Cathedral set to the Coventry Antiphon by Herbert Howells https://vimeo.com/258809172/64d3aa31ef The film focuses on a number of artworks - architectural features, stained glass windows, including a metal sculpture near the beginning in the ruins.  It is a statue of a choir, given to the cathedral by Germany after the bombing - what a symbol of reconciliation that is!  The text of the music is quoted on the ruined wall. Howells was a major composer of the 20 century - this was written for this place and all it represents. Please watch full screen, with loud enough sound, in a darkened room. It is meant to be a meditative experience.

Alison Talbot: “So the land had rest forty years. Then Othniel the son of Kenaz died.” Judges 3: 11

Peter: The Jubilee Principle

Martin recommends “Teilhard for Dummies” (!): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKEBQe4c7n0&t=68s

Martin - Good resources: https://paxchristi.org.uk/  

Ernest – Section 2 “Buildings” CofE parish churches could build peace chapels

Ernest – Section 3 “”Land” CofE parish churches could construct peace gardens

Huw: Context needed around war memorials which are often perceived as glorifying war 

Ernest: the glory of war soon fades when considering the impact on particular individuals

Rosemarie – White Poppies invented in the 1920s by widows and girlfriends of those killed in WW1

Huw – Climate Change terminology is associated with left of centre politics. Also, the military require the extraction of fossil fuels which is causing the existential crisis of Climate Change

Paul – UK exporting arms to be used in wars like Yemen (shameful).  In the lull after the first wave of C-19 there was a rush back to the same old habits of unsustainable consumerism. Jesus turned over the tables of money changers in the Temple so what does that mean today? 

Arthur: A quote from Thought for the Day (BBC Radio 4) “The best things in life aren’t things”!

Huw: Model letter to MPs for 12^th December which is run up to CoP 26 www.gloscan.org blog   

Ernest: what if any conditions does the UK Govt attach to arms sales contracts?

Paul: Where to buy LOAF

Peter: Coombe Hill Farm Shop https://www.coombefarmorganic.co.uk/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIo6rKhfG26gIVg-3tCh1lZQP8EAAYASAAEgLiWfD_BwE

Brenda:  Do you know about the Kaki or Peace tree? A tree survived the bomb at Hiroshima not too far from the epicentre. Cuttings have been grown and sent all over the world to organisations concerned with peace and care for the world. One of these is growing at Nature in Art at Wallsworth Hall and we have a pencil drawing done by a well known tree illustrator which we ‘won’ as part of a fund raising effort a few years ago. If anyone is interested, there's a children and maternity clothing company called "Frugi".

Joe: Really interesting conversation everyone, thanks to Arthur and you all. Sorry I have to bow out now, but I hope we can keep this conversation going...My only thought on the relationship of peacemaking and environment is that both issues are deeply rooted in our relationship with the land, and that 'peace' must include peaceable relationships between people and the land, as well as between nations. It seems to me that conflict stems from our collective war against the land, without concern of how this impacts our social, cultural and economic relations. Peace to you!