The Age of Stupid

The Age of Stupid showing went off without a hitch on Thursday. With my usual failure to think numbers I forgot to count the audience but we think it was about fifty which is fantastic. Probably two thirds were congregation members.

I'd picked up lots of cakes at the Early St Peter's Toddler service the day before so they went down very well and I'd also put up a display of a few facts/figures/graphs about climate change and possible responses - I have to admit I didn't expect it to be read as much as it was (I even had to photocopy a piece for one attendee) so I've left it all up there for the week.

On second viewing (as Matt Freer said) it didn't feel so angry and I think I got more out of it. Afterwards I advertised the Eco-veggie fayre which will be held at Reading Town Hall on 19th December and includes a showing of the film. We also encouraged people to join The Wave climate change march on 5th December. Then I encouraged people to talk it over with their neighbours rather than going bleakly out into the night, and they did talk for a long time! All the feedback I got was very positive (albeit with some despair about how to respond). John Madeley said he'd like us to try to get every church in Reading to show it. Next up will be Tilehurst Methodists who are showing it on 9 December.

The Age of Stupid - advertising showing

Showing at
St John and St Stephen's Church,
121-147 Orts Road, Reading, RG1 3JN

Thursday 19th November 7.30 for 8 pm start

Free entry (retiring collection to cover costs)

It's certificate 12A. I'm hoping to be showing it with subtitles on.
Please join us and bring a friend.

GREN

Just back from the GREN AGM. One of the first external events I attended as an Eco-congregation co-ordinator was the meeting which launched GREN - the Greater Reading Environmental Network. It's a network of the very many groups in the Reading area with concerns about the environment, be that urban wildlife, veganism or climate change. As a yahoo group it's proved a very useful way of keeping in touch with the variety of things happening, as well as a source of local information (in my case including the greenest way to dispose of my car). But it also organises events and the next focusses on Copenhagen:

CALLING COPENHAGEN
READING DEMANDS GLOBAL ACTION ON CLIMATE CHANGE
Thursday 12 November 7.30 pm
RISC, 35-39 London Street, Reading, RG1 4PS

The Science:
Professor Jonathan Gregory, Climate Scientist, University of Reading

The Campaign:
Phil Thornhill, Campaign against Climate Change

The Politics:
Martin Salter MP, Reading West

An opportunity to learn more and to send your message to the UK government.

Other Reading Christian Ecology Link members have been part of organising this, one of whom will be chairing the evening - please come along!

Reading International Festival

We're currently in the middle of the Reading International Festival. The day that the programme for this was handed out with our service sheets in church it so happened that three of us were standing up to advertise events in it anyway (including last week's Tearfund Climate Change Evening). Inevitably we've found ourselves bumping into other congregation members at these events, particularly at Ann Pettifor's talk at the university last week "Chasing the Moneylenders from the Temple of our Democracy: Credit, usury, political power and the Millenium Development Goals" - since my husband was organising this I was at home with the boys but it will eventually be possible to watch a video of it on the university website so I'll put a link up when that's possible. I've heard a lot about how impressive this was.

This evening Hamish and I were both at RISC where one of our Eco-congregation assessors, John Madeley, was launching his first novel after many years of writing factually on development issues: Beyond Reach?. It's set in the Make Poverty History campaign of 2005 and he explained that he'd turned to fiction in the hope of spreading his message to a wider audience, emphasising that if ordinary people really understood what poverty means they would find a way to stop it, despite the apathy of governments. He encouraged us to buy a second copy at half price to give to a friend who was not involved in the campaign - good Christmas present potential. It so happens that one of the endorsements on the back is from Ann Pettifor: 'Be warned, this book could change your life'. Carl Rayer wrote: 'In the tradition of Saturday, this outstanding novel weaves together the world of public events with the private world of individual lives'.

I took the opportunity to hand out posters for our forthcoming showing of Age of Stupid - yes, despite my reservations about its angry tone there has been such interest in the congregation that I have decided to organise a proper public showing. It'll be at the church on Thursday 19 November, doors open 7.30, show starts 8pm. Entrance will be free but with a retiring collection in the hope of recouping some of the licence fee. Hopefully there'll be plenty of info there for people to be inspired to go out and act upon afterwards.