Seeds of prayer: Brexit and climate change
Brexit is having both expected and unexpected impacts on trade in agricultural and food products, and is blamed even when other factors may be at play (current fisheries dispute, lorry drivers shortage, increased red tape and costs in trading with the EU). Trade thrives on trust. Honesty and fairness in buying and selling are pleasing to God and make for a good society (Leviticus 19:36). Pray for all seeking to resolve trade disputes and for all affected by them, for peace, truth and equity to prevail in trade negotiations, and for Christians in trade to shine as lights of integrity and reconciliation. The UK's net zero strategy will profoundly impact farming and the countryside. The Lord has promised ‘seed time and harvest while the earth remains’ but holds us responsible for our stewardship of the earth (Genesis 1:28, 2:15; Revelation 11:18). Unlike some of today’s environmentalists, we have a message of hope. Large numbers of Christians are praying and present at COP26.
Ambulance waits risk lives
Richard Webber from the College of Paramedics said that members with thirty years’ service have never experienced anything like this. Lives are at risk because patients face unacceptably long waits for 999 emergency callouts for heart attacks and strokes, with some seriously ill patients waiting up to nine hours for an ambulance. Numerous investigations are going on into deaths linked to delays. The problems have forced all ambulance services to be put on their highest levels of alert - meaning that patients who can make their own way to hospital are told to do so. A number of services have brought in the military to support crews, and patients are taken to hospital in the back of police cars. Cases involve waits for crews to reach patients and delays when they arrive at overcrowded A&E‘s and spend hours queuing outside. Also hospitals cannot discharge patients fit to leave because of a lack of community support.
Anti-Semitism a ‘present danger’ at universities
Education secretary Nadhim Zahawi said Oxford University should explain to Jewish students why it took a total of £12.3 million from the Mosley family, as anti-Semitism is not simply a historic debate. The Mosley charitable trust houses the fortune of Sir Oswald Mosley, leader of the British Union of Fascists. The university is now facing a donor backlash. One benefactor vowed not to give St Peter’s College another penny, and four British Nobel laureates have urged the university to reconsider giving a professorship in the name of Mosley’s grandson, saying that doing so ‘dishonours’ their subject. On 9 November police were called to the London School of Economics, where activists carrying Palestinian flags demonstrated against Israel’s ambassador, who was addressing the university's debating society. They chanted that Israel is a ‘terrorist state’. Next week the debating society is hosting Husam Zomlot, head of the Palestinian mission to the UK.
Church land to be transformed for net-zero
A new project is planning to regenerate 15 percent of the UK's church land in a bid to cut carbon emissions. According to a Christian conservation charity, A Rocha, approximately 500,000 acres of land across the UK is owned by churches in the form of churchyards, conference centre grounds, urban community farms, and agricultural estates. A Rocha’s initiative aims to transform 75,000 acres of this land into wildflower meadows, native woodlands and food forests over five years. Regenerating certain types of ecosystems can absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and lock it up safely in soil and vegetation. The scheme will also involve the restoration of peatlands to help to soak up carbon emissions with native mix forests, protecting soils from drought and floods. These nature-based solutions can make a significant contribution to lowering the amount of carbon dioxide that is being stored, held, and taken up across the country.
