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All
the News back to January 2009
Friday 1st January 2010- The SageNew
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.
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!
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)
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
21st November 2009- This widget shows you the climate prayer feed from Brendan Bowles of Climate Stewards- very relevant in the coming weeks!
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.
Saturday
11th July 2009- Sage
gathered for a Summer Work
party and annual BBQ at Boundary Brook Nature Park:
Slightly damp, but a good time was had by all. Many thanks to Clare
Newgass who organised it all.
Thursday 28th May 2009- Sage is pleased to report that two
of its members have letters in the Oxford Times on the same day. Kaihsu
Tai was co-author on Natural Means about Oxford's flood
defences, and Time to Pose Questions by Karl
Wallendszus concerned questions we should ask those standing in the 4th
June elections.
Sunday
24th May 2009- Sage is pleased to
announce that the latest Sage Words June 2009 is now available to download. Lots of news and items for your diary!
This edition includes an obituary for Edith Clift, one of the
founding members of Sage back in 1990.
Wednesday
13th May 2009- Sage members
were in the congregation at Holy Trinity, Headington Quarry, Oxford ,
for the funeral of Edith Clift, one of our founding members.The funeral
was a fitting tribute to Edith, who was a keen nature lover and
environmentalist for much of her long life. It also had its humorous
moments as we remembered Edith- "a character".
Saturday 28th March 2009- Walk
with the Creator
again
took us to Sydlings Copse, a nature reserve owned by BBOWT with an
impressive variety of habitats boasting over 400 plant
species.
Caroline Steel led a party of about fifteen people around the short
mile long walk. The weather was a bit chilly, and we did get a short
shower, but otherwise it was fine. There were lots of violets and
primroses, and the children enjoyed investigating the ant hills. We
also had an expert on spiders with us, which added to the interest of
the afternoon.
Sunday
22nd March 2009-
In a Lent talk at Dorchester Abbey Sage
member,
Martin Hodson spoke on "Using the Bible to consider the environmental
crisis of the 21st Century". There was
a really rather wonderful short service of Evening Prayer beforehand
followed by light
refreshments and the talk. Then a very detailed question and answer
session followed. Excellent evening!
March 2009-
HOPE
FOR
PLANET EARTH
DVD RELEASED!!! Arising
from the 2008
and 2009 nationwide tours the John
Ray Initiative, Tearfund, A Rocha UK and SJI have now produced two DVD
resource packs based on the tour materials. These
feature Sir John
Houghton, Martin Hodson, Dave Bookless, Alisha Sanvicens, Jo Herbert
and Andy Frost. You can buy them from SJI for
£10:
Hope for Planet Earth DVD for Churches
This has the four presenters and Sir John Houghton talking about
various aspects of climate change, the PowerPoints from the tour, Sir
John's latest Climate Change briefing, Bible studies, sermon outlines
and much more.....
Hope
for Planet Earth DVD for Schools This has
material specially selected for schools (age 15 and above), and has
lesson plans and other materials for teachers.
Saturday 28th February
2009-
Faith
and
food: making the connections.
This day
conference took place in Wesley
Memorial Church, and St Michael at
the Northgate Church, Oxford. The
speakers were: Colin Tudge (Oxford, food writer); Rev
Canon Tim Gorringe (Exeter, theologian); and Fr Edilberto Sena
(Satarèm, Brazil, campaigner). Revd. Caroline
Pinchbeck has written a REPORT
on the conference for the RuSource briefings.
Monday
23rd
February to Friday 13th March 2009- HOPE
FOR
PLANET EARTH, the
national Christian climate change tour visited 15 venues from Scotland
to the south coast of England. Sage
member,
Martin Hodson was again the tour scientist. The tour was jointly run by JRI, A Rocha, Tearfund
and SJI. It was exhausting but worthwhile!
Thursday 12th February
2009- Sage member
Martin Hodson was the guest preacher at Christ Church, Oxford for their
termly corporate communion service. Martin spoke on 'The
Environmental Crisis - A Christian Response'. There were about 80
members of the college and visitors present and it was a very pleasant
evening.
Monday 9th
February 2009- Sage member
Margot Hodson was licensed by the Bishop of Buckinghamshire as
Priest-in Charge of Haddenham with Cuddington, Kingsey and Aston
Sandford in
Buckinghamshire, just north of Thame. St. Mary's, Haddenham, was
totally packed despite pretty horrendous weather which kept a lot of
people away. Sage was well represented
in the congregation, and the service was excellent.
Friday 6th
February 2009- The Agriculture
& Theology Project (ATP) is a partnership between
JRI, the Agricultural Christian Fellowship (ACF), and the Church
Mission Society (CMS). Sage members Margot and Martin
Hodson, spoke at the recent ACF AGM, and two summaries are now
available at the ATP web site.
Wednesday 21st January 2009- PLOUGH
WEDNESDAY 2009.
This Annual event was organised by Canon Glyn Evans and his team, and
took place in the Buckinghamshire village of Bledlow. The day was
hosted by David Dewick, House for Duty Vicar of Holy Trinity,
Bledlow. The church was the venue for the event. In the
morning
there were three presentations:
Roy Lambourne has been
an
Agricultural consultant for 35 years, and brought us up to date with
the latest on the agricultural scene. “Farmers have been
experiencing the most volatile period of costs and prices that I can
remember” said Roy. Frances Northrop from Bucks Community
Action
outlined the work of the Rural Community Council in Bucks focussing
particularly on issues of deprivation. “Buckinghamshire
is
wealthy county” said Frances ,” But there are also
significant examples of rural deprivation.” Chris Rawson,
from
Bucks County Council gave an overview of the work of the Bucks Rural
Action Group, and the recent strategy. The six key areas
addressed
by the rural strategy are Access to Services, Transport, Rural Housing,
Countryside and Environment, Economy and Enterprise, and Community Self
Confidence.
After a wonderful
warming lunch at
the Lions of Bledlow pub, we went on our farm visit. Neil Dyson, the
farmer, showed us around Holly Green Farm, a dairy farm, that has been
in his wife's family for three generations. Like many farmers
Neil and Jane are also involved in conservation schemes that help to
protect the environment and promote wildlife. Neil showed us
his
cows, but also pollarded Black Poplar trees. 95% of all the
black
poplars [Populus nigra
subsp. betulifolia]
in the UK grow in the southern part of the Vale of Aylesbury.
The Bishop of Oxford,
John Pritchard,
ended the day with a reflection in which he urged rural clergy to be
earthed in their ministry. It was an excellent day- thanks to Glyn
Evans and his team for organising it!
Saturday 17th January
2009- Green
Faith Day. Exploring
our responsibilities towards God’s creation. This day
conference was held at Tilehurst
Methodist Church, in Reading. Richard Riggs reports that, "There
was a good lineup of speakers for the plenary session, who gave us an
absorbing hour and a half covering a wide range of questions.
Speakers included Revd Professor
Ian James, Professor Sir John Marsh, Ruth Conway, Maggie Ross, and
Paula Clifford. The workshops covered many different topics,
so
it was difficult to choose just two. During the breaks the exhibition
hall was busy, and there was a buzz about it that showed real interest
in the subjects. I guess there were roughly 100 people there." Richard
and Kaihsu Tai organised a stand for Sage and we are grateful to them for that and to the
organisers for putting together what was evidently a successful day.
Sunday
11th January 2009- Sage is pleased to
announce that the latest Sage Words January 2009 is now available to download. Lots of news and items for your diary!
Thursday 1st January 2009-
Sage had a very pleasant New Year walk despite very chilly conditions. Ten
of us met at
Badbury Hill, west of Faringdon. The walk took us to Coleshill and Great Coxwell. Highlights were great views
of Westmill
Wind Farm,
two wonderful old churches, and the amazing Tithe Barn at Great
Coxwell. Inside the barn was a fantastic large scale nativity scene
complete with Kings. After the walk we all decamped back to Karl and
Felicity's place in Botley for tea and cakes. Much discussion about
previous New Year walks, and what we want to do in the next programme.
Thanks to Karl and
Felicity for masterminding the whole event!
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NEWS
ARCHIVE
The Sage web
site has been archived by the British Library's UK
web archiving consortium, and 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 11
times, and each time you can look at the whole previous year. Have a
look at:
