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Earth Justice

We understand Earth Justice at St James’s as rooted in loving and understanding the whole world and all its inhabitants (human and other-than-human) so that we act from a place of belonging.

We aim to continually discern what we as a community can uniquely offer in this time of crisis. We do this through learning, liturgy and action.

St James’s achieved Gold Eco Church status in 2018 for our work across the five Eco Church categories of Worship and Teaching; Buildings; Land; Community and Global action; Lifestyle.

We hope our work will encourage other urban churches to get involved with Eco Church.

Earth Justice blogs

Thought for the Week – Digging, laughing and singing together in the Dorset countryside

Mary Stewart reports on this year’s ‘Lifelines’ hedgerow planting experience at Hilfield Friary in Dorset.

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Moral Injury Repair and Climate Change

Joan Ishibashi reflects on how a moral injury framework might help us come to terms with our personal and collective responsibility for the climate and ecological crisis ahead of St James’s webinar on 15 January.

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The Revd Dr Ayla Lepine

Thought for the Week – ‘Looking with’: Racial Justice, Faith and Creativity

Coinciding with Black History month Ayla Lepine considers how art can act as a prompt for reapproaching contested histories in reflecting on racial justice and faith.

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Make your own Citrus Cleaner

Season of Creation: Dee’s eco-tip of the week – Time to get rid of all those single use plastic bottles of cleaning product cluttering up the cupboard under the sink! Try this simple recipe to produce your own fresh-smelling, anti-bacterial cleaner.

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Thought for the Week – The Riches of the Creation Tradition

Petra reflects on the Christian contemplative tradition that emphasises humanity’s deep connection with nature, drawing on the wisdom of medieval mystics like Hildegard of Bingen.

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Make your own Shampoo and conditioner

Season of Creation: Dee’s eco-tip of the week – Ditch the chemicals and plastic waste by trying this easy homemade hair care routine!

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Liquid Garden Fertiliser

Season of Creation: Dee’s eco-tip of the week – Nature is full of useful plants and I use Comfrey and Nettle liquid fertiliser in my allotment and on my garden plants.

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Thought for the Week – God’s Love in Everyday Birds

Jonathan Sutton, a member of Young St James’s, reflects on birds in nature and faith.

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Home-made Laundry Powder

Season of Creation: Dee’s eco-tip of the week – A really simple mix of salts makes a really fine washing powder. Why would you want to carry all that extra liquid home from the supermarket when you can make this at home?

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Home-made Moisturiser for Face and Body

Season of Creation: Dee’s eco-tip of the week – No parabens, phthalates or synthetic-anything in this moisturiser! Strictly plant oils and beeswax.

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Thought for the Week – Has economic growth helped us and God’s Creation to flourish?

As newly elected governments across the world roll out their policies for the next four years, there is near universal agreement on the top priority: economic growth. But there are increasing challenges to this broad consensus. In part 2 of this two-part reflection for the Season of Creation, Penelope looks at some solutions.

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Thought for the Week – Has economic growth helped us and God’s Creation to flourish?

As newly elected governments across the world roll out their policies for the next four years, there is near universal agreement on the top priority: economic growth. But for good reason there are increasing challenges to this broad consensus. In part 1 of this two-part reflection for the Season of Creation, Penelope looks at the state we’re in.

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Thought for the Week – Season of Creating

Deborah reflects on the worldwide Season of Creation (1 Sept to 4 Oct) with ideas for participation and a foretaste of St James’s activities

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Climate and Nature Bill

St James’s is supporting Zero Hour, the campaign for the Climate and Nature Bill, a plan for a new UK law that addresses climate change, global warming, and the nature crisis in line with the most up-to-date science.

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Sacred Visions: Blake and First Nations Peoples

Changing Our Minds, the recent series of Conversations with North American and Australian speakers, proved a rich and challenging experience. Diane Pacitti was struck by the similarities between the vision of indigenous peoples and that of William Blake, our own artist-poet and prophet, baptised in St James’s in 1757.

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Southwood Garden awarded Green Flag

Catherine Tidnam celebrates St James’s garden receiving the Green Flag Award for 2024/25, reflecting on the importance of accessibility, biodiversity, and sustainable practices, and highlights the transformative experience of showcasing their garden at the Chelsea Flower Show.

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Environmental innovations

Robert Myers, St James’s Chelsea Show Garden designer, explains how prioritising sustainability throughout the projects lifecycle sets a new standard for ecologically-driven practices.

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Carols for Shoppers?

St James’s Eco Church team member Penelope Turton reflects on the devastating impact of waste at Christmas, emphasising the birth of Jesus as the One who brings ‘new hope to the poorest and most marginalised in society.’

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Lifelines: planting hedgerows with reverence and connection

Julia Chalkley reports on a wet and wonderful weekend in Suffolk.

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Thought for the Week – Revolution Part 2 – A Just Economy fit for the Ecozoic?

Penelope Turton asks what Christians in rich countries should be doing about the climate crisis.

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Thought for the Week – Revolution Part 1: Land, People and the More-than-Human World

Diane Pacitti explores the historical revolutionary ideas of Gerrard Winstanley and the contemporary relevance of indigenous voices in addressing environmental crises.

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Genesis: a text for revolution?

Diane Pacciti introduces the radical vision of John Ball, the Peasants’ Revolt in 1381, and the Diggers and Levellers communities in the 17th century.

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The Three Sisters: a mutual thriving

Joan Ishibashi shares the importance of the Three Sisters in American farming and food – maize, beans and squash.

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Guardians of Greenery

Catherine Tidnam, St James’s Gardener, explains how we achieved Green Flag Status.

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Thought for the Week – The Three Sisters

This weeks’ Thought for the Week is brought to you by the Three Sisters – corn (or maize), beans and squash – in dialogue with their human partners. These plants, tended by First Nations Americans, have flourished together for millennia, providing food for both human and more-than-human creatures. As southern Europe bakes under extreme temperatures and monocrops wither in parched fields, what stories of survival and abundance do they have to tell?

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An illustration of St Francis wearing a brown habit with the hood up. He looks directly at the viewer with one hand raised showing his stigmata and holder a brightly coloured book in the other.

St Francis: Radical Kinship

We celebrate St Francis as the saint who radically re-imagined our relationship
with the earth and the cosmos.

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The ‘Three Sisters’ in the Ecozoic garden are finally taking off!

In June, the Food For The Ecozoic Grow Box is finally taking off! The season has been a salutary reminder that agricultural/horticultural food production is not straightforward.

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St James’s joins The Big One Climate Protests

An estimated 60 000 people from all over the country joined Christian Climate Action and 200 other environmental organisations in Parliament Square over the four-day weekend of 21-24 April.

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Thought for the Week – Food for the Ecozoic

Deborah Colvin, Church Warden and Eco Team member, talks about St James’s new growing project ‘Food for the Ecozoic’.

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Lifelines – planting hedgerows with reverence and connection

Church Warden, Deborah Colvin, shares her experience of planting hedgerows as part of our Earth Justice project.

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Autumn Beauty & Radical Decentering

In the latest of our occasional Earth Justice blogs, Sara Mark reflects on the season.

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Thought for the Day – 9 November Podcast

Listen to Lucy’s ‘Thought for the Day’ on BBC Radio 4 which was broadcast on Tuesday 9 November 2022, in which she reflects on the climate crisis.

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Decentring Ourselves

Diane Pacitti argues that we need to decentre our view of the world, drawing on an anthology in which five of her poems written for St. James’s appear alongside works by African writers.

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Thought for the Week – Walking Boots

As part of the ‘Season of Creation’ St James’s Walking Boots Group give their reflections on connecting with each other and with nature.

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Thought for the Week – The valleys deck themselves with grain

As part of the ‘Season of Creation’ Joe Dolman, writes his Thought for the Week about the joys & challenges of having an allotment.

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Thought for the Week – Fragility and interdependencies

As part of the ‘Season of Creation’ Catherine Tidnam, St James’s Gardener, writes her Thought for the Week about developing a deeper understanding of the complexity of the natural world.

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Thought for the Week – Love, Lament & Song: Listening to the Voice of Creation

As part of the ‘Season of Creation’ Penelope Turton, of St James’s Eco Team, writes her Thought for the Week about our sense of deep communion with the rest of nature.

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Thought for the Week – Fire is Life

As part of the ‘Season of Creation’ Joan Ishibashi, of St James’s Eco Team, writes her Thought for the Week about the increasing challenges of the climate crisis and wildfires.

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Between the city and the sky

Zoe Cuckow, who’s been involved with Earth Justice at SJP for the last 3 years, talks about swifts, being a community and facing the future together.

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Flying the Nest

In the latest of our occasional Earth Justice blog posts, Lisa Barrott shares how for ten days she lived alongside a family of swallows, caring about what happened to them, in awe of their beauty and abilities.

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Earth Justice at St James’s

View images and video of some of our recent projects including Daily Bread, Aftermath, and A Triumph of Delights.

Daily Bread ‘Grain of Hope, Slice of Heaven’

Mark Oakley and Diane Pacitti met at St James’s to read and discuss poetry. Diane focused on poems she had written for Earth Justice projects at St James’s.

Aftermath ‘Bomb Box’

A Triumph of Delights

Gold Eco Church Award

Meet the Earth Justice group

Joan Ishibashi

Joan first became aware of the problems of pollution as a youth listening to the daily “smog alerts” on the radio in her hometown of Los Angeles. More recently she kept an N95 mask on hand and wore it during the raging wildfires. She is a retired United Church of Christ minister now living in London and is grateful to be a part of the St. James’s Eco Church group which challenges her to live more sustainably in this destructive Anthropocene age.

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Joan Ishibashi

Meet the Earth Justice group

Zoe Cuckow

I’ve been involved in Earth Justice at SJP for the last 3 years. I got involved because I was inspired by the breadth of the activities and imagination of the eco-team. Despite the immense challenges facing our planet and communities worldwide, I find being involved SJP’s Earth Justice work hugely enjoyable. It makes me more hopeful for the future of our shared planet.

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Meet the eco team Zoe

Meet the Earth Justice group

Petra Griffiths

I have had a commitment to a green and holistic spirituality since my involvement with creation spirituality, which introduced me to the Christian contemplatives. I am a member of Greenspirit, Muswell Hill Sustainability, and a shareholder in EN10 Energy zero carbon community energy. Through Journeying Together and Living Spirituality Connections we explore what an embodied spirituality that is embedded within the web of life means to us.

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Petra Griffiths

Meet the Earth Justice group

Deborah Colvin

Deborah has been active in sustainability and conservation for many years as an educator and scientist as well as through church activities. She is looking forward to the day when the word ‘eco’ becomes redundant because we humans have learned to live with limitation while celebrating all that this good earth offers.

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Meet the Earth Justice group

Penelope Turton

Penelope has long been exercised by the environmental catastrophe we face. She has a particular interest in in finding ways of living that honour our connectedness and interdependency with the natural world and seek to minimise the damage we do.

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Penelope Turton

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