You can go through a lot of wipes cleaning up after your child and those wipes take almost 100 years to decompose. Bamboo alternatives are just as soft and are reusable.
https://www.cheekywipes.com/wipes-for-bums-hands-faces/bamboo-washable-baby-wipes.html
Filed under Justice and Peace, Laudato si', Lent, Mission
I didn’t know about World Water Day until recently, but it falls on March 22 each year, and gives us a chance to reflect on how we use and abuse this precious element, and how some people do not have enough for drinking, washing, farming. What follows is from CAFOD, the English and Welsh Catholic church’s overseas aid arm. The full article with a video explanation of the filter is available here.
Here at CAFOD, we are trying to turn dirty water into clean water.
For many poor communities, the local water source is a dirty pond or stream. Diarrhoea kills a young child every 90 seconds.
CAFOD’s water filter campaign is helping people who face the risk of fatal disease every time they wash, cook or drink – by providing simple, low-cost water filters for them.
This water filter is a lifesaver. It transforms dirty water into clean, drinkable water in an hour. A lifeline for families without a clean water source. We’ve made sure that it is simple to put together and uses materials available even in remote communities.
Our water filters use just sand and charcoal. Effective, cheap and easy to maintain, they save lives.
By donating today, you can help more people in developing countries protect their health and their lives.
Filed under Daily Reflections, Lent, Mission
Apologies that tip 26 went unpublished yesterday; I was unable to download it then, but it came quietly this evening. I was looking at herb seeds just yesterday, but ran out of time to sow them.
Grow your own little garden on your window sill with some herb seeds. They are easy to manage and when the time is right you can pluck them fresh and throw them into your meals.
Hair products as well as face ones are now available in bars. Rubbing the bar produces the same result as their liquid counterpart and can sometimes even last longer.
Filed under Justice and Peace, Laudato si', Lent, Mission
No, I don’t know how we got behind again, but two for the price of one today!
Turn your kitchen into a plastic free one by switching over to plastic free sponges and scrubbers.
Bamboo is in and plastic is out! Bring a piece of nature into your bathroom with a bamboo toothbrush. Once the toothbrush has worn out, you can just throw the handle in the compost.
Filed under Justice and Peace, Laudato si', Lent
This letter from Dean Adrian of Lichfield Cathedral is about friendship and suggests what we may be missing, almost without realising it, and how Jesus made friends with all sorts of people, with ‘sinners’.
The Gospels are full of instances where Jesus is “moved with compassion”. No translation in English quite conveys the force of the original: a deep and visceral movement from the bowels, the entrails, the depth of the heart where the strongest emotions originate. For Jesus this feeling of compassion often extended itself into acts of healing and the restoration of the inherent dignity of people on the margins, often in things as simple and straightforward as a conversation or sharing a meal.
Albert Nolan OP in his splendid book “Jesus before Christianity” says: “It would be impossible to overestimate the impact these meals must have had upon the poor and the sinners. By accepting them as friends and equals Jesus had taken away their shame, humiliation, and guilt. By showing them that they mattered to him as people he gave them a sense of dignity … The physical contact which he must have had with them when reclining at table … must have made them feel clean and acceptable”.
The point Nolan drives home is that Jesus isn’t a friendly social worker or dispenser of charity “doing good to someone” but is rather participating in a person’s experience. He stands in solidarity and makes community with people in their woundedness; he is deeply affected by the pain of others, and he can do nothing other than to alleviate pain and suffering. This was received as healing and salvation with relief, joy, gratitude, and love.
Thank you, Dean Adrian.
Filed under Christian Unity, corona virus, Daily Reflections, Lent, Mission, PLaces
Many laundry detergents contain loads of microplastics that ultimately end up in the ocean and negatively affect marine life. Even more so, the bottles are either incinerated or dumped in a landfill where they can take up to 500 years to decompose!
https://www.splosh.com/refills
https://smolproducts.com – we use this one for dishwasher and laundry and found it excellent – and gets delivered to the door, and all plastic free, and very competitively priced, Rev. Jo
Filed under corona virus, Justice and Peace, Laudato si', Lent
Good morning to you all on a rather cold and frosty morning; and I hope this finds you all well, as we are here. Yesterday I headed over to Ramsgate for my vaccination – what a well organised and slick operation it was- hats off to all those who organised it – arm feeling achy though which is to be expected! It was strange driving to Ramsgate as I realised it was the furthest I have been in the car for about six months!
Today, 8th March 2021 is International Women’s Day, and the Mother’s Union has asked that we pray for women around the world between today and Mothering Sunday (14th March), we remember today that around the world there are women who are marginalised and oppressed or abused for just being female. who don’t have the access to opportunities for education, a safe place to live, clean water, or some days don’t have enough food to feed their children. We give thanks for organisations such as the Mothers Union who support and encourage women both nationally and internationally.
Morning Prayer: https://youtu.be/ATUIE7sODHk
God Bless you all and have a good day
Jo
Rev Jo Richards, Rector of the Benefice of St Dunstan, St Mildred and St Peter, Canterbury
Another chance to feel smug and virtuous: both of us gardeners at St Mildred’s Glebe this morning were using metal flasks for our breaktime drinks, and no worries about water quality or quantity. Polish that halo before the cobwebs take over again!
Filed under Christian Unity, corona virus, Justice and Peace, L'Arche, Laudato si', Lent, Spring
We are using masks on a daily basis, so why not help the planet with reusable ones. All you have to do is give it a good wash and voila, good as new!
https://www.boots.com/sitesearch?searchTerm=reusable%20face%20covering
Filed under Christian Unity, corona virus, Justice and Peace, Laudato si', Lent
Save money on constantly buying new spray bottles for your home and instead make your own version. All you need is 1 part vinegar and 3 parts water for an effective solution. You can either buy a reusable glass bottle or simply save your old cleaning bottles for your new solution.
Filed under Christian Unity, Justice and Peace, Laudato si', Lent
I trust I’ll be forgiven for using two photos from Amsterdam to accompany GKC’s thoughts on cold showers for the English. These young people were enjoying a public and communal shower-bath in April and sharing their enjoyment with family and friends! And I guess an craftily programmed computer controlled the flow. Social media if not a socialistic institution.
If the Englishman is really fond of cold baths, he ought not to grumble at the English climate for being a cold bath. In these days we are constantly told that we should leave our little special possessions and join in the enjoyment of common social institutions and a common social machinery. I offer the rain as a thoroughly Socialistic institution. It disregards that degraded delicacy which has hitherto led each gentleman to take his shower-bath in private. It is a better shower-bath, because it is public and communal; and, best of all, because somebody else pulls the string.
Baptism is also public and communal, since all Christians are called to be baptised, either as infants or as believing adults and anyone may attend a baptism in a public church. The churches recognise each other’s baptism and do not re-baptise people who were Christened before joining a particular church.
Filed under Daily Reflections, PLaces, Spring
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