Psalm 104 – PowerPoint for Pentecost and beyond

Many churches will read Psalm 104 at Pentecost – or on other occasions. Here is a PowerPoint which covers the Pentecost reading.

Pentecost Psalm for Web

You may also wish to look at our Pentecost “God so loved the world” PowerPoint and video.

Prayer for the Diversity of Creation

Originally written for the International Day for Biological Diversity in 2025, this prayer can be used at any time of the year to celebrate the diversity of God’s creation and our call to be in harmony with all that God has created. It comes with a downloadable PowerPoint slide, jpeg or pdf. If you are using, please do acknowledge CCOW.

 

Creator of all things,
Your greatness is seen
In the diversity of creation,
Whose myriad different elements
Join together to hymn your praise.

Help us to listen to creation’s song,
And to perceive the distinctive beauty of each note.
Guide us, so that our words and our actions
May respect and preserve
Our fellow creatures and the common home we share,
Bringing us into harmony with each other and all of nature
For the good of all
And the glory of your name.
Amen

Biodiversity Prayer (pdf)

Biodiversity Prayer (PowerPoint)

Biodiversity Prayer (jpeg)

16 June – Oxford – Narrative Entanglement: The Case of Climate Policy

Political economy models often assume that voter beliefs are consistent with available information. Recent work emphasizes instead the role played by narratives, subjective causal models that may be incorrectly specified. In this paper, we study the role of political narratives in the context of climate policy. We develop a theory of narrative entanglement, where policy dimensions—initially distinct—become strategically intertwined through narratives created by politicians to sway support. Shocks in one dimension can thus influence unrelated policy areas. We test this theory in the context of EU climate policy before versus after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which affected the economic costs of climate policy but not its ability to address climate change. Using a large language model to analyze speeches in the EU Parliament, we find that narratives are strongly entangled: Members of the European Parliament that emphasize the need to address climate change also emphasize economic benefits, while those denying climate change stress economic costs. After the energy price shock associated with the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, narratives shift not only in the economic dimension but also in the climate dimension, with speeches becoming less likely to imply that climate policy is necessary to combat climate change. This pattern holds at the individual politician level, with politicians from right-wing parties showing a more pronounced narrative change than those from the left.

 

  • Date: 16 June 2025, 11:30
  • Venue:
    Manor Road Building
    Manor Road OX1 3UQ

2 to 3 July – Hertfordshire – Groundswell

Groundswell is an annual festival for regenerative agriculture – held on a farm, with a combination of practical and theoretical talks, workshops, exhibits, etc

Lannock Farm, Hertfordshire, SG4 7EE, UK

The Groundswell Festival provides a forum for farmers, growers, or anyone interested in food production and the environment to learn about the theory and practical applications of regenerative farming systems.

Groundswell Festival takes place on the 2nd and 3rd of July 2025. Tickets are available to purchase through Red Box here.

4 July – Oxford – Faith, Ecology and Hope – Film and Discussion

Corpus Christi Church Hall, Margaret Rd
OX3 84J
Friday July 4th

7.15 pm refreshments 7.30 start

“This inspiring film shows the ways different faith communities respond to environmental issues. It is dedicated the memory of environmental defender Fr Marcelo Perez, a Tzotzil Indigenous Catholic priest from Mexico, murdered in October 2024.
Celia Deane-Drummond, Director of LSRI, will introduce the film and convene the discussion.”

FREE – ALL WELCOME

12 July – St Katharine’s Parmoor – Rewilding the Soul: Forest Church

From the Diocese of Oxford – further details and booking on Eventbrite
“Saturday, July 12 · 10am – 3:30pm 

St. Katharine’s, Parmoor

Parmoor Lane Frieth RG9 6NN

Join Revd Paul Cudby and Alison Eve for a contemplative day exploring Forest Church. What it is, how to do it… and why learning to listen spiritually outside can deepen your relationship with God.

The day will:

  • Explore how Forest Church came to be and what it actually is in terms of its theological and biblical underpinnings.
  • Experience a Forest Church gathering to help us explore the presence of the Holy Spirit throughout creation
  • Embrace learning how to listen to and explore what our hopes are for spiritual growth through this kind of contemplative work.

There will be opportunity for discussion, with musical exploration provided by Alison Eve to enhance our time together.

About the Leaders:

Paul Cudby and Alison Eve have been married for thirty-six years. Paul is a former scientist, author and Anglican Priest, having been ordained in 2002 after eleven years in science. He shared the original vision for Forest Church with Bruce Stanley in 2012, discovering that they both had a vision for the same thing with the same name, and have watched the community blossom across the country. Alison is a professional harpist, singer and composer who runs Aelvenharp, specialising in weddings and handfastings in alternative communities. Together they lead Wooburn Forest Church, a contemplative group that focusses on listening and attending to the ways in which God speaks to us through God’s third testament, the created world.

Please bring:

  • A picnic lunch (tea, coffee and water provided)
  • Blanket or chair on which to sit outside
  • Clothes appropriate for the weather (on the Forest Church understanding that there is no such thing as the wrong weather, there are only the wrong clothes!)”

26 September 5:00 pm: Retrofitting our homes (Talk)

“Retrofitting our homes” – a talk by Turner Prize-winning collective Assemble

Join Oxfordshire Community Land Trust for a talk by members of the Turner Prize-winning, multi-disciplinary architecture, design and art collective Assemble about retrofitting buildings. They’ll tell us about the general principles they use to guide their retrofit projects, as well as more specific detail about their current project at St Anne’s College in Oxford, where they’re refurbishing 10 Victorian villas.

 

Tsuzuki Lecture Theatre, St Anne’s College, 56 Woodstock Rd, Oxford OX2 6HS

CCOW’s Environmental Calendar

A calendar of dates for prayer and action, with links and suggestions. Download it here.

Time to Wonder and Respond – Individuals


“How much time do we spend looking – really looking – at what’s in front of us? One day, the train I was on stopped for quite a while at a red signal. My window looked out on a tree – so near that you could see the ridges and  whorls of its bark and the insects that were crawling out onto a sunlit ridge or scurrying back into a crevice. It was mesmerising, and when we started again, I found myself reflecting on the variety and beauty revealed in that one tiny element of creation – something that was normally just a blur, one of thousands of trees we passed on our daily journey. 

If we take the time to look at any part of the world around us, we will find almost infinite treasures: the reflections on a drop of water, the vein patterns on a leaf, the blurred wings of a hovering insect. Pause to see things as they really are and the sense of how precious creation is will almost overwhelm you …” 

What an amazing gift the world is!  In response to God’s goodness in creation, you might want to:

  • spend at least five minutes each day really looking at something – the clouds in the sky, a leaf hanging outside your window, a pebble or conker in your hand, a landscape seen during a walk … appreciating it for what it is.
    Some people find it helpful to have a set time – some simply wait for inspiration when the time is right. Decide what will be most helpful to you – but make sure that you get into a habit of regular contemplation, however you do it.
  • as  you appreciate what you are seeing, offer praise and thanks to God the Creator for it. You might do so in words … or by just holding what you’ve seen before God in silence.
  • try then to sense what it tells you about the Creator. Praise God for what you sense of God from your contemplation.

You may sometimes find it helpful to ponder things outside your own surroundings. You might choose a single image or scene from a video – maybe from a PowerPoint or from one of the ‘Our Planet’ nature programmes.

Sometimes, as you contemplate, you may be led towards not only thanks and praise but also lament and anger – conscious of how fragile what you see is, how imperilled by environmental degradation and climate change, how it is already damaged by human carelessness or greed. You may find yourself lamenting what you don’t see – the insects that are missing from our countryside, the species lost in areas that have been deforested. You may find yourself angered by the lack of response … or at least of response that reflects the urgency of the situation.

Allow your heart to lament or rage – and bring it before God.

The Psalms are full of  sorrow, questioning and anger. Some people find it helpful to adopt in their prayers the pattern of lament Psalms:

  • naming God as creator and redeemer,
  • lamenting what is harmed and the reasons why the harm happens,
  • confessing where you are implicated in the harm,
  • asking God for change and restoration
  • and reaffirming your hope in the One who redeems all things in Christ

Sometimes, though, that may not feel possible or honest. Cry out to God in words, or, where you have no words, simply offer God your pain, and let the Spirit guide the prayer. Whatever you pray, if you are bringing your heart before God in faith, trust that the God who loves you and all created things hears your prayer.