News
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All the News back to October 2007

Thursday 9th October 2008- Oxford Brookes student, Lizzie Rushton, is doing a really interesting bit of research, and needs our help. She writes:
Hi there,
I am doing some research into the environmental attitudes of Anglican ordinands via a questionnaire survey. In order to get as accurate picture as possible I need as many ordinands as possible to fill it out. If you are currently training for ordination or know somebody who is please get them to email me, Lizzie, at 05081211@brookes.ac.uk The Q takes a max of 20-30mins and you can't get anything wrong honest!
Thanks,
Lizzie Rushton
(to speed things up the questionnaire can now be downloaded here -then just fill it in and send it back to Lizzie)

Monday 5th October 2008- Sage is pleased to announce that the latest Sage Words October 2008 is now available to download. Lots of news and items for your diary! 

Thursday 2nd October 2008-
We had the following message from Oxford City Council. Please reply to them!
"Dear 
Sage  - Oxford's Christian Environmental Group
Just to let you know that Oxford City Council has recently published its plan to reduce council carbon emissions 25% by 2010: "Getting Our House in Order". The council have circulated it internally and are now keen to get feedback from the local groups, such as Sage  - Oxford's Christian Environmental Group, that have active interest in the environment and climate change.
A summary of the plan can be found at: http://www.oxford.gov.uk/files/seealsodocs/77813/Getting%20Our%20House%20in%20Order%20Summary.pdf
The full plan can be found at:
http://www.oxford.gov.uk/files/seealsodocs/77713/Getting%20Our%20House%20in%20Order%20v4%5F10.pdf
Please feel free to circulate this link to your membership and to any other interested parties. We welcome any comments or feedback."
Please send your comments to Charlie Morris-Marsham at cmorris-marsham@oxford.gov.uk

Sunday 28th September 2008-  Sage members Martin & Margot Hodson took an evening service on the them of "Give us our daily bread- reflections on food today" at St. Mary's, Princes Risborough.

Tuesday 23rd September 2008- Sage member, Martin Hodson, wrote an article on The Real Cost of Food for "The Clementine", the St Clements Oxford, magazine.  You can download it here.

Keynsham Sage Team20th/21st September 2008- Quite an amazing weekend! After weeks of planning a team of eight Sage members travelled to Keynsham (between Bristol and Bath) for a whole lot of activities! We were there at the invitation of our old friend John Samways, the Rector of Keynsham Team Ministry. In 2008, Churches Together in Keynsham and Saltford are organising a wide ranging and exciting programme for the whole community - 'More to Life 08'. September happened to be the month for the environment, and for the weekend of 20th/21st this was a special focus. We travelled down early on Saturday morning to take part in the Green Fair, which was held in the Local Methodist and Baptist Churches. Sage had a stand in both, and we had quite a lot of people coming by to pick up leaflets, buy books, or just have a chat. After lunch we put the final touches to our presentations and sermons for the Sunday, and went for a walk. In the evening we went to a special presentation of Another Kind of Silence, a play about the author of Silent Spring, Rachel Carson. It was a brilliant one woman show starring Liz Rothschild. There are a number of shows coming in the next few weeks in the Oxford area (see web site). This is a MUST SEE, and it will end in November! The next morning our team set off to six churches all over the Keynsham and Saltford area, to services as diverse as Sung Matins, Family services, Communion and even a Barn Service! We provided six preachers, all giving talks on Colossians 1. Amazing team work. The team are pictured here, left to right: Chris Samways, John Samways, Richard Riggs, Judy Riggs, Caroline Steel, Clare Newgass, Carolyn Dean, Margot Hodson, Martin Hodson and Kristine Whitnable. We then all met up again at Elm Farm in Burnett for a wonderful meal together. A few of us stayed on for a walk of the farm, and the rest headed back to Oxford. What a weekend! Many, many thanks to John Samways and all at Keynsham who made us so welcome. And best wishes for the rest of moretolife08!

Thursday 18th September 2008- Sage member, Margot Hodson, has a review of Fixing Climate by Robert Kunzig and Wally Broecker
in Third Way Magazine.


Thursday 11th September 2008- Oxford Brookes student  Lizzie Rushton wrote an interesting article Revealing Revelation: A Biblical ‘Green-print’ For Our Ecological Future basically comparing the eschatological views of some North American fundamentalists, Margot Hodson, Dave Bookless and Tom Wright. Good read!

Friday 5th September 2008- Canon Glyn Evans is the writer of the latest Ecocolumn in the Door, the Diocese of Oxford newspaper. In this article Glyn looks at Choices.

Wednesday 27th August 2008- You may have spotted in the bottom right of our home page in the last year we have been running an application called ClustrMaps. If you are a regular visitor to the Sage site you might have noticed the red dots growing all over the world, but that on 27th August 2008 they suddenly disappeared! We are now back to just a few spots. There is nothing to worry about though as ClustrMaps archive the map once a year. Just before they archived the map your webmaster made a copy of the 2007/8 map (below). As you would expect for a UK-based local group, a lot of our activity is in the UK, but we do seem to get visitors from all over the world! We have four hotspots in the States, two in Europe, and one each in China and Australia. We hope that whoever these visitors are they find something useful!

Cluster Map

BBQ 2008Friday 22nd to Sunday 24th August 2008- Sage members Martin and Margot took a seminar on Bible and Environment: Christians in the 21st Century for the Bible and Culture course at Schloss Mittersill in Austria. It was wonderful!

Saturday 26th July 2008-
The annual 
Sage barbeque was held at the house of Richard & Judy Riggs in Abingdon. In complete contrast to last year's waterlogged effort, it was a perfect evening. It was a good turn out as well, with almost all of the Sage core group present. We were particularly pleased to welcome visitors from Nigeria and the United States. Thanks to Richard and Judy for organising it all!

A Rocha birthday cakeSaturday 19th July 2008- It was a somewhat showery and blustery day for the A Rocha 25th Anniversary celebration at St. Margaret's, Lewknor, south Oxfordshire. We had talks from members of the Chiltern Gateway Project, and Will and Rachel Simonson from A Rocha Portugal in a specially constructed marquee. Then A Rocha founders Peter and Miranda Harris. and A Rocha International CEO, Marie Connett Porceddu, told us about their work all over the world. Steve Hughes then brought us up to date on A Rocha UK. After lunch with other Sage members we walked up to Aston Rowant Nature Reserve, for a thanksgiving service in the hills. Dave Bookless gave the address with Red Kites overhead. Then back down for tea and celebratory cakes. Congratulations to A Rocha on 25 years, and thanks for celebrating it on the Sage back doorstep!

Viewing St Denys churchyardSunday 8th June 2008- Sage took part in a special Environment Sunday service at St. Denys, Stanford in the Vale. This was our 10th such annual service in a row. Quite a record- anybody else done that? Caroline Steel led a walk from the church, and we then had a look around the prizewinning churchyard. The evening service was very informal, based around the theme of "Hope for Planet Earth". We thank vicar, Michael Wenham, and all at St. Denys, for a wonderful afternoon and evening.

Thursday 29th May 2008- The final set of slides from Averil Stedeford's Ecohouse are now available for viewing. See Ecohouse- work completed! We all wish Averil well in her wonderful house.

Thursday 29th May 2008- Sage member Karl Wallendszus contributed the latest Ecocolumn for The Door, the Oxford Diocesan newspaper. It is entitled: Reducing carbon dioxide emissions

Tree PlantingSaturday 24th May 2008- To celebrate the newly planted out Butterfly Garden, Ss Mary & John churchyard  had a community party. Quite a large crowd of people were there, and a new alder tree was planted in the Churchyard. Afterwards in the church there was a special Evensong sung by the Wheatsheaf Consort. Well done to Ruth Conway and all the team at Ss Mary and John for all the progress there.

Thursday 22nd May 2008- JOB POSSIBILITY
Lewknor C of E Primary School works with the Chiltern Gateway Project, the second UK project of Christian environmental charity A Rocha. For more information see the website:
http://en.arocha.org/ukmembers/index33.html
The School is setting up an After School and Holiday Club and is looking for experienced staff who are enthusiastic about working with children and care for creation.  A manager and deputy manager are required. This is an opportunity to work flexibly throughout the year in a beautiful location, developing a fun and creative environment for children and working with the A Rocha Chiltern Gateway project. For further details, including job descriptions and skills requirements, please contact Parent governor Tony Moody on tony@boltonmoody.com or phone 07796 146 134 or Jonathan Walker, Head Teacher, office.3184@lewknor.oxon.sch.uk or phone 01844 351 542. Deadline for applications: 10th June. Interviews: 20th June.

Wednesday 21st May 2008- The Oxfordshire Climate Alliance have now produced their OCA Summer 2008 leaflet which gives details of all the climate change activities happening in our area.

Sunday 18th May 2008- Sage is pleased to announce that the latest Sage Words May 2008 is now available to download. Lots of news and items for your diary! 

Westmill Wind FarmWednesday 7th May 2008- Canon Christopher Hall is the writer of the latest Ecocolumn in the Door, the Diocese of Oxford newspaper. In this article Christopher looks at Westmill Wind Farm.

Saturday 3rd May 2008- The long awaited opening of Westmill Wind Farm.  Five 1.3mw wind turbines  have been erected at Watchfield Farm in the Vale of the White Horse near Shrivenham. The 31 metre blades are producing electricity for 2500 average homes. The carbon used for their construction will be paid back within the year. The windfarm is also unusual as it is a Co-op where many of the members are local people and are small investors. It was difficult to estimate how many people were there, but it must have been over 600. Jonathon Porritt, Chair of the Sustainable Development Commission, officially opened the ceremony. Sage has supported this initiative for some years, and we advertised the share issue on this site. It was very pleasing to see many of our members and friends there at the opening. The whole event was just so POSITIVE. Many, many congratulations to Adam Twine, and all those at Westmill.

Bluebells (Clare Newgass)Sunday 27th April 2008- A Bluebell Walk... with a difference. An interactive walk to discover more about these beautiful flowers, suitable for all ages. Large numbers turned out for both the walk and the service following it! Simon Brignall who leads the Gateway Project, said: "It was a lovely day and a beautiful service. All the feedback has been really positive. I gave the A Rocha Steering group, who met yesterday, a report. Richard Smiley who is Chair of the Trustees sent his appreciation, saying how much he had enjoyed it." The end of a pretty busy weekend for Sage folk, particularly Clare and Caroline, who were at all three events! Clare was inspired to draw some bluebells, but unfortunately the full effect does not come out well on the web!

Pang ValleySaturday 26th April 2008-  The latest Walk with the Creator Sage walk was attended by a dozen people and took place in the Pang Valley, Berkshire. Unlike previous walks at this venue there were rather a lot of other people present. The reason was the amazing bluebells! We almost hit the peak in flowering (much earlier than they used to be). We had a cup of tea at the Black Barn, and then went down to the river. Highlight of that was the blue spring where water could be seen oozing out of the sand. We spotted a snake, and heard a cuckoo, so it was an excellent walk. Thanks to Caroline for organising it all.

Friday 25th April 2008- About 20 people came to Jubilee Hall in Lewknor to see the groundbreaking film “An Inconvenient Truth”. The film was followed by refreshments and a lively discussion with Sage member, Martin Hodson. This is part of a series of events supported by Oxfordshire Climate X-change.

Monday 18th
February to Friday 14th March 2008- HOPE FOR PLANET EARTH. Share Jesus International, the John Ray Initiative, A Rocha, Tearfund and others put on a major national tour at 20 venues for schools and church groups looking at climate change. In total 5,000 teenagers attended the sessions in the day, and 3,000, mostly adults came in the evenings. Sage member, Martin Hodson, was the resident scientist on the tour, and gave all of the presentations on the science of climate change. It was exhausting, but very worthwhile! Thursday 13th March at Park House School in Newbury was the only dateCherishing the Earth for the tour in the Oxford area, and quite a number of Sage contacts and members were in the audience. It is not impossible that there will be another tour!

Saturday 16th
February 2008-  Christians Together on Climate Change was an event at Greyfriars Church, Reading to help Christians in the Thames Valley make a difference on climate issues. About 200 people attended, including the Bishop of Oxford. It was another excellent day, following on from previous successful meetings in High Wycombe and Oxford.  Sage member, Margot Hodson, led two of the workshop sessions. Many thanks to Maranda St. John Nicolle for all her work in getting the conference together in a very short time frame.

Saturday 9th February 2008-
About 40 people came to the book launch for
Cherishing the Earth. How to care for God's Creation  by Sage members Martin & Margot Hodson at the St. Clement's Family Centre in Oxford. It was a really nice evening, and the book was well and truly launched!

Friday 8th February 2008- Carbon dinosaur is the title of a letter to the Oxford Times from the Oxfordshire Climate Alliance (of which is a member). The letter expresses concern at the county council's decision to limit the choice of technologies for the future of waste treatment in Oxfordshire to incineration.

Thursday 24th January 2008-
The nationally recognised churchyard project at Ss Mary and John, Cowley in Oxford needs your help! The project featured today in the Oxford Mail- Churchyard team needs helpers
At Wykham Park Farm
Wednesday 23rd January 2008- PLOUGH WEDNESDAY 2008 was again organised by Glyn Evans and his rural team in the Oxford Diocese. We started in the Village Hall at Swalcliffe, nr. Banbury with a service for Plough Sunday. We were told we had to imagine a plough in the middle of the Hall, but half way through the service a huge one drove past the window! We then had an update from Glyn on the various problems for farming (Foot and Mouth, Blue Tongue, Avian Flu, Floods). We then had a guided tour of Swalcliffe Grange Farm, which specialises in cattle and horses. Lunch (very wonderful) was taken in the barn of Wykham Park Farm. After that we had a look around the farm and visited the farm shop, to purchase some great local produce. To Julian Hubbard, Archdeacon of Oxfordfinish off the day we had a nice service in Bodicote Church at which Julian Hubbard, the Archdeacon of Oxford, gave a very thoughtful reflection on the day. Thanks so much to Glyn et al. for all their work in organising the day.


Tuesday 15th January 2008- Sage is pleased to announce that the latest Sage Words January 2008 is now available to download. Lots of news and items for your diary! 


Monday 14th January 2008- The website for Cherishing the Earth. How to care for God's Creation. (Monarch Books, Oxford) by Sage members Martin & Margot Hodson is now available for viewing. Pre-publication copies will be available shortly!

Sage meal 1st Jan. 2008Tuesday 1st January 2008- A group of 14 Sage members and friends to part in the traditional Sage New Year Walk. We are not quite sure when the tradition started, but we have been doing it since some time in the early 90's! Anyway this walk was led by Martin & Margot Hodson. We started in Brightwell cum Sotwell, and walked over Brightwell Barrow to the Wittenham Clumps. One of our number doubted their existence, but had to admit they did as we ate lunch at the top of one of them! It was there that Margot read the famous poem that was carved on the Poem Tree. Then back with views of Dorchester Abbey and Shillingford Bridge. The weather was dull, but at least it was dry. Well except under foot, as despite choosing a walk for non-muddyness the recent rains made it pretty muddy in places! One arrival back in Brightwell cum Sotwell we were pleased to find the Red Lion was still open, so a group of us took advantage of tea, coffee, chocolate..... But the day did not stop there. After changing clothes we assembled back at the Hodson abode in North Oxford for an evening of wonderful food and fellowship. So it was a very good start to the year.

Sunday 30th December 2007- Averil Stedeford's Ecohouse featured on a BBC Songs of Praise entitled Change One Thing. The presenter, Pam Rhodes, met people who are setting out to make a difference in 2008 by changing just one thing. Averil was a star! Several Sage members were also filmed as "extras" holding a prayer meeting (Martin & Margot Hodson, Kaihsu Tai and Jennifer Gunraj who prayed). Well done yet again to Averil.

On Brightwell Barrow 1st Jan. 2008Friday 28th December 2007- Congratulations to Sage contact, Mike Pepler, who featured on the BBC news. Mike has recently purchased a wood which he and his wife Tracy are now managing in an environmentally friendly manner. See the video clip Woodlands lure in new buyers.

Thursday 20th December 2007- “The more we see the created order simply in relation to our own wants, our own needs, let alone our own greed and acquisitiveness, the further away we are from God.” These are the words of the Archbishop of Canterbury speaking on a video released on YouTube. The full text can be seen at Climate change action a moral imperative for justice.

Saturday 8th December 2007- A team of Sage members led by Simon Brignall and Jane Pendlenton manned our stall at the annual Green Fair in Oxford Town Hall. Simon commented, "We had a very good day at the Green fair. We took £162.45 for the Fair Trade goods from Cornerstone and another £54.00 for Gateway perfumes!" Many thanks to Simon, Jane and all those who volunteered to make this happen.

Saturday 8th December 2007- Meanwhile other Sage members were in London on a big march calling for tough action on climate change by the world leaders meeting in Bali. The weather was pretty horrid, but about 6000 people turned out. You can see a report on the Oxford Friends of the Earth News page.

On Wittenham Clumps (Kaihsu Tai)Monday 3rd December 2007- Rev Prof Ian James is the writer of the latest Ecocolumn in the Door, the Diocese of Oxford newspaper. In his article Ian looks at "natural economics".

Saturday 1st December 2007- A Rocha UK have asked if we could help them to publicise their need for a Centre Manager at Southall. If you are interested download the information.

Sunday 25th November 2007- Many Sage members attended the special memorial service for Dave Steel, one of the founders of Sage at Cornerstone Christian Centre, Headington Quarry, Oxford. Caroline had assembled a wonderful collection of Dave's needle point work. It was a moving time to remember a truly great man.

Monday 19th November 2007- One Earth, Many Faiths.The first event of its type in Oxford saw leaders of all the main faith groups come together to discuss the environmental crisis. Jonathon Porritt was the lead speaker, and he was brilliant, but rather (well very) worrying.  Interestingly, he sees faith groups have a major role to play in turning things around. Congratulations to Charlotte Bannister-Parker who organised the event.

Sunday 18th November 2007- Peter Harris of A Rocha preached on Holistic Mission in the morning service at St. Aldate's, Oxford. Peter was just incredibly challenging! The Sage team of Bethany, Margot and Martin provided the back-up team, and ran the stand in the lobby. We had lots of visitors!!

Friday 9th November 2007- Caroline Steel led a small Sage group in a shared meal and discussion on lifestyle issues. No easy answers on a lot of these topics!

Thursday 25th October 2007- Another article in the Door, Recognition for Cowley Church's Green Haven, concerns the Ss Mary & John churchyard  project who have been shortlisted for a Church Times Green Award.

Wednesday 24th October 2007- Canon Christopher Hall is the writer of the latest Ecocolumn in the Door, the Diocese of Oxford newspaper. In this article Christopher looks at the topic of water.

New Year Walk 2008 (Kaihsu Tai)Tuesday 23rd October 2007- Sage member, Martin Hodson, spoke on "Why should Christians care for the planet?" to  MK Christian Environmental Group at Whaddon Way Church, Bletchley, nr. Milton Keynes. About 20 people attended. It was good to meet up with members of this new group in Milton Keynes. For many years Sage have wanted more local groups to spring up in our area, and now one has sprung!

Thursday 18th October 2007- Canon Glyn Evans asked us to publicise the Farming Help Appeal 2007. As we are all aware the farming community has had a very traumatic year with floods, foot and mouth and blue tongue. We would urge you all to support this appeal. Glyn sent us this prayer:
Lord of All,
We pray for livestock farmers during yet another time of difficulty, stress and despair in the current situation.
We cry ‘not again Lord’ as we ask your blessing on those whose harvest this year is grief and sorrow.
We pray that the willing and loving support of friends and the wider community will be known by farmers.
Grant them endurance and strength to see them through this time. Restore their faith and hope for the future.
We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord,
Amen 


LOAF Fair at St Margaret's, LewknorSunday 14th October 2007- The Chiltern Gateway Project based at St. Margaret's church, Lewknor held a LOAF fayre in and around the church. There were lots of local, organic, animal friendly, and fairly traded products available, and a dog show! The fayre was followed by a service at St. Margaret's at which Brother Samuel, project director of the Hilfield 'Peace and reconciliation' centre spoke on the theme "Living lightly on the planet". It was another wonderful event at Lewknor. More photos are available at the Sage Facebook Group (registration required).

Friday 12th October 2007- It was quite a day for awards! On an international scale Sage offers many congratulations to Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) who have been jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their work on raising the awareness of climate change. See Gore and UN panel win Nobel prize.

Friday 12th October 2007- Congratulations again to the Ss Mary & John churchyard  project who have been shortlisted for a Church Times Green Award. Congratulations are also due to St Barnabas’s, Queen Camel, Yeovil, Somerset who are also shortlisted- the Rector of St. Barnabas, Mike Perry, is the brother of Sage member, Margot Hodson! The winners will be announced on 15th November. All the best to both projects.

Tuesday 9th October 2007- Sage member, Martin Hodson, spoke on "Human Population, the Environment and Faith" in a special session on  "Faiths, Culture and the Environment" at Global Challenges, Global Solutions, The Chartered Institute of Water and Environmental Management annual conference. See  http://www.ciwem.org/events/annual_conference/

Sage walk up the Pang ValleySaturday 6th October 2007- Sage began a new "Walk with the Creator" series in the beautiful Pang Valley in Berkshire.The River Pang is one of the cleanest chalk rivers in the Thames Basin and supports a variety of plant and animal life. The whole area is a patchwork of woodland copses and small meadows and is said to have inspired Kenneth Grahame to write the children's classic Wind in the Willows. Caroline and Clare led a party of six of us, stopping every so often for readings and thoughts. Martin spotted a kingfisher, and we had an interesting incident with a bullock! We finished with a cup of tea and cakes at the Black Barn.

Saturday 6th October 2007-  Our web site was archived for the ninth time today by the the British Library's UK web archiving consortium, and you can see it at 06 Oct 2007. You can see all the previous archived versions at Sage History

Thursday 4th October 2007- Sage member, Martin Hodson, wrote an article on Harvest for "The Clementine", the St Clements Oxford, magazine.  You can download it here.

Tuesday 2nd October 2007- Sage members, Martin and Margot Hodson "spoke" on the environment at a special meeting of the i-church. It was an interesting and unusual experience. Lots of questions!

Tuesday 2nd October 2007- Congratulations to the Ss Mary & John churchyard  project who have won an environmental award from the Oxford Preservation Trust. For details see  Annual Environmental Awards. More details are provided on the PDF at the bottom of the page.

Tuesday 2nd October 2007-
Sage is on the map!!! I Count, the Stop Climate Chaos campaign, have produced a rather wonderful MAP of all the groups they could find who did anything on climate change. To find Sage you need to select "Groups" at the top, and gradually zoom in on Oxford. We are there- honest!!

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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 9 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