St John's Church Egham

Experience Hope

Eco-Festival

VDD: Climate Change Action & Eco-Anxiety

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Climate Change Action & Eco-Climate Anxiety

29th July 2021 at 8-9pm – Free Ticketed Virtual Discussion + Q&A

At COP25 (2019) climate scientists estimated the world had only twelve years to tackle the problem of greenhouse gas emissions. In November 2021 the UK will be hosting the 26th UN Climate Change Conference (COP26), with the conference’s ambitious aim of “Uniting the World to Tackle Climate Change”. The problem is, many nations lack urgency, and continue with Business As Usual. The UK says it will strive to be carbon neutral by 2050, which is twenty years after the “deadline’ set by the climate scientists. Does this remind you of an apathetic Covid response that large nations took?

Members of St John’s Eco-Church appealing to Runnymede Borough Council to create a Climate Change Strategy (June 2021)

How can we alleviate our own fears and anxiety about this? What can we do to redirect that energy to create positive actions to alleviate society’s contribution to climate change?

Join our discussion on the 29th July with:

Chris Hyde is chair of the Surrey Climate Commission transport group, and is working with others to deliver a more sustainable approach to transport across Surrey. He is also a transport planner and has worked with Transport for London. He was in the team that wrote the first Mayor’s transport strategy, briefing Mayor Ken Livingstone on walking and cycling policy and strategy.

Maria Gabauerova is an active member of Extinction Rebellion (XR) in Guildford since late 2019 and a member of Doctors for XR since mid 2020. Maria is also a student mental health nurse at the University of Surrey.

Esther Prior is St John's Vicar. In her last APCM, she outlined a bold vision to see St John become carbon neutral by 2030

Dal Hettiaratchi has been working as a counselor for about 15 years with a Christian charity who provide counselling to those who cannot afford to pay the full price for it. In her job she has dealt with many issues around anxiety and depression. Dal has a BSc in Psychology and BACP accredited integrative counselling diploma from Guildford. 

This is a free virtual ticketed event with a limited number of places available. Please register below if you would like to attend.

If you want to leave a question for this discussion, please submit your question via our question form. Click here to access

Resources:

https://www.churchofengland.org/news-and-media/news-and-statements/general-synod-sets-2030-net-zero-carbon-target

Climate anxiety and the Church

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20191010-how-to-beat-anxiety-about-climate-change-and-eco-awareness

To connect with us:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/StJohnsEghamEcoChurch

@StJohnsEcoChurch https://www.facebook.com/StJohnsEcoChurch

https://www.instagram.com/stjohnsecochurch/

@StJohnsEcoChurch https://www.instagram.com/stjohnsecochurch/

Email: StJohnsEghamEcoChurch@gmail.com

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Nature Adventure Activities

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Explore Nature at St Johns and with Naturehood throughout the Year

Nature Discovery at St John’s

Naturehood with EarthWatch

“A nation that destroys its soils destroys itself. Forests are the lungs of our land, purifying the air and giving fresh strength to our people.”
—Franklin D. Roosevelt
 
Psalm 24:1: “The Earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it, the world, and those who live in it”

The natural world that our God created is a magical world with animals and plants that can do amazing feats. Who better to tell you about this than David Attenborough:

The UK’s biodiversity is in decline and we have an opportunity to change that in St John’s Church grounds, our gardens and in the wider community. We have nature activities that families and children can be part of to regenerate and heal our biodiversity: one is an ongoing project at St John’s which is an on going project as we rewild sections of the grounds. The other is at your home and when you are outside. See below.

Nature Discovery At St John’s

Learn and discover the biodiversity (flora, fauna and wildlife) within the St John’s church grounds (or your local church grounds) by using an App like PictureThis and Picture Insect to identify the plants and potential insects. Once you have discovered a plant and /or insect, then log the information at Caring For God’s Acres: https://www.caringforgodsacre.org.uk/our-beautiful-burial-grounds-project/share-your-records/

You will need to provide:

  • What you saw
  • Where you saw it
  • Date you saw it

Share your St John’s nature adventures in our Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/StJohnsEghamEcoChurch/ and tag us on instagram @StJohnsEcoChurch #StJohnsEghamNature

Church grounds outlined in red

Naturehood with EarthWatch

Naturehood is an initiative organised by EarthWatch for 16+ with tips and tricks and projects that can be undertaken at home or in the community (loads of excellent information for teachers). To find the actions you can take and to join a platform to be inspired and share with people who care, join Naturehood: https://naturehood.uk/ For more information, we will have a live Q&A session with EarthWatch on the 20th July. Join us for a dinner discussion at 6pm. See our listing on the main schedule for more details.

To connect with us:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/StJohnsEghamEcoChurch

@StJohnsEcoChurch https://www.facebook.com/StJohnsEcoChurch

https://www.instagram.com/stjohnsecochurch/

@StJohnsEcoChurch https://www.instagram.com/stjohnsecochurch/

Email: StJohnsEghamEcoChurch@gmail.com

Trail of Hope and Visions

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Trail of Hope and Visions

Activity Throughout July

2020 the year for visions

Covid19 and the global lockdown has required rapid lifestyle changes for many around the world and with that has come a feeling of displacement. To help people reflect positively, we would like our community to generate 5,000 messages / drawings on scrap pieces of wood to collectively demonstrate our personal and community hopes, visions and dreams to build our world back better. With your messages we will create a trail of hope and visions within St John’s Church grounds in Egham to help local people and visitors to our community to reflect, inspire, encourage and to provide a vision for 2020.

If you live in or pass by Egham, please contribute a message/ drawing on a scrap piece of wood with your hopes and visions for:

  • Our Planet and Natural World
  • Our Community
  • Each Other
  • by Simon
  • By Vera

For more examples, see our instagram: https://www.instagram.com/stjohnsecochurch/

Materials Required:

  • Scrap piece of wood: could be on pieces of log slices, plank, etc. We would prefer that you used scraps that you or neighbours might otherwise have thrown away to minimise waste.
  • Scrap house paint or permanent marker as the messages will be outside

Collection Period: Entries will be collected daily up to 1st August 2020. After that we will be organise the messages in the grounds of St Johns. We will announce when we have completed the trail of hope and visions within our Facebook group and Instagram account (see at the end of this post)

Leave your message at St Johns, Egham near the front of the church doors. A sign has been left to indicate where you can leave your piece of wood

Image may contain: outdoor
Enter from Church Road to find the front of the church

To connect with us:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/StJohnsEghamEcoChurch

@StJohnsEcoChurch https://www.facebook.com/StJohnsEcoChurch

https://www.instagram.com/stjohnsecochurch/

@StJohnsEcoChurch https://www.instagram.com/stjohnsecochurch/

Email: StJohnsEghamEcoChurch@gmail.com

If you have a Facebook / Instagram account, connect to us @StJohnsEcoChurch, as well as add the following tags onto your post #StJohnsEcoChurch #HopeMessages #VisionMessages #StJohnsEgham #TrailOfHope

Wishing you many visions for 2020 😀