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All the News back to September 2009

BBQ number twoFriday 3rd September 2010- Unbelievably it is now exactly 20 years since a small group of us met in Oxford and founded Sage. At  the time it seemed a pretty radical thing to do. Much has changed since then. The Christian environmental movement has grown very considerably both in the UK and further afield. But the environmental problems the world is facing have become much bigger in the last 20 years, and climate change is just one of them. Sage has been a little less active over the last year or so, as several of our core members have been moving house, job or otherwise engaged. However, our recent summer meetings have suggested that we are about to move again. We are planning a special celebratory edition of  Sage Words which should be out by the end of this month.

Saturday 28th August 2010- The second and larger Sage social at the Hodson's house in Haddenham! This time the British weather relented, and we were able to have an outside BBQ. And we had four of the original members who were present at the first Sage meeting in September 1990. We welcomed a new member, Daisy the dog, and started planning for the autumn and further ahead.

Friday 13th August 2010- The first Sage social of the summer at the Hodson's house in Haddenham! This one was rain affected, but we had a nice vegetarian indoor BBQ. Sadly, said goodbye to Susie (Scotland) and Kaihsu (Helsinki).

Wednesday 21st July 2010- Sage member, Martin Hodson, spoke on “Are GM crops necessary to secure global food supplies at affordable prices?” at the summer conference  on GM Crops and Food Security 2010-2050 put on by the ASSOCIATE PARLIAMENTARY FOOD & HEALTH FORUM at the House of Commons, London. My talk is available to download HERE.

BBQ number oneWednesday 21st  April 2010- Sage member, Martin Hodson, wrote an article "Sceptical about climate scepticism" for the Living Lightly blog from A Rocha UK.

Saturday 6th March 2010-  Living Hope: Green Churches, Green Schools A day conference for anyone connected with a church or school and interested in how we carry out our mission in an age of environmental change. Bishop Alan Wilson carried a report on his BLOG

Friday 1st January 2010-
The Sage New Year walk this year was possibly the first ever venture into Buckinghamshire! Admittedly we were only just over the border from Oxfordshire this time. Fourteen brave Sage walkers met at the new house of Martin and Margot Hodson in Haddenham. After coffee we set out through Haddenham village across the frozen countrside for Cuddington. We were very fortunate with the weather as although it was cold it was sunny all day. We had lunch in Cuddington, and then walked on to Gibraltar (yes it really does exist in Bucks!). Met three rather over-friendly horses on the way... We left three of our party there to sample the tea in the local pub. Thence all back to Haddenham. We sent out a rescue party to Gibraltar, and then all gathered for a really rather wonderful vegetarian meal.

Clare's contraption

Saturday 12th December 2009-
Back once more to the annual Green Fair at the Town Hall in Oxford. The Sage team this year had quite a few unexpected difficulties to deal with, but rose to the occasion! First difficulty was the slight problem over our booking. Then we got slotted into the quietest room in front of the old fire place. Richard Riggs set up our display on the Friday afternoon, but there was no table! Hence the famous "don't panic" email. We arrived there to find that the Green Party had discovered a table for us. Next problem was how to get all our stuff there without using a car. The traffic wardens were really hot on preventing people unloading and unloading outside the Town Hall this year. Enter Clare with her amazing bike powered contraption. She was able to shuffle our stuff around without any tickets from over-zealous wardens! Probably thought this was the quietest year for some time for the Sage team. Our rather out of the way location meant better conversations when people found us, but first they had to get there! Note to us all- book early for next year!


Outside Methodist Central Hall (Richard Riggs)Saturday 5th December 2009- Impressions of The Wave -  London
This was my first demo event and it was a good day. I went up on one of the 6 Coop coaches from Oxford; the transport and roads seemed very well organised; there was a good atmosphere; the rain just about held off and there was time for much needed tea at the end before coming home! I was disappointed to miss the service at Westminster Central Hall, and not even to hear it ‘piped’ outside, however it did mean I joined in with the singing and praying of the alternative service in the square, with pedal-power-amplification by the Cactus wagon, and I met with the A Rocha UK representatives and claimed a placard to carry. There was then a ‘pre-march’ march up to Grovesner Square to join the rest of the crowds, where, after a spot of face painting and lunch, I met up with 
Sage friends Karl and Felicity. It was a gentle amble over the 3 mile route; chat and laughter with waves of deafening whistles, drums & chants; conversations with friends & strangers with my A Rocha placard drawing interest & recognition; impressive levels of creativity all around - with body painting + blue wigs aplenty, over-sized pandas + polar bears, a huge rolling wave machine pushed by half a dozen people, and hundreds of both professional & home-made placards and signs; there were rumours of 20 or 40,000 people there – hard to imagine from our place on the streets. We were nearer the end of the march so missed the 3 o’clock moment as Parliament was encircled, but as we crossed the Lambeth and Victoria bridges it was moving still to see the crowds stretching around the seats of power. On reflection now it seemed indeed the fun and peaceful day intended –somehow curious in representing such serious purpose & issues -but it certainly was an encircling of our national and world leaders in passion and, judging by the Christian presence there, hopefully also in prayer, and we must continue to do this over this fortnight and beyond.
Clare Newgass (her collage of photos from the day is now on the Sage home page)


TTD Banner at the Wave (Martin Hodson)The Wave, Transition and people we know
Since we moved to Haddenham, Margot and I have been very involved in Transition Thame and District (TTD), a local group looking into living a more sustainable lifestyle. The Wave began for us on the previous Sunday afternoon, when we had a special banner making session with TTD in the Scout Hut. In the summer the Climate Rush visited us in Haddenham, and stayed on the village green. They gave us some tips on banner making, and these proved very useful. We all drew around our hands, and then stuck the images onto the banner. The completed product looked great!
Margot and I decided to go to The Wave on the bus organised by TTD. There were two buses, one from Thame and Long Crendon, and ours from Haddenham and Chinnor. A fair number from St Mary's, Haddenham were on the bus with us, as were people from both the Baptist and Methodist churches. Our coach got a bit stuck in the traffic getting into London, but we made it to the meeting place in Grosvenor Square by about 11.45a.m. The place was absolutely packed with people from all ages and backgrounds. Many were dressed in shades of blue, and there were lots of placards, banners etc. We had a long wait before we set out on the march, and were nowhere near the Houses of Parliament at 3.00pm when the aim was to surround the Houses of Parliament and carry out "The Wave".
On the way there I said to Margot that we would be bound to run into people that we knew. She said it would be a random collection of people and she was right! The first were newly weds Emma and Chris from London. Emma Morrice was the tour manager and compere for the Hope for Planet Earth tours, and had married Chris at the end of October. Then Anna Pickering popped up- so the Oxford group must have been somewhere near, but we didn't see Kaihsu! A bit further along the march three of the girls from Climate Rush who visited us in Haddenham came past- so they could see how we had got on with banner making! We needed the banner to avoid getting totally lost in the crowd! Next along came Anne Owen from Marlborough, a former student on CRES and now JRI associate. Then Margot had a chat with Tom Honey. Tom was former Vicar of Holy Trinity, Headington Quarry in Oxford, and is now Canon Paster at Exeter Cathedral. Some years ago Sage went to Holy Trinity for Environment Sunday when Tom was vicar there. Once we got back home and we looked at Facebook it was obvious that almost everyone we knew was there. But in a crowd of maybe 60,000 (estimates vary) there was no chance of seeing everyone!
It was tiring, but well worthwhile. Whether it will have any impact on events in Copenhagen we will never know.........
Martin Hodson

Wednesday 2nd December 2009- Bishop of Oxford calls on world’s leaders to take brave decisions at Copenhagen- see here.

Saturday 7th November 2009-  The Big Climate Event. This event was organised for 150 people from Oxfordshire's Community Action Groups, as a time to network and learn from one another. However there is a Diocesan Environment Group (it was news to me!), who asked if they have a stand, and I finished up making a display. With some scratching around we collected enough examples from Oxfordshire churches for a simple one. But finding them was hard work. So no point in making extravagant claims for churches, I saw it as just showing the flag. The heading was “Churches... in your community!”
The event was good – well organised, stimulating, informative, with a lot packed in. There was not much time to talk to people on the stand, but everyone who stopped to talk seemed to be pleased that we were there. The aim was to remind people that churches are there on the ground, as ready-made communities. A few expressed frustration because they could see the potential, and wanted to know why it was not being realised. A man working in rural communities complained of finding church wardens and PCC members who were very positive, until they put on their church hats, then nothing happened! We also wanted to encourage any Christians present, and a few introduced themselves.
Low Carbon West Oxford is the trail-blazing CAG that emerged in 2007 after Botley Road was flooded. They have done a lot of face-to-face work with householders. They found many people who wanted to reduce their carbon footprint, but just needed someone to take a lead and help them understand what they could do. A survey of what motivated them put environmental reasons at the top, but close behind was the sense of belonging to a community. Surely lessons for churches there. Saving money on fuel was way down the list.
The plenary talk at the beginning was lively but hard-headed. The message was that among a big majority of people, we are losing the match. The opposition is well organised, knows how to communicate their message, and spends billions on it. His answer was that we have to raise our game: organise across a wider spectrum, learn from each other, be very creative, learn to communicate. From a human point of view he is right, which is why we have to look to God as our only real source of hope.
Richard Riggs

Tuesday 4th November 2009-
Sage is pleased to announce that the latest Sage Words October 2009 is now ready to download. Get ready for the Wave!

Monday 5th October 2009- Natural England are looking for assistants for their volunteer botanical surveyor, Angi Toller who is working at Aston Rowant National Nature Reserve every Monday 10am-4pm. It doesn’t need to be the same person every week. Please give Jenny Crook a call if you can do a certain date. Botanical knowledge is not an essential and you will learn lots during the day! Please bring warm, waterproof clothing and sturdy footwear. You will also need a packed lunch. Volunteers will need to register by completing a short form, then you will be insured and also be able to claim mileage rates. Contact: Jenny Crook, Community Liaison Advisor (South East) Tel: 01844 351833.

Thursday 3rd September 2009- Margaret Mary Hollingdale 12.11.1942 - 3.9.2009. We are sad to report the death of Margaret Hollingdale on 3rd September 2009, after a long illness. Alec and Margaret were amongst the eary Sage members in the 1990's, before they moved to Kent. However, this was not the end of their association with Sage, and we continued to meet them fairly frequently at our events. Our thoughts and prayers are with Alec and his family at this time.


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NEWS ARCHIVE
The Sage web site has been archived by the British Library's UK web archiving consortiumand you can see it at Sage archive! This is particularly useful for looking back at our old News items (back to 1st July 2004). So far they have archived the News page 13 times, and each time you can look at the whole previous year. Have a look at:
04 July 2005
07 January 2006
06 April 2006
06 July 2006
06 October 2006
07 January 2007
06 April 2007
06 July 2007
06 Oct 2007
05 July 2008
06 Jan 2009
06 July 2009
05 Jan 2010