8pm, St. Mary's Church, Ealing.
Confession used in the service.
Environmental pledge made at the end of the service.
heap in the middle
everybody stands around
say confession piece:
this heap is the evidence against us
the embodiment of human wastefulness
our desire for more and cheaper
our forgetfulness of the cost
plastic from oil, a million years in the making and minutes to use and throw away
paper from trees, twenty years to grow and twenty minutes to read and discard
packaging is protection
maybe we wouldn't have to protect it if it hadn't travelled so far
packaging is advertising
we added advertising to the apple
'eat this and be like god, knowing good and evil'
we have turned the garden of eden into a landfill
let us make a physical confession
take it in your arms, as much as you can carry
burden yourself, remembering how you burden the earth
take it to the sanctuary and drop it on the floor around the altar
as you do so, remember that all of the earth is god's holy place that we are defiling
when you have dropped your burden,
look at the cross and remember how christ takes the burden
of your sin, and of his damaged creation
because the earth is the lord's, and everything in it
ask god's forgiveness
repeat your journey until all the rubbish has been dumped around the altar.
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let's start by doing something necessary and symbolic
[here] are recycling boxes
labelled for cans, plastic, cardboard and paper
let's take the rubbish from the altar and put it into the appropriate boxes for recycling
I pledge to:
Calculate my carbon footprint, and find a way of reducing it by 10%. A calculator can be found here.
Switch to a renewable electricity supplier -- either Good Energy (0845 456 1640), or Ecotricity (0800 0326 100) . (If you choose Ecotricity, choose the New Energy Plus option).
Take one fewer return flight this year.
Make one fewer car journey this week.
Change all the incandescent lightbulbs in my home to low-energy lightbulbs, and turn lights off when I leave the room.
Find out more about the Climate Change Bill (information can be obtained from Christian Aid -- click on "stop poverty"), and write to my MP to tell them that 80% cuts in emissions are required.
Substitute a Fairtrade product for something I currently buy.
Get somebody else to do one of the above things.
Something else:
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Signed: __________________________
Name: ___________________________
Date: ____________________________