23/6/21
People Making Glasgow
The COP26 Conference may be the last chance to save our planet from the climate chaos that is already hitting people in many different countries. That’s why many people from faith communities and environmental groups want to make their way to Glasgow for the conference in November. Many of them won’t be able to pay high hotel prices in the city, and many more would rather get to know some of the people who make Glasgow than stay in an impersonal hotel.
Do you have a spare room in which you could help someone do that, and so make Glasgow special for them as well as discovering more about the place they come from and their passion for building a future for our grandchildren?
Of course, much of this is still dependent on the pandemic having receded significantly by November, but the organisers have made careful preparations for operating within Scottish Government guidelines for whatever stage of the pandemic we are at in November.
Right now you can register your offer of hospitality to a visitor at the time of the COP Conference (31 October - 12 November 2021. You will find answers to most of the questions you may have about this, along with the form to register your offer at https://www.humanhotel.com/cop26/
Our Kirk Session have supported our CO26 Group in encouraging members of Sherbrooke Mosspark to offer hospitality in this way. This May, our General Assembly agreed to “urge congregations to prepare for the COP26 UN Climate Summit due to take place in Glasgow in November 2021 by using the Climate Sunday prayer and worship resources (www.climatesunday.org); and consider how they can respond in prayer and action; and to support congregations to sign the ‘Scottish Churches COP26 Pledge’.”
So we have other plans leading to the November conference, including a Climate Sunday service (probably in late August) and we will let you know more about these in our next magazine. Meantime, if you’d like to join us in praying about the conference (as part of a world-wide prayer chain led by Christian Aid) at 5pm on the first Sunday of each month, please contact me, Graham Blount (graham.blount@yahoo.co.uk).
On 5 September (when a national Climate Sunday service will take place in Glasgow), our time of prayer will become a short evening service in church, open to all. On Sunday 3 October, we expect to be hosting a Glasgow Presbytery service and information evening. We also hope to invite some of those who have come from countries where the impact of climate change is already being felt hardest to our morning service on 7 November, in the middle of the conference.
Graham Blount
People Making Glasgow
The COP26 Conference may be the last chance to save our planet from the climate chaos that is already hitting people in many different countries. That’s why many people from faith communities and environmental groups want to make their way to Glasgow for the conference in November. Many of them won’t be able to pay high hotel prices in the city, and many more would rather get to know some of the people who make Glasgow than stay in an impersonal hotel.
Do you have a spare room in which you could help someone do that, and so make Glasgow special for them as well as discovering more about the place they come from and their passion for building a future for our grandchildren?
Of course, much of this is still dependent on the pandemic having receded significantly by November, but the organisers have made careful preparations for operating within Scottish Government guidelines for whatever stage of the pandemic we are at in November.
Right now you can register your offer of hospitality to a visitor at the time of the COP Conference (31 October - 12 November 2021. You will find answers to most of the questions you may have about this, along with the form to register your offer at https://www.humanhotel.com/cop26/
Our Kirk Session have supported our CO26 Group in encouraging members of Sherbrooke Mosspark to offer hospitality in this way. This May, our General Assembly agreed to “urge congregations to prepare for the COP26 UN Climate Summit due to take place in Glasgow in November 2021 by using the Climate Sunday prayer and worship resources (www.climatesunday.org); and consider how they can respond in prayer and action; and to support congregations to sign the ‘Scottish Churches COP26 Pledge’.”
So we have other plans leading to the November conference, including a Climate Sunday service (probably in late August) and we will let you know more about these in our next magazine. Meantime, if you’d like to join us in praying about the conference (as part of a world-wide prayer chain led by Christian Aid) at 5pm on the first Sunday of each month, please contact me, Graham Blount (graham.blount@yahoo.co.uk).
On 5 September (when a national Climate Sunday service will take place in Glasgow), our time of prayer will become a short evening service in church, open to all. On Sunday 3 October, we expect to be hosting a Glasgow Presbytery service and information evening. We also hope to invite some of those who have come from countries where the impact of climate change is already being felt hardest to our morning service on 7 November, in the middle of the conference.
Graham Blount
Eco Tips
What Can I Do -2
How do I heat my water?
Where does my electricity come from?
How do I get from A to B?
Home Energy Scotland
Home Energy Scotland Loans/Grants
Green Homes Network
Renewable Heat Incentive
U.N. Sustainable Development
Christine Macmillan
What Can I Do -2
- Check out & manage your own Carbon Footprint – link on the Eco Congregation website.
- Use less energy – use energy efficiently – use Green energy! To go green lots of small things count & add up.
How do I heat my water?
Where does my electricity come from?
How do I get from A to B?
- Eat vegetarian at least once a week, like ‘Meat Free Monday’.
- Use plastic free tea bags & these can be composted.
- Use a bar of soap instead of liquid soap in plastic.
- Use compostable doggy poop bags instead of biodegradable.
- Try greener washing machine products like Eco Egg or laundry strips.
- Chat with your family, friends & neighbours about what we can do to reduce our footprint.
Home Energy Scotland
Home Energy Scotland Loans/Grants
Green Homes Network
Renewable Heat Incentive
U.N. Sustainable Development
Christine Macmillan
|
|
Sunday 27 September – Climate Change Sunday
The Church of Scotland and Eco-congregation Scotland have encouraged churches to mark one Sunday during September’s focus on creation as “Climate Change Sunday”. Our own Sherbrooke Mosspark group, formed just before lockdown to prepare for the international Climate Change conference - due to be held in Glasgow but now postponed until November 2021 - will help us mark this in our worship next Sunday morning.
Rev Graham K Blount
Wednesday 16/6/20
Sherbrooke Mosspark COP26 Group
Some of you may recall that – way back in the days before the lockdown – I flew a kite by suggesting we might form a group of people interested in preparing for the international conference on climate change planned for November 2020 here in Glasgow.
Ten people responded positively to being part of that group. But before we could meet the virus struck and we were locked out of face-to-face meetings. Then the COP26 Conference itself was postponed.
Rightly, our thoughts and prayers have been directed towards the pandemic, to those suffering, to those on the front line, to caring for one another amid lockdown.
Now we are starting to ask ourselves what a “new normal” will look like as restrictions are eased. Most people accept that we cannot rush back to “business as usual”. Could this be an opportunity to build a future less destructive of our planet, or will we be so keen to get the economy going again – and help those whose jobs are at risk - that we forget our targets for carbon reduction?
We are close to an important time of rebuilding. For the sake of our children and grandchildren, and for those for whom a simple thing like proper hand-washing is impossible due to lack of clean water, care for our planet has to be part of that rebuilding.
The UK Government has said that the COP26 will still happen in Glasgow, from the start of November 2021. And we need to keep the pressure on until then.
To make a start, our COP26 Group has joined a “prayer chain”, hosted by Christian Aid in partnership with Tearfund and CAFOD, to take us towards the COP26 conference (see https://www.christianaid.org.uk/pray/prayer-chain )
After joining the prayer chain initially for each Sunday in the month of May, we have now committed to pray about this in a half-hour slot on the first Sunday of each month, starting on 5th July, from 5pm, each in our own homes and in our own way. We’ve found this helpful and encouraging. Each weekend, I suggest a reading as a “starter” for our reflections, and a short shared prayer we will all use along with our personal prayers. If you would like to join with others in this, please let me know by email to graham.blount@churchofscotland.org.uk so that I can send you the starters and shared prayers.
WE have also written to Alok Sharma, the UK Government Business Secretary, Alok Sharma, who will be the Chair of COP26, welcoming the Government’s commitment to the “Race to Zero” but urging him not to wait until November 2021 to work for what he called “a fairer, greener recovery from the effects of Covid-19, a recovery which delivers for both our people and our planet”.
Meantime let’s go on caring for each other … and the planet God has trusted to us!
Rev Graham K Blount
Sherbrooke Mosspark COP26 Group
Some of you may recall that – way back in the days before the lockdown – I flew a kite by suggesting we might form a group of people interested in preparing for the international conference on climate change planned for November 2020 here in Glasgow.
Ten people responded positively to being part of that group. But before we could meet the virus struck and we were locked out of face-to-face meetings. Then the COP26 Conference itself was postponed.
Rightly, our thoughts and prayers have been directed towards the pandemic, to those suffering, to those on the front line, to caring for one another amid lockdown.
Now we are starting to ask ourselves what a “new normal” will look like as restrictions are eased. Most people accept that we cannot rush back to “business as usual”. Could this be an opportunity to build a future less destructive of our planet, or will we be so keen to get the economy going again – and help those whose jobs are at risk - that we forget our targets for carbon reduction?
We are close to an important time of rebuilding. For the sake of our children and grandchildren, and for those for whom a simple thing like proper hand-washing is impossible due to lack of clean water, care for our planet has to be part of that rebuilding.
The UK Government has said that the COP26 will still happen in Glasgow, from the start of November 2021. And we need to keep the pressure on until then.
To make a start, our COP26 Group has joined a “prayer chain”, hosted by Christian Aid in partnership with Tearfund and CAFOD, to take us towards the COP26 conference (see https://www.christianaid.org.uk/pray/prayer-chain )
After joining the prayer chain initially for each Sunday in the month of May, we have now committed to pray about this in a half-hour slot on the first Sunday of each month, starting on 5th July, from 5pm, each in our own homes and in our own way. We’ve found this helpful and encouraging. Each weekend, I suggest a reading as a “starter” for our reflections, and a short shared prayer we will all use along with our personal prayers. If you would like to join with others in this, please let me know by email to graham.blount@churchofscotland.org.uk so that I can send you the starters and shared prayers.
WE have also written to Alok Sharma, the UK Government Business Secretary, Alok Sharma, who will be the Chair of COP26, welcoming the Government’s commitment to the “Race to Zero” but urging him not to wait until November 2021 to work for what he called “a fairer, greener recovery from the effects of Covid-19, a recovery which delivers for both our people and our planet”.
Meantime let’s go on caring for each other … and the planet God has trusted to us!
Rev Graham K Blount
Sherbrooke Mosspark COP26 Group
Some of you may recall that – way back in the days before the lockdown – I flew a kite by suggesting we might form a group of people interested in preparing for the international conference on climate change planned for November 2020 here in Glasgow.
Ten people responded positively to being part of that group. But before we could meet the virus struck and we were locked out of face-to-face meetings. Then the COP26 Conference itself was postponed.
Rightly, our thoughts and prayers have been directed towards the pandemic, to those suffering, to those on the front line, to caring for one another amid lockdown.
Now we are starting to ask ourselves what a “new normal” will look like as restrictions are eased. Most people accept that we cannot rush back to “business as usual”. Could this be an opportunity to build a future less destructive of our planet, or will we be so keen to get the economy going again – and help those whose jobs are at risk - that we forget our targets for carbon reduction?
We are close to an important time of rebuilding. For the sake of our children and grandchildren, and for those for whom a simple thing like proper hand-washing is impossible due to lack of clean water, care for our planet has to be part of that rebuilding.
The UK Government has said that the COP26 will still happen in Glasgow, and they expect to announce this month a new date for it (probably around this time next year).
To make a start, our COP26 Group has joined a “prayer chain”, hosted by Christian Aid in partnership with Tearfund and CAFOD, to take us towards the COP26 conference (see https://www.christianaid.org.uk/pray/prayer-chain )
We have committed to pray about this in a half-hour slot each Sunday in May from 5pm, each in our own homes and in our own way. We started on Sunday 3rd May, and found it helpful and encouraging. Each weekend, I will suggest a reading as a “starter” for our reflections, and a short shared prayer we will all use along with our personal prayers. If you would like to join with others in this, please let me know by email to graham.blount@churchofscotland.org.uk so that I can send you the starter and shared prayer each weekend.
Keep safe, protect the NHS … and the planet God has trusted to us!
Rev Graham K Blount
Some of you may recall that – way back in the days before the lockdown – I flew a kite by suggesting we might form a group of people interested in preparing for the international conference on climate change planned for November 2020 here in Glasgow.
Ten people responded positively to being part of that group. But before we could meet the virus struck and we were locked out of face-to-face meetings. Then the COP26 Conference itself was postponed.
Rightly, our thoughts and prayers have been directed towards the pandemic, to those suffering, to those on the front line, to caring for one another amid lockdown.
Now we are starting to ask ourselves what a “new normal” will look like as restrictions are eased. Most people accept that we cannot rush back to “business as usual”. Could this be an opportunity to build a future less destructive of our planet, or will we be so keen to get the economy going again – and help those whose jobs are at risk - that we forget our targets for carbon reduction?
We are close to an important time of rebuilding. For the sake of our children and grandchildren, and for those for whom a simple thing like proper hand-washing is impossible due to lack of clean water, care for our planet has to be part of that rebuilding.
The UK Government has said that the COP26 will still happen in Glasgow, and they expect to announce this month a new date for it (probably around this time next year).
To make a start, our COP26 Group has joined a “prayer chain”, hosted by Christian Aid in partnership with Tearfund and CAFOD, to take us towards the COP26 conference (see https://www.christianaid.org.uk/pray/prayer-chain )
We have committed to pray about this in a half-hour slot each Sunday in May from 5pm, each in our own homes and in our own way. We started on Sunday 3rd May, and found it helpful and encouraging. Each weekend, I will suggest a reading as a “starter” for our reflections, and a short shared prayer we will all use along with our personal prayers. If you would like to join with others in this, please let me know by email to graham.blount@churchofscotland.org.uk so that I can send you the starter and shared prayer each weekend.
Keep safe, protect the NHS … and the planet God has trusted to us!
Rev Graham K Blount