We need to respond to the climate emergency. In the Ipswich Methodist Circuit, we have chosen to work together supporting each other in a concerted campaign in which we balance the need to inform ourselves through active learning, sharing our understanding with others by speaking out, ensuring we make a difference through our actions, and by drawing on the love of God for the ownder of his creation to inspire hope.
Inspire hope
We have learnt from the Covid 19 pandemic that we cannot isolate ourselves from gobal issues and that apparently impossible things are achievable when they are given the priority they need. As Christians along with people of other faiths, we know that God cares, and wants us to care for his world. We know he gave us the skills and tools to bring more beauty and inspiration, and through his many gifts, we have the curisoity to want to explore and the ingenuitt to discover new things. There is plenty to be hopeful about, just as there is much to be ground down by should our confidence waiver.
Pledge & Prayer Card
The Climate Justice campaign organised by the Methodist Church across our 22 churches in Ipswich and the surroundign area of East Suffolk is held together in the importance of shared prayer, whether we meet together or separately.
We have invited everyone to commit themsleves to this campaign in our pledge prayer. If you feel able, please join us in this commitment:
We commit ourselves to listen and learn
from stories around the world,
to speak out and act for climate justice and
to be ambassadors of hope for creation’s richness.
Each Methodist Church across the Ipswich Circuit has been supplied with a prayer card, containing a simple prayer for each week in the 9-week cycle. These are available for members and friends, to unite our prayer thoughts during the lead-up to COP26. We are also encouraging everyone to make a pledge to learn, speak out, act and inspire hope, in the name of climate justice.
To read full details about the individual week prayers in our 9-week cycle, to download a copy of the prayer care, or to find links to other prayers for the climate, follow the link below.
Worship Services with a Climate Focus
We find our greatest hope as we meet in worship to honour God, celebrate his creation and seek his wisdom and the strength to follow his path. Several of our printed and recorded services being held across the Circuit are focusing on the climate emergency, as we prepare for COP26, and as we continue to keep the urgency of menaningful action for climat ejustice at the heart of our discipleship.
Follow the link here to access these recorded services and sermon transcripts focused on climate justice.
Stories to Inspire Hope
We aim to publish stories here which show how individuals or groups have turned their learning into ways to speak out and have stepped up by taking action. Each story aims to show that change is possible, and that solutions exist, despite how difficult the task appears to be. By sharing the success that emerges from these stories, we want to INSPIRE HOPE and build and spread that mountain of positive encouragement. Follow this link to see different ways in which friends have found true inpsiration and hope they wanted to share with you.
Since the first days of Covid 19 lockdown, the Ipswich Methodist Circuit has published a Thought for the Day. These cover a wide variety of topics with contributions from all manner of backgrounds and experience. Many of these focus on the wonder of creation and the need for climate action. These are drawn together when you follow the relevant link below.
Resources for Preachers and Worship Leaders
The worship resources page includes links to materials and suggestions to help preachers and worship leaders plan their services with a climate justice theme. A selection of resources to help preachers and worship leaders are available at this link.
Church action group
Over the coming weeks as the focus on climate action intensifies, many local churches will be creating a local action group. An important way to inspire hope is to share the great ideas emerging so that we can learn together and encourage each other with success stories. We will be pointing out how to get in touch with these groups as they establish themselves.