A group of Christians named Creation Matters, from churches across the Island, recently organised a visit by environmentalist, theologian, activist and author, Ruth Valerio, to speak at The Bay Church of England Primary and Secondary Schools.
Ruth visited the schools on Valentine’s Day (14th February) before heading to others the following morning.
At the Secondary School, pupils who study Geography from Years 9 and 10 attended an insightful talk by Ruth. She shared information about climate change and the real world impact of this on the poorest people, using an example from Tanzania. She highlighted how not having enough crops to sell, families go without money, children go hungry, parents cannot afford school fees and may even sell their daughters for marriage, because they simply cannot afford to feed the whole family.
At the Primary School, Ruth met with the Eco-Champions, a group of Year 6 pupils who aim to help the environment through activities at school such as picking up litter, recycling paper, and turning lights off.
They recently held an assembly for all pupils in the school to encourage them to look after the environment. Ruth asked the group about all of the initiatives they do and was impressed with the way they use their role to inspire others.
All pupils in Years 5 and 6 listened to Ruth share the importance of looking after our beautiful planet and the reason why it is so important.
Around 50 people, mainly from churches across the Island, gathered on the Saturday morning at Newport Methodist Church to hear talks on the themes of “Going Local” and “Going Global”, with a fun breakout session about grabbing headlines. “No ifs, more butts” refers to the immense potential for rainwater harvesting while “Struck by lightning” recalls how one Island church benefitted greatly following a “natural disaster”.
Ruth’s involvement with Eco Church encouraged many who have not already done so to sign up, while her eye witness accounts of conditions in the Middle East put our neighbours’ suffering in perspective.
Who, oh another time wasting, money grabbing so called intellect. If you believe this rubbish then you might as well move to Trump Land.
Why? He doesn’t believe in ecology. Or the bible, for that matter. He thinks he IS god. And you must have meant intellectual as she’s a person not a concept, and one that wasn’t asking for any money. It pays to think sometimes. Makes people look stupid when they speak, otherwise.