Connect with nature and dedicate this time to God as the Creator and sustainer of all life. Choose an idea or two from A Rocha's resource.These include going on a prayer walk. Choose a short route with specific places to stop, pause and pray - an oak tree, a pond or a viewpoint perhaps. At each stopping point pray for the people and nature that are affected by climate change. Or perhaps help keep your local area safe and clean for people and wildlife by picking up some litter.There are many other ideas you can find at: https://arocha.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Season-of-Creation.pdfExplore practical ways to enjoy, nurture and defend God’s creation with Wild Christian. Sign up for the Wild Christian newsletter for regular updates, support, advice and ideas.
A Rocha UK is a Christian charity working to protect and restore the natural world and committed to equipping Christians and churches in the UK to care for the environment. They provide useful tips for each month of the year. Here’s some for August.Assist local wildlife during very hot weather. Whilst this hot weather spell will be shortly coming to an end, the reality is we will have many more extreme-weather periods in the months and years ahead due to climate change. So while there is a real danger to wildlife in times of drought and dryness (Ezekiel 15), it can also be a chance for us to make sure life continues in abundance (Psalm 65).So what can we do to ensure nature has a chance in these dry and hot times? Here are our top five actions for wildlife. - Make sure you have a supply of water for birds and insects. Water stress is one of the biggest killers of wildlife during drought. Keep it topped up every day. - Don’t forget to continue to supply food for wildlife. Drought can mean grains dry up faster and insect numbers reduce increasing reliance on us to help support nature in times of stress.– Avoid cutting your grass. Keeping grass long will help retain moisture, provide a source of shelter for insects and mammals and keep the topsoil from blowing away.- Keep your bushes unpruned. Creating spaces of shade will help reduce your garden’s temperature, slowing the effect of drought. – Make sure you keep fruit trees well watered with a can not a hose. Don’t waste water trying to keep the grass alive – instead, focus your attention on flowering and fruiting species. This will help to keep a food source for pollinating insects and for birds and other animals to feed. We hope these top tips will help to create a resilient landscape in these challenging times. For more practical eco tips, sign up to Wild Christian.
One of the 5 marks of mission of the Church of England is "To strive to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of the earth”. We are now proud to announce that St Hilda’s Church has been awarded a bronze Eco Church award. Eco Church is a learning community of churches of all shapes and sizes. It provides a framework to support churches and its leadership to take practical action on caring for God’s earth in all aspects of church life.Over the coming months we will begin to work towards gaining a silver award. We would love to invite others to join our Eco Group to guide us through the next steps and to contribute ideas.As in all volunteer roles in church this requires basic safeguarding training, every three years. The training empowers us to know how to make St Hilda’s a safe place for everyone. There will be a Basic Awareness Safeguarding Training session on Saturday 31st August, morning. Please speak to Anne Harris if you’d like to know more.The Eco Group: James Atkinson, Ian Dickinson, Fran Ellis
On Sea Sunday, July 14th at 10.30am we will be remembering the work of the Mission to Seafarers. If you have any knitting please bring it to church on any of the next Sundays, or if you would like us to collect it please give us a ring on 5504027. As always we are very grateful for all the time spent making the lovely knitted items. During 2023, we were able to send the Mission to the Seafarers 90 hats, 18 balaclavas, 29 scarfs and 26 pairs of gloves. I receive letters from the Port Welfare staff of the Mission to Seafarers at South Shields, where the knitted items are now collected to be distributed to seafarers, and from the letters it is obvious how much the seafarers appreciate to be remembered. As always my sincere thanks to our knitters for all the support I receive.Your support would be much appreciated at the service. Please continue to remember the Mission to Seafarers and the people they minister to in your prayers. Many thanks, Judith and family.
