About Us

Letter from the Vicar

Dear Friends

It is often said that the Brits are obsessed with the weather as it brought up in many people’s conversations during the day. Given the recent very low temperatures and how snowfall brings things to a halt we all have something in common to share in this part of the Peak District. The loss of life and destruction of so many homes around Los Angeles as a result of the recent wildfires with their severity being linked to Climate Change puts our experience of skating and avoiding falling into some perspective.

The recent World Meteorological Organisation report that 2024 was the warmest year on record, with the period 2015-2024 being the ten warmest years on record, and last year seeing a global mean temperature rise of more than 1.5°C makes sobering reading and concern about where we are going as human beings, especially where nations do not accept the need to reduce and find alternatives to the use of fossil fuels.

Without panicking we do need to take urgent action and fast if we are not going to pass on an unbearable legacy to those who follow us. The late President Carter was a visionary, spurred by his faith in a God he believed called humanity to be wise, responsible and caring co stewards in caring for the environment, and he introduced early schemes to begin efforts to limit the harmful effects of human activity, but many derided this nearly 50 years ago.

Until we can all see ourselves living as a single family in a common home and that we have personal responsibility to do what we can to limit our footprint on the world and protect those who suffer the consequences of other people’s activity, then the accounts of extreme weather will continue to be a part of our experience. Governments and nations need to make sacrificial decisions that will ultimately be costly in developing sustainable environmental programmes and until they do it is tempting to feel that our decision to use our car less, cut back on single plastic usage, buying local produce and recycling waste is a drop in the ocean.

We do have a responsibility for the protection of our beautiful earth and can all do something about it. There is hope that if our generation acts decisively and courageously to the challenges posed by the need for environmental sustainability and reducing the effects of climate change, then in our collaboration together there is the hope of building a more peaceful, just and sustainable low carbon human society, where we are less concerned about what I need or want, whatever the cost, to developing a new love and respect for the earth and all the peoples that inhabit this planet. May we open ourselves to new possibilities during this year and beyond.

With love and prayers

Tony

Canon Tony’s last Service as Vicar before retirement will be on Sunday 27th April 2025.