We are swamped this week with stories of a world in climate torment, as all God's creation on Earth is in pain from our wrongdoings.  Slowly we have come to realise that our very actions that have given us so much have also taken so much away, as creatures of all types and sizes go extinct every week.

Just think about that: creatures that have spent millions of years developing that are ceasing to exist.  No more will the world see them; they will never return.

The same may yet happen to all of us and it will certainly happen to many millions in those areas that are already seeing the effects.

At the same time, in a world full of human wars, many in those same areas that are in agony with climate change, we see thousands being killed and assaulted by their fellow humans, for the 'crime' of existing.

We will be gathering at cenotaphs throughout the UK and around the world, remembering the day when 'the guns fell silent' in 1918.  Oh, if only the guns had fallen silent!  The guns have never been silent since and the lessons that many hoped for have not been learned; instead the one lesson that seems to have been learned very well indeed is that 'might is right', and economic and physical warfare continue to rain down on a suffering world.

Christians and others should not give up under these circumstances; in fact, more than ever, we need to witness the deaths and destruction that have gone before, in the mechanised warfare of the 20th century in particular, when generals thought in terms of 'winning' because they could order more millions of men into battle than their opposing generals could.  Those leaders who thought like that were praised and given awards; streets were named after them, the very streets that maimed soldiers later lived on as they tried to make a living in a cruel post-war world where there were no jobs waiting for them.  I walked along one such street only yesterday, on a housing estate built by public donations for returning soldiers and their families.  The UK government of the day was totally opposed to such housing being provided but the public forced it through.

There is hope; that is what we are here to say.  Our God walks with us through the valley of the shadow of death, be that from climate change or war.  With faith, our hope is kept alive, until the times when our actions count, when no matter what leaders may wish, we have our say, when climate reversal actions are forced through and when those who are victims of war are given the respect and help that they need.  May God give us all the wisdom and strength to stand up for what is right.  Amen.