Module 10 - Lifestyle Issues

Living Lightly offers a renewed vision of the world and alternative way of living; a virtual Christian community to be part of! It is not a long list of "dos" and "don'ts", but a journey of discovery, seeking to live with delight and gentleness in God's World.

• Richard Foster: Celebration of Discipline 1980
• Leo Hickman (Guardian columnist):
  • A Life Stripped Bare
  • A Good Life
  • How to Buy
  • The Final Call: In Search of the True Cost of our Holidays
• Charlotte Mulvey (ed) The Good Shopping Guide Published by the Ethical Marketing Group, 2004
• Stuart Murray: Beyond Tithing Published by Paternoster 2000
• Nicky Scott: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle Published by Green Books, 2004
• Ronald Sider: Rich Christians in an Age of Hunger Published by Hodder & Stoughton 1997
• Tom Sine:
  • Why settle for more and miss the best? (1981)
  • The Mustard Seed Conspiracy (1987)
  • Mustard Seed versus McWorld (1999
• Ruth Valerio: L is for lifestyle - Christian living that doesn't cost the earth Published by IVP 2004
• Catherine von Ruhland: Living with the Planet - making a difference in a time of climate change  Published by Lion 2008

Reconditioned Computers are available from the Arthur Rank Centre:  contact John Bennett at the Arthur Rank Centre for more details (024 7685 3066).

CASC-aid stands for ‘Campaign Against the Secularisation of Christmas by promoting charitable giving’. The name originates from Amos 5:24, in which the prophet voices God’s concern that justice and righteousness should ‘cascade’ like rivers and prevail against the excesses and hypocrisy of religious feast days. Even 700 years before the birth of Christ this was evidently a major problem!

Lots of information about all aspects of lifestyle from building to growing and cooking. They run many courses, and have some information available on their website, although most has to be purchased from their online shop.

The ministry of CVAUK:

Environment and Health - Animal Rights and Welfare - Discipleship.

The mission of CVAUK:

Support and encourage Christian vegetarians in the UK.

Share with other Christians how a vegetarian diet can add meaning to their faith.

Show that a plant based way of life represents good Christian stewardship for all of God’s Creation.

They have produced study guides to aid discussion of the issues - you can download them from the website, under 'Resources' then 'Booklets'.

A Rocha International is acting to combat climate change - and you can be part of it. Climate Stewards enables you to calculate the carbon dioxide you are currently emitting, gives advice as to how to reduce it, and enables you to give to tree planting projects in Ghana where local people's livelihoods are enhanced.

ecocell is a journey into practical discipleship for the 21st century. It consists of a series of 7 studies exploring issues like waste, transport and food. It is available as a free download from Christian Ecology Link

www.walkit.com is a website which gives you walking routes in major cities (London, Birmingham, Leeds, Newcastle, Gateshead and Derby). You simply enter your start and end points, press 'go' and it generates your walking route map and instructions, giving you the time needed to undertake the walk.

Working with local advice centres gives you access to help and support when encouraging people to reduce their energy usage. They also carry out home energy checks. Find your local office or phone 0800 512012. They have information about grants for insulation.

Ethical Advice

www.ethicalconsumer.org – a UK guide to how ethical businesses are

www.newconsumer.com - magazine about fair trade and ethical living

www.greenchoices.org – a guide to greener living in the UK www.ethicalexchange.co.uk/direct.html - Directory of ethically managed organisations.
www.getethical.com – issues and shopping site
www.surefish.co.uk/ethical_living - Christian Aid’s ethical issues site
www.business-humanrights.org – Business and Human Rights Resource Centre
www.responsibleshopper.com – an American site to help you discover what your shopping supports

www.greenfutures.org.uk – claims to be the UK's leading magazine on environmental solutions and sustainable futures.
www.greenguideonline.com – shopping, lifestyle and environmental issues
www.ethicaltrade.org – Ethical Trading Initiative – alliance of companies, NGOs and trade unions working together to improve working conditions

Ethical Shopping Sites
www.greenshop.co.uk
www.naturalcollection.com
www.traidcraftshop.co.uk
www.oxfam.org.uk
www.tearcraft.org
www.cat.org.uk
www.greenfibres.com
www.ecotopia.co.uk

Ethical Finance

www.eiris.org The Ethical Investment Research Service carries out independent research. Its website provides details of how to find a specialist IFA as well as lots of useful background information on ethical investments.

www.uksif.org The UK Social Investment Forum promotes and encourages socially responsible investment.

www.ethicalinvestment.org.uk The Ethical Association is a nationwide body of IFAs specialising in ethical investments.
www.co-operativebank.co.uk, www.smile.co.uk Online bank of the co-op.
www.triodosbank.co.uk. Triodos bank only invests in activities that make a positive contribution to a sustainable future such as organic farming and renewable energy.
www.ecology.co.uk The ecology building society funds mortgages to help renovate or convert existing properties, or to build homes using natural or recycled materials.

Find your local Groundwork Trust, and perhaps you could contact them for help and advice if you want to develop your church yard, or glebe land into an allotment project or some other project which reflects a move to more sustainable living. They are experienced in regeneration projects in urban areas. They are also committed to learning outdoors, so could help you develop your church into an educational resource in conjunction with the local school.

This website is a useful source of information on a whole range of home energy efficincy technologies. It was suggested to us by Abby a young student doing some research on the subject.

A RESOURCE PACK FROM A ROCHA UK
A Rocha have produced a pack entitled JUST FOOD? which looks at food as God’s gift in creation.

Today our food is too often either cheap junk, grabbed on-the-run, or an ethical nightmare and a cause of injustice and suffering. JUST FOOD? aims to reclaim a biblical understanding of food – as something at the centre of our lives – a source of celebration and joy - and also as a way of bringing God’s Kingdom values of justice and restored relationships into our lives.

The pack contains enough material for a 5-week series, or can be used for single services. It includes sermons, short films, prayers, children's materials and resources and can be used to help celebrate Environment Sunday or Creation Time

Just Food? costs £10.00 plus £1.50 P&P and can be purchased from the A Rocha UK website - arocha.org.uk/justfood - or by sending a cheque made payable to A Rocha UK with a note clearly stating the items you wish to purchase and your address. Post should be addressed to: Sales, A Rocha UK, 18-19 Avenue Road, Southall UB1 3BL.

We hope that you will be able to use JUST FOOD? in your church, and that when you have finished with it, that you will recommend the pack and pass it on to others to use.

Ruth Valerio updated her book 'L is for Lifestyle' in November 2008, and alongside this has launched a website full of resources to help map a way through the complex issues of living appropriately in today's complex world.

livesimply is a national award scheme for Catholic parishes putting their faith into action. It recognises the ways your church makes a difference in its community – and the world. Inspired by the papal letter Populorum Progressio, livesimply challenges people of Christian faith to: live simply, sustainably with creation, and in solidarity with people in poverty. It has been supported since 2006 by 80 Catholic organisations. Now, the livesimply award offers communities extra support, encouragement – and recognition for their successes in putting the three livesimply principles into practice.

Mukti Mitchell spent 2007 sailing around the UK talking about how to live a low carbon life. His carbon footprint is about 5 tonnes per year (about half the national average). He has written a detailed guide to low carbon living, which you can download (343kb .pdf)

SEnd a Cow is a charity that enables poor farming families in 9 countries in sub-Saharan Africa to become self-sufficient by providing them with livestock, training and advice. They are keen to transfer knowledge about sustainable growing practices to us in the UK. They have produced a helpful leaflet with some techniques to increase yields, save water, grow with very little space, and other ideas.

Garden Organic tell you everything there is to know about organic gardening and growing your own fruit and veg.

Pressureworks: online challenges to ethical living from this Christian Aid site aimed at students.

• Freecycle - local electronic networks for recycling between people rather than going straight to the tip (no money changes hands - all free!).

• WRAP - not-for-profit company created as part of the Government's waste strategy, helping to reduce, reduce and recycle.

• Recycle Guide - all you wish to know about recycling at home.

• Recycle-more - one stop recycling info centre.

• Recycle Now - a WRAP website to help people begin recycling.

• Recycling and waste - Government (defra) website

Contact the Mailing Preference Service to request to opt out of unwanted addressed mail (mailshots addressed personally).

Contact Royal Mail to tell them that you no longer wish to receive, or write to them at: Royal Mail Door to Door Opt Outs, Kingsmead House, Oxpens Road, OXFORD, OX1 1RX.

The Sustainable Energy Academy is a great website for finding out more about making your home more energy efficient and generating your own energy.

They have a list of homes 'Old Home - Superhome' around the country where the owners are willing to show you round.

Active Travel Champions get the people in their workplace, community or university moving! Champions are already motivated and enthusiastic about cycling or walking and their role is to help others get more active. This could be by setting up information stands, organising bike rides or walks, or running travel clinics. It could also be about taking the lead in campaigning for change locally. Sustrans provides training, resources and support for each Champion.

Champions will be making a direct difference in people’s health and the environment. As this is an Olympic Inspired event, Champions will also be part of the London 2012 experience. Champions will also develop their leadership, communication and influencing skills from the training and experience.

For more information visit the website.

Autoholics Anonymous helps people to give up their car addiction! Actually, it does point out the deeper economic, personal and environmental consequences of our car dependency, and offers a 12 step process to try and get people out of their cars.

Car clubs are where a number of people share the use of vehicles for local short term car hire. Carplus is an agency which helps community groups to set up car clubs . They have lots of experience of lots of different ways of doing it, and workers in some regions facilitating emerging car clubs. Churches are well placed to enable car clubs in their locality, as they (hopefully!) are already committed to this idea (see Acts 4:32).

Lift sharing is where people link up for lifts. You join, then register your need or the space you can offer in your car, and then you are matched up online. The more members, the more likely you are to find a match! Here's a page of lift sharing/car sharing organisations from Carplus.

This is what Znout has to say about itself:

"A single Google query consumes as much energy as an 11-watt light bulb does in one hour." (perpenduum.com).

"Electricity generation required for information and communication technologies is currently responsible for 2% of global CO2 emissions" (Techcrunch)

Thus the CO2 emission of the IT industry totalizes to even more than the emission of the whole worldwide aviation industry.

The solution: Znout
"Znout" stands for "zero negative output". Znout is a CO2 neutral Internet search engine that turns your web searches into green web searches.

How it works
CO2Stats The whole energy consumption at Znout is being measured by us and our independent partner CO2stats.

We measure not only the energy consumption of our own servers, but also the CO2 emission of the whole network infrastructure that is being used. Even the energy consumption of your own computer is being statistically determined and added to the sum.

At the end of each month renewable energy certificates (similar to carbon credits) are being bought in order to balance out the environmental footprint caused by Znout. This makes your searches become eco-friendly.

Znout finances the purchase of these CO2 certificates solely from advertising revenue. So for Znout users searching green is absolutely free.

So far more than 20,629,010 watt hours have been "turned green" thanks to Znout. You can click here http://www.co2stats.com/certpro.php?s=1187&ref=http://www.znout.com/ to have a look at the environmental footprint of Znout and see how much carbon dioxide we currently save.

Other good reasons to use Znout
Znout is not only eco-friendly; there are many other good reasons to use Znout:

Best search results: Thanks to our partnership with Google we can deliver you excellent search results. So "Zero negative output" is also true for the results you get at Znout.
Independence: Though we partner with Google, we don't depend only on their services. Thus we can also offer you other search functions like Wikipedia search or dictionary search.
Search plugin for browser: With the Znout search plugin you can search the web much faster than you did before by using our indicators.
Save energy: In the upper right corner of our starting page you can set up a black background color for Znout. This will save you up to 30% energy while you search the web.