We are a small Episcopal Church on the banks of the Rappahannock in Port Royal, Virginia. We acknowledge that we gather on the traditional land of the first people of Port Royal, the Nandtaughtacund, and we respect and honor with gratitude the land itself, the legacy of the ancestors, and the life of the Rappahannock Tribe. Our mission statement is to do God’s Will in all that we do.

Season of Creation

Season of Creation – Forests (Deforestation)

This week we look at ground level to consider deforestation

Deforestation

Forests in our memories – From Michelle Cook, Intergen. “How do you think of forests? In your imagination are they places of peace and quiet? Are they places that scare you? Are you more at home in a eucalypt forest than in a mangrove forest? Sometimes forests can be places of fear. Think of all the old stories from Europe, the folk tales some of us may have grown up hearing. Stories like Hansel and Gretel, where children get lost in the forest. Stories like Snow White, where the beautiful young girl gets taken to the forest by the hunter so that he may kill her far away from witnesses. Forests in these stories are seen as places of secrecy, of unknown dangers and mysterious powers.”

“In Psalm 139 it is our bodies being knit together in our mother’s wombs that becomes known. God, the creator of everything, knows our bodies, and hear the Psalmist says to us that we are fearfully and wonderfully made. Even the workings of the womb, hidden from us, and felt by mothers, are known by God. The story of creation is retold in Genesis 2:4b-22. Adam is created from earth and is set in a garden – a forest of fruit trees – a garden of food. Here is a forest, where again, all is known. The chaos and desperation of the land, where nothing is yet growing, is contrasted with the richness and safety of the garden.”

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More than half of Brazil is racked by drought. Blame deforestation

Washington Post, Sept 13, 2024

Men ride horses Sunday across the dried-up Parana do Manaquiri, a river in Manaquiri, in Brazil’s Amazonas state.

Brazil is in the grip of its worst drought on record, Brazil’s Center for Natural Disaster Monitoring and Alerts said this month, a drought that has parched at least 59 percent of Latin America’s largest country and dried out more than 1,400 cities.

Along the Rio Madeira in Amazonas state, locals are trekking miles on the hot sands of the dried riverbed in search of water. In the Pantanal, the world’s largest tropical wetland, fires have scorched an estimated 20,000 square kilometers (7,720 square miles). The vast Cerrado region is in the grip of the worst drought in at least 700 years, according to researchers at the University of São Paulo. And the air in São Paulo state has grown so heavy with forest fire smoke that authorities have urged people to avoid physical activity outside.

Much of the crisis, scientists say, can be explained by climate change, which is driving temperatures higher and making rainfall more unpredictable. But it’s been exacerbated by the deforestation of the Amazon, which has the potential to disrupt rainfall patterns across much of South America.

The biome is hydrated by a unique rainfall pattern known as “flying rivers.” Moisture blows in from the Atlantic Ocean and forms rain over the eastern Amazon. The dense forest canopy absorbs the water, then releases much of it back into the atmosphere as vapor to be carried farther west. The cycle repeats until the flying rivers collide with the Andes mountains, where they turn southward into central Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Argentina.

Reliant on trees, the hydraulic system is now being frayed by deforestation. The destruction has been most acute in the southeastern Amazon, precisely where the moisture from the Atlantic is first deposited. The loss of vegetation is reducing the volume of water that’s reaching the continent.

This effect is being compounded by deforestation elsewhere. The Cerrado region, which has far fewer environmental protections than the Amazon, has been decimated in recent years by forest loss. Eight of the 10 municipalities that posted the highest rates of deforestation last year were concentrated in the region.

Lectionary, Season of Creation IV

Link to the Lectionary, Sept. 22

1 Collect –  Hold fast to the environment! “Grant us, Lord, not to be anxious about earthly things, but to love things heavenly; and even now, while we are placed among things that are passing away, to hold fast to those that shall endure”

2 Proverbs 31:10-31 The ‘capable wife’ is someone whose practicality certainly extends to the necessary negotiation with climate and the environment

In Hebrew tradition, wisdom is embodied.   we best understand it best by reflecting on a lived example. This is a way that we can approach Proverbs

“She considers a field and buys it;
with the fruit of her hands she plants a vineyard.”

She looks well to the ways of her household,
and does not eat the bread of idleness. “Give her a share in the fruit of her hands,
and let her works praise her in the city gates”

She is able to negotiate the market in terms of price but imports from far away if necessary. Sells in the market.  Rises early to provide food and “works with willing hands

“She opens her mouth with wisdom,
and the teaching of kindness is on her tongue.

She looks well to the ways of her household,
and does not eat the bread of idleness.”

3 Psalm 1 compares wise and righteous folk to trees planted by streams of water: what a lovely and profound natural image!. Everything they do prospers and contrasts to wicked

4 Wisdom of Solomon 1:16-2:1, 12-22 The option of reading from this apocryphal book encourages a godly community to stand up for the wisdom of justice and God’s love and favor for the poor, and for Creation.

5 Jeremiah 11:18-20 Perhaps drawing from the same source as Psalm 1, Jeremiah squirms and cries out when opponents scheme to “destroy the tree with its fruit”, in a passage which has been traditionally linked to the mission of Christ.

 

Focus on 5 areas of the Environment in the Season of Creation, 2024

We have taken the five Sundays readings in the Season of Creation and highlighted a specific environmental area which we will cover weekly. (This week, earth; ) How is this area affecting us ? What can we do to improve our use of them ? We have added related scriptures.

1. Earth – Sept 1

Collect “O God, creator of heaven and earth, you have filled the world with beauty and abundance. Open our eyes to behold your gracious hand in all your works; that rejoicing with your whole creation, we may learn to serve you with gladness; for the sake of him through whom all things were made, your Son, Jesus Christ our Lord. ”

2. Water – Sept 8

Isaiah 55:9-10 “8 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. 10 For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, and do not return there until they have watered the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater.”

3. Energy – Sept 15

Isaiah 40:28-31 “The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. 29 He gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless. 30 Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted; 31 but those who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.”

4. Food – Sept 22

James 5:7-8 “Be patient, therefore, beloved, until the coming of the Lord. The farmer waits for the precious crop from the earth, being patient with it until it receives the early and the late rains. 8 You also must be patient. Strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is near. ”

5. Climate (Deforestation) – Sept 29

Romans 8:18-21 “18 I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us. 19 For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God; 20 for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. ”

How to turn the tables on food waste

Transcript

Inevitably, we’re sitting there at the end of the meal, they’re pushing food around their plate, they don’t want to eat, and they’re looking at me with some awkward excuse. And I say, like, we can’t eat our way out of this. This is a systems problem. And it’s just way too big. How big?

It’s the size of the entire United States. It uses three times as much water as the whole country. And it grows food all year long, and when harvested, produces enough to fill 100 tractor trailers every minute, all year long. Those trucks then drive, fly and float all over the world. Except instead of going somewhere to be eaten, they go straight to landfill, where the food rots and produces nothing. A powerful greenhouse gas. Seems crazy, right? But that’s effectively what we’re doing, from science experiments in the back of our refrigerators to truckloads of products that are too close to some arbitrary expiration date

Globally, 1 billion meals are wasted. Go any in every single day. That’s more than a meal per person for everyone on this planet who faces hunger. Not to mention it’s worth $1 trillion. And this whole ridiculous exercise has five times the greenhouse gas footprint of the entire aviation industry.

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Food Waste tackled by 9 states. Only Mass. was able to make reductions


From the Washington Post, Sept 13, 2024

“Food waste is a pressing national problem. Of the millions of tons of food in the United States, more than 30 percent goes unsold and uneaten, according to ReFed, a research and advocacy group that works on food waste. Spoiled food makes up the single largest volume of material sent to landfills and incinerators, where it decomposes, releasing methane — a powerful greenhouse gas that is heating the planet. A study by the Environmental Protection Agency found emissions from food waste in the United States are roughly equal to more than 50 million cars on the road.

Nine states have passed food waste bans aimed at businesses such as chain restaurants and supermarkets. Researchers studied the first five laws and found that from 2014 to 2018, Massachusetts reduced its solid waste by an average of 7.3 percent. But similar legislation in the other states — California, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Vermont — had no discernible effect.

What did Massachusetts do differently? Read on