CLIMERICK at St Peters on The Wall, Bradwell-on Sea-Essex

KEEPING CLIMATE CONCERN

CONVERSATIONS ALIVE with... 

Chapel of St Peter-ad-Murum close to

The Othona Community

I’m on an astronomy retreat this week with The *Othona Community in Bradwell on Sea, Essex. Rhythms of the community are dictated by brief morning and evening reflections in the close-by 7^th century chapel built by St Cedd and swimming! That is because the only a proportion of the guests are here for the Astronomy; for a greater proportion, this is a family holiday with a guest star, Ivy who at 18 months has, I think, managed to charm everyone.

 

Every activity here is shared in some way by the guests and I was invited first to take an evening reflection, yesterday to say grace at lunchtime, and today I have been on lunch-time washing up duty, which is no small task with 90 guests. Thankfully the community has invested in modern cleaning equipment which is powered by off-grid electricity: an impressive feature which makes hosting such a large holiday-time population, practicable.

This, being my first summer week attendance here, I was a bit taken aback to be asked to lead grace on Tuesday lunchtime. I decided to follow a conventional meal-time Grace with a Climerick specially composed for the event!

 

My friends as we eat and drink well,

Please give thought to whom you might tell

That Othona’s off-grid,

In a small, vital bid,

To help head off Climate change hell.

I think you could regard this as a quasi-grace and is another use

for the ubiquitous Climerick. It is also a challenge for those who

feel comfortable composing short verse to introduce Climate 

change thinking wherever possible

 

Find more about the thinking behind the growing collection of CLIMERICKS HERE  

*Find out more about the off-grid Othona Community at Bradwell on Sea, Essex, HERE