John Sherbourne

Not long ago my friend Haddon Willmer lent me a book, as he shares my interest and concern for our world’s environment. It was the autobiography of Sir John Houghton, former Chief Executive of the Meteorological Office, and a committed Christian. I have indeed enjoyed reading it; it is interesting, informative and also challenging. Sir John was very much involved in setting up the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), of which he served as Chairman while they produced their first three reports. He is a scientist, and his faith and commitment to truth shine throughout the book.

Inspired by John Houghton’s thoughts, in this piece I shall attempt to set out why I believe as Christians, we should take the stewardship of our world more seriously than we often do. The following points largely come from Sir John’s book.

• The world faces serious environmental problems, mostly on a global scale.
• Looking after the earth is a God-given responsibility. Not to look after the earth is a sin.
• Christians need to re-emphasise that the doctrines of creation, incarnation and resurrection belong together. The spiritual is not to be seen as separate from the material. A thoroughgoing theology of the environment needs to be developed.
• Our stewardship of the earth, as Christians, is to be pursued in dependence on and in partnership with God.
• The application of science and technology is an important component of stewardship. Humility is an essential ingredient in the pursuit and application of science and technology – and in the exercise of stewardship
• All of this provides an enormous opportunity for the church, which has too much ignored the earth and the environment and neglected the importance of creation and its place in the overall Christian message.

Some of you may have recently watched episodes of Blue Planet II, as I have. Two images stuck in my mind that illustrate the problems that we face through our neglect in caring for our world. Firstly, there was the carcass of a dead whale which had been struck by a large ship. It was being consumed by sharks. The second image was of the great floating masses of discarded plastic materials in the oceans, which are killing fish, birds and other marine life forms. This graphically shows us that nature can clear up and recycle its own mess, but not ours. Nature’s mess is protoplasm, ours is plastic.

Furthermore, nature’s clean-up systems are solar powered, ours are not; furthermore, our systems require us to burn even more energy which exacerbates the problem. This problem is becoming more dangerous by the day; besides the loss of fish and birds, the danger is that plastics will enter the food chain, and since we stand at the top of this food chain, they could end by poisoning us. Our neglect of the world and misuse of its resources is leading to the loss of many species of plants and animals and we depend on a biodiverse world.

I have not written any items for the website for about 12 months, as I have been engaged on a project to compare mankind’s current level of environmental impact with past episodes of volcanism which led to the five great mass extinctions that have occurred during the past 500 million years. I can say that the natural order that we are familiar with is now in peril.

What can we do?

• Take more interest in how our world works.
• Ask questions about issues such as how responsibly sourced are the foods that we consume.
• Continue to minimise our consumption of plastics, and be very vigilant about disposing of them responsibly.
• Remember that we all need to take responsibility for caring for our world.

John Sturges              j.sturges@leedsbeckett.ac.uk;

Julia Hyliger              Julia.hyliger@hotmail.com;

Haddon Willmer       willmerhaddon@gmail.com

It is with deep sadness that we learn of the death of Margaret Barr.

Margaret’s funeral service will take place here at Moortown Baptist Church at 12.30pm on Friday the 23rd of November and will be followed by a private family burial. 

We extend our love and prayers to Arthur and the family.  

There will be a special Fair Trade Christmas stall after the morning service here at MBC this Sunday (Nov 25th). This is a wonderful way of supporting Traidcraft, particularly so in this their hour of need.

However, if for one reason or another you don’t get the chance to visit Roger Robson and his team on Sunday don’t forget you can also shop for Traidcraft products at The Beehive on Potternewton Lane or online by visiting https://www.traidcraftshop.co.uk/

This coming Sunday, immediately following our morning service we’ll be clearing church ahead of Rewind to Christmas 2018.

Preparing the Sanctuary and the Music Room in order for over 400 primary school children to join us and share what we as Christians believe the true meaning of Christmas to be is no easy feat. So if your’re on team and you spare us an hour or so we’d love to see you anytime from say 12.15 on wards. 

Oh and if you’re in our drama team we’re having a full run through at 3pm. 

This year Shelley Dring will be leading Rewind, her first time on team. Please pray for Shelley and all the rest of the twenty strong team as over two days they throw themselves into this – one of MBC’s most important outreach projects. 

November the 11th 2018 was the 100th anniversary of the signing of the armistice that ended World War 1.

At MBC we marked this special day with two services; our regular 10.30 service, and in the afternoon Songs of Praise. 

Below is a gallery of pictures taken during the morning service.

The poignant silhouettes were among a whole raft of images which in the build up to the commemoration served to remind us that besides service personnel many others, and on both sides were involved in the four year struggle. 

The beautiful flowers which were donated by Gillian Bayliffe in memory of her parents were arranged by Nichola Holmes, and the stunning poppy displays were crocheted and knitted by a team of Beacon cafe and Cast Off members led by Sue Gladman. 

To view a larger version of any of the gallery images simply click on the picture.

As a venue for Moortots or a Sunday morning creche MBC’s old Church Hall is perfect: slides, playhouses, pretend kitchens. But one has to concede that as the setting for a service of morning prayer and quiet reflection its dazzling colour scheme and its equally vibrant wall art is perhaps a tad out of line. 

And that was the conundrum facing Shona and Graham as they began to plan the second of our pilot services. The solution, as brilliant as it is simple was to invite members of our congregation to each make a banner that would set the tone for forty five minutes of multi cultural devotion. 

Between them, using the phrase Come Lord Jesus Sammy Bollarapu, Johnny Osemwengie and Kate Slater produced four banners in Hindi, Edu, Telugu and English.  

We’re now looking to extend the display so if you would like to make a banner using your first language all the materials you need are readily available from Kate Slater’s office. 

As a Leeds lad, born and bred, no prizes for guessing what my contribution would be… “eh up, cum ed Jesus.” 

JS