26th September 2025

We are now into Creationtide – the season when Churches celebrate the beauty of God’s creation and consider how we care, or do not care, for it.

We have been decluttering our home for months and hence have been to the local recycling centre frequently. So much stuff thrown away! In particular so much cardboard! (Amazon etc?)

Is it better to drive to the Mall to buy something (petrol, global warming etc) or get it on Amazon (van delivered, cardboard and recycling cardboard)?

Then there is food. We are bombarded by magazines and news articles advocating for this or that. Dairy milk is bad – cows emit methane and use land which would grow crops. Almond milk is bad – almond trees need a lot of water, grow in countries which are short of water and almonds have to be imported.

What are we to do? There can be a case made against almost all foods that they use some resource which might be used for something else which is seen by the writer as a better use of God’s earth. But we have to eat.

Similar arguments rage over fabrics but we have to wear clothes!

Perhaps we, as individuals, should look at whether we waste the products of God’s earth. Do we buy food and then do not use it in time? Are we beguiled into buying food ‘on offer’ which we will never use? Do we throw away clothes which, at least, could go to a charity shop not to the tip?

Perhaps working on our own wastefulness is a way for us when we feel larger issues are overwhelming.

Margaret Clements