A response from the orthodox church on the environment

A comprehensive discussion of the issue from the Christian perspective

This article mentions amongst many other things the limiting of family size as a legitimate response to the issues that face us. An opinion rarely heard in Christian circles. I'm not sure about it myself.

http://www.goarch.org/ourfaith/ourfaith8024

Some commentary on the encyclical

Lindsay Curren's commentary on the latest encyclical

https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/14e6e33e4241d22b

The medium is the message

A helpful article pointing out the need for careful scrutiny of all our actions to be sure we are consistent in our message.

https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/14e6e33e4241d22b

Clearer direction

I have decided to make this a depository amongst other things of literature/links I come across pertaining to my journey as a Christian who loves the earth as part of God's creation. This has been a hard road for me to travel as I have had many real and imagined voices telling me that the environmental movement was not of God and worse that it was inspired by the enemy as a distraction from the gospel. Thank God I no longer wrestle with any of that. Now I am moving forward and into action.

Progress to date

Yesterday I moved forward on my community composting project.

1. Collected buckets from local shops
2. Visited bottom end of the street to gauge interest - almost everybody wants to be involved
3. Collected leaves - fraxinus - in Williamstown - will go back later for querus, they are not falling yet
4. Emptied back shed - plan to make it into functioning space, to store items that get used eg. animal food and a work area. Anything that we want to keep that does not fall into those categories will be stored in the garage/elsewhere or thrown out - if it is rubbish

The house is a huge mess but I am happy.

Giving credit where it is due.

For 11 weeks now I have felt like a person reborn. This is thanks to a man of God ,who graciously said ,'do it, God cares, it matters'. What is it? It is my passion. A burning desire to live an integrated and authentic life. A life characterized by care: care of man and of the earth. For so long I have felt isolated by this, somehow believing that what made my heart beat was different to those around me. You see I believe in Jesus and had swallowed the idea-which I now see as ridiculous - that as a follower of Jesus should only concern myself with God, his Word and people. I was told that these were the only 'eternal ' things and therefore the only thing I could be involved in. So whenever I gardened I did so as as a guilty pleasure, whenever I concerned myself with issues of justice I heard a voice say that these were a distraction and whenever I tried to make ethical food choices I heard another voice say I was being elitist. I no longer ascribe to the sentiments spoken out by those voices. I believe I can hear God too. I would rather be a confident wrong, than a timid right. I believe God will reveal error to me if I do err. So now I begin a new chapter in my life, having the courage to follow my dreams and passions because I now believe they are of God.

A Beginning...

A place to leave some memories, some thoughts and some plans about that which matters to me.

Why 'I Remember, I Remember'? This was the first poem apart from A. A. Milne's that caught my imagination. It is by Thomas Hood and is actually quite sad. As a child I only knew that I loved its rhythm. When reading it I felt like I was on a swing - something I loved - the words  made me feel that I was a pendulum; swaying back and forth, back and forth and swinging joyously through the air. I loved the words too but they were a definite second in my experience of this poem.
The poem can be found here.

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/173652