Gaia at Bristol Cathedral outing

Monday 21^st October leaving about 3pm by car share, return by about 7pm.

A breath-taking 7-metre Earth artwork by renowned artist Luke Jerram. This stunning installation, featuring detailed NASA imagery and illuminated from within, offers a unique opportunity to see our planet from an extraordinary perspective. Accompanied by an immersive soundscape composed by BAFTA award-winning composer Dan Jones.

Itinerary: ~4pm – 5pm experience the Cathedral exhibit;
the exhibit closes then 5:15pm choral evensong to 6pm.

Contact your church’s Eco champion to make arrangements for car-sharing. The exhibition is open at other dates if you prefer to make your own arrangements – Gaia Landing – Bristol Cathedral (bristol-cathedral.co.uk)

Be inspired by the beautiful creation we call our home.

Repair Café

Saturday 26^th October 10:45 to 12:30 at the Pound Arts Centre, Pound Pill, Corsham, SN13 9HX

Get into the environmentally friendly habit of trying a repair instead of dump and replace. Bring along your broken items and a team of amazing volunteers will aim to fix them for you!

Mend it, don’t end it!

Tablets, Laptops, Phones, Electrical, Electronic, Mechanical, Sewing …

The Corsham Repair Café runs monthly – normally the 4^th Saturday of each month (not December).

Life Group

29^th October at 7pm at St Cyriac’s (contact info@lacockchurches.org.uk if you wish to attend as the location may change). This the final fourth in the series, but can be attended separately.

Christian thinkers and insightful Bible commentary have been used to create resources to help us reflect on the challenges of a changing climate, and how Christians can respond with hope to one of today’s greatest challenges.

Optionally, you may wish to attend the preceding Sunday service at St Cyriac’s which introduces each theme: 29^th Oct – Speak Up

Eco Waste Solutions?

Friday 4^th October 2024 at St John the Baptist, Lanes End, Gastard, SN13 9QS, by Mike Roberts

The questions posed: Zero-Waste efforts are great but rarely 100%; what about the residue? How can we avoid polluting the environment with our waste? Can we create hydrogen and other clean fuels from waste? Can we handle waste AND fight climate change?

Our expert speaker answered all these questions and more. We learnt that landfill was heavily down, driven by the landfill tax but recycling rates have stagnated at around 44% and the residue is often simply incinerated, claiming to be green if it generates electricity. The sad truth, though, is that the carbon footprint through emissions from the incinerator is about FOUR times the current (2024) average carbon footprint per kWh of electricity from the national grid (with its high renewable energy component). So incineration is a very poor route. Mike explained about advanced pyrolysis that is far better producing hydrogen (a useful fuel), carbon black (with an established market for tyres, paint, etc. normally made from fossil fuels) and biochar mass (which can be used by farmers to enrich the soil) and NO chimney! An Advanced Conversion & Recovery Facility is significantly carbon negative, so handling our bio & plastic waste producing valuable products AND sequestering carbon. An excellent good news story.

Apple Day

Saturday 5^th October 2024 at The Community Garden behind The Pound Arts Centre, Pound Pill, Corsham, SN13 9HX. Event by Corsham Climate Action, supported by Gastard Eco church.

A lovely sunny day saw many visitors to the garden, including lots of young families, attracted by the noises and laughter. People had a go at the main task of juicing by washing apples, chopping in half or quarters, checking for wildlife, feeding the chute to the shredder, filling the press, catching the juice and bottling. With at least 3 barrow loads of apples people had brought, there was plenty to do. Meanwhile others were using the clever little machines to simultaneously peel, core and slice into rings for placing in the dehumidifier for wonderful treats! there was an impromptu contest of conker apples!

Community Garden Working Party

Saturday 5^th October 2024 at The Community Garden behind The Pound Arts Centre, Pound Pill, Corsham, SN13 9HX. The community garden is a Corsham Climate Action initiative supported by the Pound Arts Centre.

People just love the community garden, and an enjoyable sunny afternoon was spent there with young and old alike. At the last work party meet for 2024 did clipping and tidying up for the winter including reducing the wild flower area to a few inches with a scythe.

Did you know that the community garden has a working party every month from March to October to promote healthy food, work with nature, have fun, and meet & chat with friends to combat isolation or loneliness?

Life Group

Tuesday 8^th October 2024 at St Cyriac’s, Church Street, Lacock SN15 2LB

Christian thinkers and insightful Bible commentary have been used to create resources to help us reflect on the challenges of a changing climate, and how Christians can respond with hope to one of today’s greatest challenges. The first session focussed on “My Property” and discussion, led by Sophie, generated some interesting discussions. My take-away was the unfortunate interpretation of “dominion over the earth and all that dwells upon it” as freedom to exploit and despoil. The expression of “Stewardship of the earth” better describes our duty to care for God’s Creation. For us, now, this means: stop climate change and stop destroying habitats.

Is Eco Housing Possible?

Friday 11^th October 2024 by Mike Roberts

These questions were posed: Concerned about new housing developments? Why aren’t they energy efficient? Do they so often force people to use their car rather than their own legs? What can be done about the carbon footprint? Can we enhance the environment as well as providing homes for people? Can they be child-play friendly so kids can enjoy the outdoors? Should estates be resilient to the future extreme weather that we will get? Can they also benefit older areas from extreme weather flooding?
Won’t it be expensive?

A wide-ranging talk was sprinkled with pictures of actual examples of what is possible and much discussion from our eco audience. There was focus on a sense of place – not just plonking as many boxes as possible on a piece of land that the bulk housebuilders tend to do. Features such as Zero-carbon in use, Zero carbon in build, Zero-waste, sustainable transport features built-in, local materials with particular mention of hempcrete using locally grown hemp, sustainable food with community provision of growing spaces, sustainable water usage and flood protection measures. And all this at virtually no build cost premium (the usual excuse for building homes poorly suited to human and planetary needs), but exceptionally positive low operating costs and superior homes for living. There is Hope indeed!

Gastard Litter Pick for Climate October

Saturday 12th October 2024 at St John the Baptist, Lanes End, Gastard, SN13 9QS

A special Climate October call-out for volunteers saw a new face wishing to help the community. Our friendly Eco Team, proudly wearing their hi-viz gilets, scoured the pavements, gutters & verges of Gastard for waste yielding 5 black bags full again! Astonishing! To join the Eco Team contact LitterPickingLead@GastardChurch.org.uk

Life Group

15^th October 2024. The second in the series, entitled Creation Groans, saw a group considering questions in pairs around this topic, including how does creation express its dismay?

What Hope for Walkers & Cyclists in greater Corsham?

Thursday 17^th October 2024 at St John the Baptist, Lanes End, Gastard, SN13 9QS, by Tom Winskill

An initial analysis of the Corsham Active Travel Survey by the survey producer, Corsham Active Travel Group (ATG), was advanced enough to give a flavour of the problems that exist. The way forward includes mapping out the primary community centres of residences and major places they go to like shops, school, industrial estates and other workplaces, then trying to work out the best routes for walking, wheeling and cycling between them, noting existing issues and considering the options for solutions. We also wish to ensure active travel is feasible with neighbouring towns and villages and to connect up with existing regional & national routes. We have already put a priority on joining the partial safe active travel route to Chippenham with the respective town centres.

These ideas will be used to heavily influence the official plan, to be drawn up by Wiltshire County Council (WCC) in 2025, called the Corsham LCWIP (Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plan). Money will become available for LCWIP implementation. In parallel, all the issues raised in the survey will be separately looked at to see what can be done by volunteers, Corsham Town Council or WCC. Some of the easy hitters can possibly be fixed in the next few months. We’ll see what the Active Travel Group (an independent body of volunteers, supported by Corsham Town Council) can actually achieve!

Gastard Eco church working to increase health and transport justice – part of the ATG.

Exploring Anxiety Through Nature Workshop

Friday 18th October 2024 at St John the Baptist, Lanes End, Gastard, SN13 9QS, by Kelly Tyler

These questions were posed to prospective attendees: Worried about the future? Gloomy news but feel helpless? Want to do something about the big issues that affect us all, but don’t know what to do? You are not alone! It’s true, all is not well in the world … But it’s not YOUR fault!

Nature is what unites us, it’s accessible, it doesn’t judge & it’s where we can all focus to increase a sense of connection, community & collaboration. We can heal while we are caring for our green spaces. We are nature!

An informal group met with Kelly and two helpers, Greg & Karen, where vulnerabilities, fears, worries and anxiety for the future were aired. Even people without anxiety have worries that provide the driving energy for action. But the weight of the big problems still exist. Systemic climate change threatening so much for our civilisation, and systemic environmental degradation are often at the root of other big, but more localised, concerns like migration, starvation, and conflicts. Some people, somehow, blank off the realities so they can carry on as usual. But most feel the weight and we can all benefit from returning to our body and nature to enable us to operate as grounded humans. We all received a free Toolkit!

Eco church working for our community, helping people wake up to nature and maintain balance in a troubled world.

Could Gastard, a Rural Village, be an Eco Community?

Saturday 19^th October 2pm 2024 at St John the Baptist, Lanes End, Gastard, SN13 9QS, by Jack Peeters

Whilst this event focussed on Gastard, the insights were relevant to any community. Jack provided a summary of the range of items we can do to become more of an eco community but focussed mostly on the bio-diversity aspects describing many easy to achieve things we can do in our own gardens to encourage flora and fauna, We then had a walk around observing and commenting on what we saw and what could be done, progressing from the church grounds, up Velley Hill to the village Hall noting opportunities. A valuable and engaging session from Jack, an enthusiastic local environmentalist.

Eco Church Nurturing Nature