Saturday 5 October 2019

Prayer Flags on the Climate & Species Extinction Emergency


There is a climate emergency.

On the 20th September people in Settle put up Climate Flags in Settle Market Place to mark the Global Climate Strike.. and answering the question "how do you feel about Climate Change (and Species Extinctions.). 

They are now on display in St John's Church Hall. I will be sending most of them to London to be used on the Faith Bridge at Extinction Rebellion from Monday 7th.


On Sunday 22nd at St John's Settle in our Morning Service we had a Christening. In the Service we made prayer flags, with prayers thinking about how the world will be for the baby when he grows up - indeed in 90 years time.



Rev Tim Broughton used the idea with the group he meets at Settle College and they made some more.




On the 20th September people in Settle put up Climate Flags in Settle Market Place to mark the Global Climate Strike.. and answering the question "how do you feel about Climate Change (and Species extinctions.)






On Sunday 22nd at St John's Settle in our Morning Service we had a Christening. In the Service we made prayer flags, with prayers thinking about how the world will be for the baby when he grows up - indeed in 90 years time.




Here are pictures of some of the flags









































 




Email me if you would like some higher resolution pictures..


If you are going to make flags yourself I would recommend using a permanent marker pen and having something waterproof to rest on underneath it. Fewer large words make them more readable...

See this website for flag making instructions


This is the text in the Craven Herald


Judith Allinson of Langcliffe writes:

Big Events were held around the world and in Leeds and London on Friday 20 September - so we were pleased that Settle had its very own event too.

I set up a table early in the morning (well 11am) (on the cobbles on the north side of the Market Place beside the closed bank and sign "Edward Elgar often came here")  with the equipment to make flags. Prayer flags - or campaign flags according to text. The flags are just over 20 by 20cm in dimension and made out of cloth of plain colour, mostly obtained from our three charity shops (SCAD, AGEUK and Swimming Pool). People responded to the question "How do you feel about climate Change" by choosing a colour and writing on the flag with a permanent marker.  We pegged them onto string to display them.

A friend of mine is involved with a group called "Christian Climate Action" and will be helping at Extinction Rebellion Events in London in October. One of the bridges they hope to block will by organised by groups from different faiths - called the Faiths Bridge, and they are asking for such "Prayer flags" to be sent there.

At 1pm a group of people arrived for our "official climate strike" time between 1pm and 2pm. (See photo)
I stood on a chair and explained about the flags, and asked individual people to make themselves known.
Sarah Wiltshire stood up and told people about ACE Settle (email acesettleandarea@gmail.com   Action on Climate Emergency Settle and District)
Andy Brown our Green Councillor and Green Parliamentary Candidate stood up and told us about the need for a climate strike, and about all the activity that had been taking place in Skipton earlier that morning. Lots of school children including the Montessori school had been in Skipton, and some children singing and others making speeches.

After the Settle "big crowd" left at 2pm I stayed on with the help of two more people, encouraging more people to write flags. It was really good hearing individual people's ideas as they filled in the flags. One friend arrived who had been at the Leeds Strike earlier that day. She said there were thousands of people there. At 3.45 pm a  few school children wrote flags

The flags are now displayed on the wall in St John's Methodist Church Hall, where over 250 hall weekly users will see them.
         -------------------

On Sunday 22 Sept, our minister Revd Tim Broughton used the idea in the christening service at St Johns Methodist Church, Settle, enabling the congregation with all the guests and children to write down their prayers on them.

It was meaningful that we were promising to look after this baby boy Toby Allen - and thinking what will the world be like for him in 90 years time?
And how can we try and reduce climate change and species loss.

Tim Broughton played a short video fronted by David Attenborough, saying how much quicker climate change is taking place than he had expected. It included a clip of Mike Berners-Lee who had talked to us in this very room in May about points covered in his book "There is no planet B".


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