A virtual postcard

When Phil posted on offsetting carbon emissions, I commented that, even if we flew to our holiday destination, at least we were staying in a car-free village. This is no hardship when you can slow down and gaze at the spectacular mountain panorama without fear of getting run over (though you do need to dodge the electric cars and the village goats).

We've enjoyed worshipping at St Peter's Church; the ICS Find a Church facility helped us track it down last year. There is even an informal mid-week Mountain Praise service. Some of the mountains have plaques with Bible verses on them - usually in German but here's one in English.

If Infusion was a drink....

....it would be a pot of Earl Grey tea. As you might deduce from the name and logo of the group, a number of us enjoy a nice cup of tea - particularly at the end of a long walk - and Earl Grey tends to be the tea of choice.

Some websites on the topic of tea:

• Tending Toward Tea: a site reviewing over 100 current brands of Earl Grey tea


• Twining's Tea Tasting Notes: so you can match the occasion and have the right food to accompany every blend


• Nice Cup of Tea and a Sit Down: quirky site about a couple's never-ending international quest for the best tea and biscuits

Sacred

If you are visiting London over the next couple of months, you might be interested in visiting Sacred, a current exhibition of Jewish, Christian and Muslim holy books at the British Library. Admission is free but advance booking is recommended. Do visit the website to browse features including a virtual sub-set of the exhibition.

There is a regional touring programme associated with Sacred, set inside a Mongolian-style yurt. Local to us are:

• 7 – 27 July: University Of Derby Multi-Faith Centre


• 11 – 26 October: Rutland Museum Service

The Bishop of London on the environment

In a recent Guardian interview the Bishop of London, the Right Rev and Right Hon Richard Chartres, discusses his active stance on issues such as climate change. The bishop pledged not to fly for a year after criticism that he was not practising what he preached because he was taking flights for "diocese work" as well as retaining a chauffeur-driven car.

In the article I spotted a reference to a book, How many lightbulbs does it take to change a Christian? by Claire Foster & David Shreeve. The blurb says that it "provides hundreds of practical ideas for making SMALL changes to your lifestyle that can make a BIG difference to the environment" and suggests "actions that will reduce your ecological footprint, from turning off the tap, to starting a church compost heap".

10 commandments for drivers

The Vatican has issued a set of ten commandments for motorists to promote safer driving. The Guidelines for the Pastoral Care of the Road call on drivers to respect speed limits, refrain from drinking before driving and avoid cursing. However, praying while driving is encouraged!

Saving Planet Earth

The BBC is launching a fortnight of programmes on the theme of Saving Planet Earth, fronted by David Attenborough. This wide reaching season of programmes supporting wildlife conservation launches at 7pm on Sunday 24th. Check out the local pages for a sweet tale of 15 ducklings hatching outside Loughborough Library.

Mission Mondays

Mission Mondays are an initiative of the Diocese of Leicester running on the first Monday of the month. These interactive meetings are designed to look at key topics concerning mission, evangelism and the church with input from individuals with particular expertise.

Check the programme for full details of forthcoming meetings:

• Transformation (July)
• Welcome & Hospitality (September)
• Service (October)
• Celebration (November)
• Prayer (December)

Loughborough Musicians

A number of (some ex-) Loughborough people I know have put their music on the web – maybe you will recognise some of these names.

Steel String, regulars on the Dorset folk scene are former Loughburians Sarah and Phil Muir, plus one of their Dorset mates. Sarah’s brother Simon Faulks, vocalist and guitarist, has been playing the blues locally for as long as I can remember. I had a good bop to the songs on his myspace site…

Stuart Wood, percussionist (and now author of Friendship is a Verb) has not only put together a site with loads of hints and tips for drummers, but that also has some great samples from his album Soundscapes.

Then for a chillout, there is the acoustic guitar folk of (still-resident-in Loughborough) Ben Heap from the Well Church, or my colleague Gerry’s band Northern Quarter, who you may have heard play at the 3 Nuns or the Valkyries.

Don't forget to switch your speakers on!

National Badger Day

Today (June 16th) is National Badger Day. Perhaps you have enjoyed watching the badgers on Springwatch recently - it seems that late-night viewers preferred watching badgers to watching Big Brother! However this lovely wild creature is under threat as, despite over 42,000 replies to the government's consultation on the culling of badgers in 2006 - with over 96% being against the killing of badgers - our government is still considering killing badgers. There is a very real danger that snaring and gassing will be allowed to kill badgers - if you are at all concerned I encourage you to read about this and consider signing the petition against it.

Reading helps you diet

A library discussion list alerted me to an article from Metro on Reading helps you diet. Apparently all you need to burn off unsightly extra calories is a gripping read as adrenaline is pumped into the bloodstream, decreasing appetite and boosting metabolism. Even though the article doesn't say who the "experts" are who conducted the research, it does mean I shall continue to indulge in reading and eating chocolate at the same time in the belief that one activity cancels out the other.

More on Black Gold

Black Gold is now on release in cinemas and here's a collection of reviews of the film. Also, some press releases :

• The Fairtrade Foundation


• Pressureworks


• Traidcraft
  

What the World Eats

A favourite Infusion activity is consuming food (and, for many of us, preparing it beforehand). I was fascinated to come across a photo essay called What the World Eats; this is a photo diary of what's on family dinner tables in fifteen different homes around the globe. You can see a week's worth of food in each home, together with the cost. The photos are taken by Peter Menzel, from the book Hungry Planet.

There is an accompanying article, How the World Eats, in Time magazine. This discusses the trend of families across the globe abandoning traditional diets and dining habits, the face of Westernization. In the photo essay, a Sudanese family of six in a refugee camp in Chad ate food to the value of $1.23 while the family of four in the UK spent £155.54 on food. If this challenges you as much as it challenges me, check out the Tearfund and Christian Aid websites

From the archives: Burns Meal 2007

On 27 January Infusion held another of its popular formal dining events - the proximity to Burns Night set the theme. With smoked salmon; haggis, neeps and tatties; and cranachan we were served fairly authentic fare, and the haggis was addressed. The room and tables at our venue, St Mary's church hall, had been tastefully decorated and the diners dressed up to match. The next dinner party will take place on Saturday 30th June.

The return of the Teasmade

The Guardian has an article on the return of the Teasmade: "Why a classic gadget is our cup of tea again". Should your desire be whetted by the article, until production starts again you can always visit the Teasmade tribute site.

Tools With A Mission

Over the past few Christmases we’ve seen the emergence of “alternative presents” such as Oxfam Unwrapped. Now a Christian charity is suggesting an alternative present for Father's Day (June 17th this year). Rather than giving your Dad some socks or hankies that he’ll shove in a drawer, you could sponsor a gift for Father's Day to help someone in Africa change their life.

Tools with a Mission (TWAM) is an independent interdenominational Christian charity sending new and refurbished tools all over the world so they can be used for work which enables families to feed and clothe themselves. Do check out the TWAM website, if you weren’t aware of their activities. If you have any old tools, TWAM can recondition or repair them and send them off to Africa.

Infusion Teaching Weekend (3)

At the recent Infusion Weekend Away, one quote that impacted on me and that I jotted down was "offer your heart to God in a soft and tractable state lest you miss the imprint of his fingers". I searched for the full quote and spotted "Offer to Him your heart in a soft and tractable state, and preserve the form in which the Creator has fashioned you, having moisture in yourself, lest, by becoming hardened, you lose the impressions of His fingers". This comes from Irenaeus' writings Against Heresies in Book IV, Chapter 39. We can often struggle with obedience to God, but this presents the challenge slightly differently - its sad to miss out on a touch in any friendship, but to miss out on a transforming touch from the One who created us because we have hardened our hearts against Him is truly soul-destroying.

Offset your Holiday Carbon and Support Developing Countries

Summer is a time when we use less energy for heating and lighting but more for travel as we go on holiday, and increasingly perhaps more for cooling. Whilst avoiding and reducing the associated carbon emissions in various ways is the best approach, the unavoidable emissions can be cancelled out quickly by investing in zero carbon energy systems. Where such systems are implemented in developing countries there is a double benefit.

A range of companies and organisations now offer offset schemes. The most effective only invest in zero carbon energy systems, not tree planting. The Pure Clean Planet Trust is one of these. It is also attractive because it is a charity, and caps the proportion of offsetting donations it receives which it uses for its own costs. It therefore contrasts with commercial companies whose aim might be to maximise profits.

Pure is just beginning to invest in projects, and the first one is a large local power station in India using unused parts of crops such as coconuts and sugar cane. It supplies almost zero carbon electricity for about 10,000 people in 47 villages.

Average CO2 emissions for cars in the UK in 2006 were 274 grams per mile. A holiday involving say 1,000 miles in total would therefore emit 274 kg of carbon dioxide – probably a bit more if the car was fully loaded. The typical cost of offsetting this mileage is around £5 or less.

More information on Pure can be found at http://www.puretrust.org.uk/. There may be similar carbon offset organisations to Pure.

Christian Aid East Midlands Conference 23 June

This Conference will take place at the Schofield Centre, near Sainsbury's in Loughborough, 10 am - 4 pm. Speakers are Roy McCloughry, on Acting Justly in Local and Global Communities and Daleep Mukarji, giving examples of Turning Gospel Hope into Action.

Roy's credentials are: Chair of Third Way magazine, a Director of Lion Publishing, Vice President of the Shaftesbury Society, and he lectures in Social Theology and Ethics at St John's College, Nottingham.

Daleep Mukarji is the Director of Christian Aid.

There will be 4 workshops on:

1. Acting justly in worship
2. Acting justly with the environment
3. Acting justly in youth groups
4. Acting justly in churches.

Bookings to Christian Aid in Ashby - 01530 417522, ashby@christian-aid.org.

Recycle Now Week

Somehow I didn't notice that it was Recycle Now Week until today! Never mind, there's still lots of useful stuff on the Recycle Now website to investigate. Although we recycle all we can in our household, I remain frustrated that I can't recycle drinks cartons (tetrapaks); the nearest place to do so is Melton Mowbray. Maybe we should all petition Charnwood Borough Council...

Hill does not measure up to Munro

I was excited to hear on the Today programme this morning that another hill might be added to the list of Munros available for bagging. Alas, the BBC News website has now confirmed that the hill does not measure up to Munro status. Munros are hills with peaks over 3,000ft (914.4m), and Foinaven in Sutherland falls short by just 12ft (3.4m). Debate over whether Foinaven is a Munro or one of Scotland's 220 Corbetts has raged for a number of years., and this has settled the matter. The Munro Society was formed in 2002 and has more than 3,000 members who have climbed all of Scotland's current Munros. I wonder how many Infusion members have bagged between us?

Language learning from the BBC

My father is a bit of a silver surfer, and he recently asked me if I could find some free German lessons for him on the Web, so I directed him to the BBC Languages website. I then investigated the website a bit more fully myself and discovered that it offers a wide selection of languages and different learning options including audio and visual files, games, and crib sheets you can print off and take with you. If you're heading out of the UK this summer, the website is well worth checking out if your language skills are like those of most British people!

World Environment Day

June 5th is World Environment Day 2007 - an annual day set aside by the United Nations to stimulate worldwide awareness of environmental issues and encourages political action. The World Environment Day slogan selected for 2007 is Melting Ice – a Hot Topic? In support of International Polar Year, this theme focuses on the effects that climate change is having on polar ecosystems and communities, and the ensuing consequences around the world.