Curate’s Report, August

Finally, we’ve also been able to bask in long-awaited sunny days, and for Cheshire, we have been seeing extraordinary temperatures for this time of year. The first-ever extreme weather warning issued by the UK meteorological office came out as temperatures soared up to 33 degrees Celsius. We have also been shocked by the floods and loss of life and homes in Western Germany which was preceded by record temperatures in North America. As I said to one of my work colleagues, we think we are untouched by these events until they start to come closer to home, and climate change is, of course, very much on the Church of England’s radar. The General Synod has set new targets for all parts of the church to work to become carbon “net zero” by 2030 and in Great Budworth, we will also be thinking of creative solutions in our Deanery.

We are all being encouraged to take bold action on climate change in advance of the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in Glasgow on 31 October -12th November. The culmination of this campaign is a national Climate Sunday event on Sunday 5th September 2021, to share church commitments and pray for bold action and courageous leadership at COP26. Here at Great Budworth, we will also be holding a special All Age service with a “This Time Tomorrow” interview format and a couple of guests, but thinking about where we will be in terms of our environment in 10 years’ time rather than ”tomorrow.”