Have You Ever Thought Of Going Solar with your Cooking?

It is a beautiful sunny day here in Seattle which turned my thoughts to how we can harness the power of the sun for our daily lives. I itch to experiment with solar cookers and am looking forward to experiments in this and other energy efficient ways of preparing my food. Would love to hear from those who have experimented already. Here are some great videos I found on this topic.

I loved this one on using a parabolic mirror for cooking a turkey burger. There are similar videos available on how to cook ceese sandwiches and in fact anything else that you might want to grill.

And this one on how to build a solar generator is both intriguing and appealing to me.

The one that most touched me and in fact brought tears to my eyes is this one. It is amazing to think that rape and violence against women could be reduced by solar cooking. Solar cooking can bring peace and dignity to women’s lives. What impact I wonder could our own creativity provide for people at the margins?

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This is the International Year of Biodiversity

Last week I was sent an email reminding me that not only is this the Time for Creation but it is also the International Year of Biodiversity.  I am embarrassed to say that I did not know.  But now that I have remedied my error I thought that it was important to provide all of us with resources to celebrate and participate in this.  And there are some wonderful resources out there that we need to be aware of.  Much of the emphasis is on praying for Africa so I wanted to start with this reminder of the wonderful biodiversity of Africa

As 2010 is the International Year of Biodiversity we especially encourage organizing prayers around this theme. At the same time, churches are encouraged to pray for and with people in Africa, where biodiversity and human welfare are threatened alike by climate change. Click here for suggested prayers.

African church leaders that met under the auspices of the All Africa Conference of Churches in Nairobi, Kenya, in June 2008 affirmed the need to take action in a public statement. “The current climate crisis is primarily spiritual and ethical with serious political, economic and justice implications,” the church leaders wrote. “As human beings we have failed to appreciate the intrinsic worth of ourselves, other humans, other species and future generations.”

The statement, along with comparable declarations by other ecumenical organizations and original articles on climate change and care for creation, is chronicled in the July 2010 issue of the Ecumenical Review. The issue is dedicated to the memory of the South African theologian Steve de Gruchy, who wrote an article on water and sanitation from a Christian perspective for the journal, shortly before his death in February 2010.

Africa has rich and varied biological resources forming the continent’s natural wealth on which its social and economic systems are based. These resources are also of global importance, for the world’s climate and for the development of agriculture, industrial activities, pharmaceutical production, construction and tourism, to name but a few of the most important areas.
Africa is home to some one quarter of the world’s 4,700 mammal species, including 79 species of antelope. (…) Eight of the world’s 34 biodiversity hotspots are in Africa.

UNEP: The state of biodiversity in Africa (Download the full report as pdf, 505 KB)

Liturgical resources

• Prayers from and for Africa (in English, French, German and Spanish)

• Prayers for biodiversity

• Outline of a prayer service prepared by members of the Ecumenical Centre worship committee (in English and German).
• Exegetical and liturgical resources collected by the Network of Earthkeeping Christian Communities in South Africa (in English and Afrikaans)
• Prayers, blessings and meditations collected by the European Christian Environmental Network (in a variety of languages). See also there dossier for 2010

• Collection of liturgies and prayers by the Green Church Project (in English and French)

• Creation Flourishing – a time for celebration and care: a collection of prayers, blessings, hymns, biodiversity FAQs and other study material by Churches Together in Britain and Ireland (in English with Irish and Welsh translations)

Readings, sermons, songs and other liturgical resources are also available on the Australian website Season of Creation.

Deaths We Ignore

I think it a little ironic that my post yesterday on the 10 most dangerous foods has received so much attention.  We are all concerned about our health and how what we eat might affect us.  Yet we ignore the fact that others face constant risks to their health because of the lack of basic sanitation and clean water – things that we take for granted.  For us the food we eat may contain dangerous additives that affect our health, but at least we have a choice.  We don’t have to eat the dangerous foods because there is so much else for us to eat.

In Zimbabwe however thousands have already lost their lives and others are at risk because of cholera.

The death toll from the cholera outbreak in Zimbabwe has now passed the 3,000 mark, the UN’s World Health Organization (WHO) has said. Read more

And around the world millions have been pushed into poverty and starvation because of the economic downturn. As I thought about this I was reminded of this blog post by Ricci Kilmer who is getting ready for the Justice At The Table workshop February 7th

I’m at a crossroads right now.  I feel that I can’t just buy fair traded coffee and locally grown produce and say that’s the epitome of food and justice for christian life.  I need a way in which to become the bread,  to become the body and I need to do it in a way that puts me in communion, in the truest sense of that word, with the rest of the body as well.  I’m not sure where this will lead but I think I’m finally at a place where I’m ready to find out.  Read more

Invisible children

For those that are in Seattle, here is something you might like to check out.

Quest Church and Q Cafe is privileged to partner together to host a screening of the new film, ”Black is for Sunday,” from the non-profit international organization, Invisible Children.  Film will be shown on Monday, March 31 – 7-9pm at Q Cafe with some brief discussion afterwards.  Read more