We’re supporting WWF’s Earth Hour

#EarthHourScotland

Saturday 28th March 2020, 8.30pm-9.30pm

In challenging times for everyone across Scotland during the coronavirus situation, it’s even more important to encourage activities that we can all take part in while we “stay at home”.

This year we’re again supporting the wonderful work of WWF Scotland and encouraging all our volunteers to take part in #EarthHour, the world’s biggest switch off event!

Learn more about Earth Hour and find out how to take part here, with great ideas and tips.

Below is a short meditation written by Rev Elizabeth Houston, retired former minister at Alexandria Parish Church, to use when you switch off lights for the planet. Alexandria recently became our latest Eco-Congregation Gold Award winners, following their union with Jamestown to become Lomond Parish Church.

Psalm 8

O Lord, our Lord, Your greatness is seen in all the world!
Your praise reaches up to the heavens; it is sung by children and babies.
You are safe and secure from all Your enemies; You stop anyone who opposes You.
When I look at the sky which You have made, and the moon and the stars which You set in their places – what is man that You think of him; mere man that You care for him?
You made him inferior only to Yourself; You crowned him with glory and honour.
You appointed him ruler over everything You made; You placed him over all creation: sheep and cattle and the wild animals too; the birds and the fish and the creatures in the seas.
O Lord, our Lord, Your greatness is seen in all the world!

Prayer

Almighty God, all-powerful and everlasting, we come before You in awe and yet with fear; for You have trusted us to care for this world which You have made, this world which You saw was good; You laid upon us, the responsibility for all the creatures of the earth, including our brothers and sisters across the globe – and, to our shame, we have allowed self-interest and greed to rule our hearts and threaten all creation.
Father God, forgive us.
Lord God, as we all feel the effects of this ‘coronavirus’, remind us of our responsibility to each other, to all the creatures in this world and, most of all, to You. Lift us from the darkness and remind us that The Light of the World will shine on through any darkness that humanity can devise and lead us, in Your mercy through this time of challenge for the whole earth and back into the safety and security of Your Light.
Father God, uphold us.
Remind us, Lord God, that our Lord Christ promised His disciples that He would be with His people, ‘until the end of the age’ and fill us with the spirit of peace and humility, inspire our prayers for one another and for all creation and as we walk again into the Light, Your Light, make us wiser and more responsible for the whole world’s sake and in Jesus’ Name.
Lord, hear us, help us and heal us, for Your love’s sake.
AMEN

Climate action

READ JOB chapter 38 and consider the theme for this year’s Earth Hour:
eliminating the use of single-use plastics; preserving biodiversity; the need for immediate climate action.
THINK on how you can help to make things better and live up to God’s challenge of caring for creation.
PRAY for the people you love and for this earth.
PLANT seeds to grow salads and flowers to colour your life.
LISTEN to the birdsong as nature gets on with doing what God made it to do.
PLACE a candle in your window (don’t leave it unattended) and help scatter the darkness.

Book of Job chapter 8

Bildad
Then Bildad the Shuhite replied:
“How long will you say such things? Your words are a blustering wind.
Does God pervert justice? Does the Almighty pervert what is right?
When your children sinned against him, he gave them over to the penalty of their sin.
But if you will seek God earnestly and plead with the Almighty,
if you are pure and upright, even now he will rouse himself on your behalf and restore you to your prosperous state.
Your beginnings will seem humble, so prosperous will your future be. “Ask the former generation and find out what their ancestors learned,
for we were born only yesterday and know nothing, and our days on earth are but a shadow.
10 Will they not instruct you and tell you? Will they not bring forth words from their understanding?
11 Can papyrus grow tall where there is no marsh? Can reeds thrive without water?
12 While still growing and uncut, they wither more quickly than grass.
13 Such is the destiny of all who forget God; so perishes the hope of the godless.
14 What they trust in is fragile; what they rely on is a spider’s web.
15 They lean on the web, but it gives way; they cling to it, but it does not hold.
16 They are like a well-watered plant in the sunshine, spreading its shoots over the garden;
17 it entwines its roots around a pile of rocks and looks for a place among the stones.
18 But when it is torn from its spot, that place disowns it and says, ‘I never saw you.’
19 Surely its life withers away, and from the soil other plants grow. 20 “Surely God does not reject one who is blameless or strengthen the hands of evildoers.
21 He will yet fill your mouth with laughter and your lips with shouts of joy.
22 Your enemies will be clothed in shame, and the tents of the wicked will be no more.”
New International Version (NIV)

Pray

In the beginning – GOD; in the darkness – GOD; in Gethsemane – GOD; through the living – GOD; in our weakness – GOD; through our hopelessness – GOD; at the endings – GOD.
‘Till the dawn breaks’ – GOD.
Glory be to the Father, to the Son and the Holy Spirit; as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, worlds without end.
AMEN