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.

*****************************

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