You can find the discussion here on the TT website.

One of the early stages in the setting up of a TT is the formation of sub-groups. These groups form around issues of specific interest to those involved: food, economy, transport, advocacy, and more. The final working of each of these groups then forms a major part of an energy decent plan for the whole community.

In many churches the environmental group is seen as a sideline. A minority interest group that can pull energy away from other groups and projects that are more in keeping with the primary purpose of the church. One possible response is to drop the environmental title. Care of creation is not a thing in its own right; it is a description of how we go about our other tasks. Those in the church of an environmental mindset then approach all the other groups in the church; worship, mission, outreach, fair committee, social services; and ask “what would be the implication for your group if we could no longer afford oil based products?” (Obviously good current information on peak oil and related issues is important).

All of these church activities become sub-groups of your transition community. Rather than the environmental group being seen as pulling energy away from or detracting from mission, worship or outreach, they are feeding into those groups. The thinking done with those groups then forms a major part of the energy decent plan of the church, with the added advantage that you are far more likely to get participation and buy-in by genuinely engaging people in the area of the particular interest.

This is from the site The Ongoing Adventures of ASBO Jesus.

The print run for this first booklet seems to have been a little small; we have run out. However, I have the final PDF of the booklet available. Simply send an email to justice@anglican .org.nz with ‘gardening booklet’ in the subject, or down load by clicking this link: gardening-booklet. Distribute or use as you like.

To sign up for the others click on the box below titled Just Booklets with the dandelion flower picture.

Any thoughts?

New Zealanders are undoubtedly generous people; however, need is continuing to grow. Social service agencies in some areas have anecdotal evidence of an increase in food bank donations via parishes, although Southland and Christchurch in their latest reports have noted a drop off in contributions over the last 3-4 months while the number of people accessing those services continues grow. Throughout the country service providers are stretched to capacity.

Moreover, it is not just a greater contribution to food banks and other services that is required. The Grassroots Voices report put out by NZCCSS draws attention to the sense of shame many feel when they have to access these sorts of services. There is a powerlessness and humiliation that goes with no longer being able to support yourself or family.

The most positive solution offered for the global issues of climate change and peak oil is to localise and build community resilience. This would also make a valuable and positive contribution to issues of poverty and powerlessness in our communities. The statement regarding poverty and the financial crisis from the combined church leaders of New Zealand was entitled ‘Together We Can.’ This is true, provided we know one another; the Grassroots Voices report also highlighted just how many people experienced loneliness and isolation. Aroha tétahi ki tétahi – let us take care of one another.

There are possibilities for addressing these issues in the local church that I wonder if we have fully tapped. The first building built in a community was a church; churches still (physically at least) hold a central place in every area. Are there additional creative ways we can engage with the current social issues facing us? For example, what would a local currency or ‘time bank’ for service contribution look like? What if the hours anyone in the community contributed to up-skilling neighbours or building community resilience could be redeemed at a bulk food shop at a local church? Could this help the feeling of shame at accepting charity? Would it begin to address the lack of ability the market has for ascribing value to the hundreds of strengths and skills that exist in the non-market economy of our communities?

In the mean time there are still lots of small ways to help. www.giveitup.org.nz for example, thanks Mathew.

Canon Oestreicher is an outspoken critic of Israel’s policies toward the Palestinians, in spite of having a German Jewish father.. At the age of seven he experienced first hand the Nazi pogrom of Kristallnacht that forced his parents to go into hiding. He and his parents were fortunate to be among the 1000 Jews allowed to immigrate into New Zealand in 1939 for the price of £2000. His grandmother, who hoped to follow, was not so fortunate. She died in the holocaust.

Living in Dunedin he suffered from the stigma of being both a “Hun and a Jew” although his family were practicing Quakers. While studying politics at Otago University he became an Anglican. After post-graduate study in Germany he was ordained a priest, serving most of his ministry in England. In 1985 he was elected the Bishop of Wellington, but his election was not sanctioned by New Zealand’s bishops at the time because of his views were considered too radical. In retrospect, Canon Oestreicher has expressed relief at this outcome. He has used these years to continue his focus on reconciliation and peace issues.

In addition to his work on behalf the Palestinian peoples he has been a strong advocate of for nuclear disarmament and has worked bringing reconciliation between the people of Dresden who suffered the greatest loss of life of any city and the English whose RAF firebombed them during World War II. He recently represented Coventry Cathedral at the opening of the rebuilt Frauenkirche, Dresden’s famous cathedral, destroyed during the bombing.

Canon Oestreicher will preach at the 10:00am Good Friday Service on 10 April and at the 8:00am and 10:00am services on Easter Sunday, 12 April.

On April 11 he will be interviewed on Kim Hill’s National Radio morning show. -

So what are our options in terms of economic transformation? Not being an economist I feel overwhelmed. I lap up the complaints against the un-level playing field of the IMF and World Bank structural adjustment regime, and see the flaws around power in the putative free market approach of the WTO, but don’t see how the entire economic system could be transformed or redeemed. Those in the greatest position to transform the system are those most advantaged by maintaining it. Even well thought out and engaging books like ‘Being Consumed’ by William Cavanagh - a fantastic theologian who is also an economist of some standing – doesn’t seem to get much beyond suggesting fair-trade tea instead of normal.

For a Christian response I can see two directions to explore. At one end of a spectrum is the idea that the church is called to be a gathered body of believers who live in such away among themselves that they bare witness to the present reality of our future hope – life characterized by the kingdom of God. A counter-cultural community living ‘now’ in light of what is ‘not yet.’ In this case local currency alternatives within church communities might be the best approach. Time-banks and or green-dollar systems would form the heart of our economic engagement, creating the space where it becomes possible to simplify, become less busy in isolated work places, and step out of consumerism. The church community holds out a new hope, people are drawn to participate in this kingdom living. For want of a label this might be called an Anabaptist approach. The danger is that we become so separated that we cease to be a witnessing community and become a reclusive community that doesn’t engage with the suffering around us.

At the other end of the spectrum we work to transform all of society, to make the current system more in keeping with the ideals of the kingdom of God. Perhaps characterized as a Reformers approach. In this case we may need to be involved in an entire remake of the current economic system globally that may have created unsurpassed wealth, but without conscience has also created unsurpassed environmental destruction and global wealth disparity. The danger of this approach is that we become so involved and complicit in the system that there is no distinctive in the believing community; we look no different than the culture we are immersed in.
Somewhere along the spectrum may be response that is both pragmatic and faithful. Any assistance would be appreciated.

Leaders of the mainstream New Zealand churches are confident that their combined social services and church networks can pull together to help people weather the recession.

The leaders have been meeting in Wellington today, at the same time as John Key’s Economic summit was being held in Auckland.

And the message from the church leaders is simple: Together, they say, we can look after each other.

The full text of their statement, which has been released by the New Zealand Council of Christian Social Services, is at: http://www.anglicantaonga.org.nz/News/Common-Life/together-we-can