“Good Tidings”         

The Earth, Spirit, Action Team Newsletter

St. Matthew’s United Church  

Welcome to the Fall 2025 issue of “Good Tidings”, the Earth Spirit Action Team newsletter that discusses both local and global environmental and climate change issues; offers suggestions for personal and political actions for building a healthy planet; shares information on other environment and climate change organizations and their activities; and presents faith reflections on creation, climate and environmental issues, and our calling as Christian disciples , through book reviews, opinion pieces, and the thoughtful contributions of our readers.    

We welcome feedback from readers who would like to share their thoughts with us.

Our email is: earthspiritaction016@gmail.com

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“Vaclav Havel, former President of the Czech Republic, saw hope as an orientation of one’s spirit: a state of mind and heart rather than a state of the world “   (Elin Kelsey, Hope Matters)

Welcome to this Fall 2025 Issue, our 31^st issue of Good Tidings! From an environmental point of view, current political realities in our world are scary. The American President has just told   world leaders that climate change is a hoax and is promoting oil, gas, and coal development. US tariff wars are prompting counties like ours’s to attempt to strengthen their economies by trading their fossil fuel and strategic mineral resources including uranium. Political policy regarding alternate energy is being tucked away on the back shelf.  

This is why this issue focuses on meaning and hope. And the timing is right. In this fall season creation around us has painted indescribable beauty in its display of colour. We are bathed in beauty, another sign and gift of the Creator whose abiding presence, and love for us, for creation and this world, gives us hope.                                             

In this Issue Rev. Judith shares a word about hope in these troubling times. Elaine Murray offers her “Did You Know?” column. ESA invites you to their Fall Lunch and Learn on “Climate Change and Wildfires” with Alex Cabel.  Anne Marie Dalton reviews “Collapse-Able”, by Alice Loyd. Margaret Machum examines legislation passed recently by the NS legislature.  Anne Faye tells us about the surprising regenerative activities of the 170 year old ash trees removed from St. Matt’s north lawn. We offer updates on the work of other climate change groups and their calls for advocacy and action. May this issue encourage you, that “in the power of the Spirit in you, you may abound (live fruitfully) in hope”.  John Nesbitt

 

“I would say that I was somebody sent to this world to try to give hope to people in dark times. Because without hope, we fall into apathy and do nothing. And in the dark times that we are living in now, if people don’t have hope, we are doomed. And how can we bring little children into this dark world we have created and let them be surrounded by people who have given up? “                                                

Jane Goodall 1934-2025

 

Thoughts On Hope by Rev. Judith Perry

We can fret over the machinations of governments, and rally and demonstrate when there is the opportunity, and frequently St. Matthews does hit the sidewalk with placards and banners.   

But individual hope in the face of the dismal news comes through individual actions. I know that this is what we are told, but I can only attest to this through my own experience. 

I had an old mariner’s house near the Fundy shore. I mostly heated with wood: a couple of cords each winter. If I wanted to go anywhere, I had to use my car. It was kilometres over the North Mountain for groceries, church or anything else. My carbon footprint began to really disturb me. 

So eventually I sold my house and moved to a one-bedroom apartment on the Peninsula, which I know is heated by natural gas, still it must be a lower footprint than the wood I used to burn. At least I hope it is. 

When I resigned from a country congregation, I parked my car for three months and found that I really didn’t need it. I buy shoes now, not tyres. Besides walking I have a nifty bike. I am getting to know the buses, and then there is the occasional taxi. Sometimes I take the train. By giving up my car, I have lots more money for travelling. 

Travelling does add to my footprint, so there is a yearly airplane trip, although several times I have taken a ship to cross the Atlantic. 

So, I have lowered my footprint, but someone else is living in my old house burning that wood. A young woman is running my old car around town. Did I just transfer my footprint along? 

I walk to church and sometimes take the bus. I have hope, and I hope it is infectious. Hope is an individual thing and comes from individual actions. I really hope it is contagious. 

 

“Did You Know”               by Elaine Murray

The Butterflyway Project in Hamilton ON offers a glimmer of hope. Volunteer Butterflyway Rangers — armed with wildflowers and good intentions — are creating highways of habitat for pollinators, one garden at a time. These corridors of native plant patches are carefully designed for hardworking pollinators to zip between. As Butterflyway architects, Rangers transform their neighbourhoods into pollinator paradises by creating 12 or more gardens close to each other. Why the emphasis on proximity? Because pollinators aren’t long-haul travellers.   David Suzuki Foundation

 It has been a momentous few months since our last HalifACT community update. The federal government has allocated funding to support much-needed deep energy retrofits in the Halifax region. As part of the Canada Greener Affordable Housing Program and the Affordable Housing Fund, around $12 million will go toward boosting the efficiency and resiliency of around 500 multi-unit residential buildings in the HRM. In other clean energy news, the provincial government of Nova Scotia directed $100,000 in funding to Akoma Holdings, a major hub for Black businesses in the municipality and the largest Black-owned property holding in Canada. This funding will support affordability and sustainability initiatives at Akoma.  Community Update 7, HalifAct.

The St. Mathew's Community Garden had a bumper crop to strawberries this year!  Jennifer harvested over 15 sandwich bags of berries to put in the pantry along with bags of lettuce and greens.  The tomatoes and cucumbers did not do so well because of the drought but there were some that were harvested and shared.  Janet Copeland also took some produce to the people at the Breakfast Program.  This year we planted squash as well and there were a few that grew but disappeared before Jennifer could pick them.  We hope whoever took them enjoyed the flavor of locally grown food. 

ESA’s Lunch and Learn Series resumes with  

Alex Cabel on “Climate Change and Wildfires”,  Sunday Nov. 2^nd, 12:00 noon at SMUC

Many of us are alarmed by recent summer wildfires in Nova Scotia and the Halifax region in particular “The 2023 Tantallon wildfire forced more than 16,000 people to evacuate their homes, and destroyed or damaged at least 200 properties, including 151 homes” and burned 969 hectares of forest. The disruption and loss for those who lost their homes was devastating. A wildfire near Bayers Lake commercial district this summer caused Clayton Park residents to  prepare for evacuation. The Long Lake Wildfires in August in Annapolis County forced over 1,000 people from their homes and burned 8,468 hectares of forest. Are wildfires and evacuations now an inevitable fact of life in this urban-wilderness interface we occupy?

Please come and join us for Earth Spirit Action Team’ s Fall Lunch and Learn on”Climate Change and Wildfires” with Alex Cabel, Sunday Nov. 2^nd. Alex is the Climate Change Specialist with the Government of Nova Scotia, has lots of experience in speaking to community groups on topics of climate change, and is considered an expert on climate change and the increase in wildfires.  Lunch and Learns take place in the St. Matts gym at 12 noon following our worship service.  A light lunch of soup and biscuits, cookies and fruit, tea an*d coffee is provided.   

 

Thoughts from an article in the Globe & Mail, Oct. 11^th, 2025 by Andrea Curtis, author of  “The Story and Science of Hope”.

“Through research and experimentation these hope theorists have found that hope is not magical thinking but is, instead, real and measurable. It’s different from optimism, which is a feeling that things are likely to work out. Hope is about leaning into and working toward something meaningful to you. It’s an action. Hope is a verb.”  

                                                                                                                        

Young St. Matthew’s Ash Trees, Free to a New Home.              By Anne Fay

In 2020, the three large trees that grew on the far edge of the North Lawn were cut down for a construction project. Two were a type of ash, and the third was not quite as large and a different species. During the season before construction was to begin I tried to propagate some new trees from the original ash trees, with the plan of replanting with the restoration of the North Lawn. I collected several cuttings but had limited success getting them to root.

Then a few weeks before the trees were to be taken down, I was at the church for Dora Stinson’s funeral and found a small ash tree growing in the hollow of the third tree. I transplanted the tree to my backyard, with the plan to return it within a few years. The construction company restored the North lawn as promised and planted several trees along the edges of the lawn. They are doing well, except for the oak closest to the street, which is a regular target for vandalism.

I hesitated to transplant the ash tree from my garden, in case it too might be vandalized. Each year it grew taller, and this summer it was taller than me, and it seemed I might have waited too long… but then with the uncertainty of amalgamation, would there be a right time to bring the tree back home?

This past summer I was in the north lawn and discovered several young ash trees growing in the gravel strip along the wall of the church. There were over a dozen of them, of varying sizes (a few inches to 1-2 feet), too many to get an exact count among the other plants. They are identical to the young tree I collected and the one cutting that took. The original trees’ roots would have gone as deep as possible on a bedrock slope, and it seems they’ve regenerated on the opposite side of the lawn.  They obviously can’t stay there for long and will need to be removed before their roots grow long. Members of the congregation might like to have a tree to plant in their yard, or any place that would welcome a new tree. These trees will grow fast and tall and will be a way to keep alive a piece of St. Matthew’s. The original trees date as 10 years older than the sanctuary and were likely planted as saplings when it was completed.

I’ve tagged the trees in case the leaves fall off before transplanting, and they will be available for adoption at the upcoming Lunch & Learn on Nov 2.

(Editor’s note: After reading Anne’s article, Margaret Sagar wrote: “How wonderful, Anne. Creation hopes and acts!”)               

 

Updates from Other Environmental and Climate Change Groups and Calls for Advocacy.

 (A)From the Ecology Action Center in Halifax.

West Mabou Provincial Park (Again).

1.“Cabot Golf is taking a third swing at West Mabou Beach Provincial Park. Despite being told “no” by two previous governments, the company is once again trying to turn this iconic, protected land into a private golf course. No matter where in the province you live, you can help by calling, emailing or meeting with your MLA to let them know provincial parks are not up for grabs for wealthy private interests!

Contact Trevor Boudreau, MLA for Glace Bay-Dominion, the Minister of Natural Resources at mindnr@novascotia.ca  and your MLA.  You can find your MLA’s email at https://nslegislature.ca/members/profiles/contact            

2. Solar and Wind Farms Generate More Electricity than Coal Plants for First Time.        And on a hopeful note, the EAC newsletter includes a story from the Oct. 7^th Guardian by Jillian Ambrose that for the first time “the world’s wind and solar farms have generated more electricity than coal plants for the first time this year, marking a turning point for the global power system. Solar and wind are now growing fast enough to meet the world’s growing appetite for electricity.“ You can read the full article at:

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/oct/07/global-renewable-energy-generation-surpasses-coal-first-time?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other&fbclid=IwY2xjawNTJgVleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHn2Do0Jj51buRqc84mFcY80j1Kc7EFc1jJ8RapiHQcRQw49PS6THhVhHUtWB_aem_hviql9NK6mWa_BS6JKVAAg   

(B)From the Diocese of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island  Environmental Newsletter.

Calls for a national East-West power grid. “Experts ay a national east-west power grid would make Canada’s energy more secure, clean and affordable. We need our federal and provincial governments to build an East-West power grid to connect Canada's power and to support the millions of Canadians living in "energy poverty".  For information on the petition go to: https://myclimateplan.com/petition/electrify-canadas-energy-security

(C ) From the David Suzuki Foundation.             The David Suzuki Foundation is continually researching and monitoring a wide variety of environmental and climate change threats, providing information, and determining to whom, and where, calls for action can be directed. Currently, the Foundation is providing petitions on regulation of the oil and gas industry, fracked gas, an East-West power grid, plastics pollution, investing in nature protection and restoration. To access the DSF information and petitions go to: https://davidsuzuki.org/act-online-category/climate-solutions/

Petitions register our concerns about environmental and climate change issues, and our desires for action as governments make the tough policy decisions about the priorities they will pursue. If they don’t hear from us, we will not be part of the decision-making process.

(D)  From the Sierra Club.

1. The Sierra Club of Canada is asking citizens to remind the Prime Minister to implement an emission cap on oil and gas corporate emissions without delay because the PM’s remarks have been ‘concerning and vague’.  You can send a reminder by going to: https://www.sierraclub.ca/action-item/send-a-reminder-about-the-emissions-cap/    Sierra Club has prepared a fact sheet on an emissions cap which you can read at https://www.sierraclub.ca/ction-item/canada-emissions-cap-facts/

2. A Sierra Club podcast, The Environment in Canada episode 75, A No Kings Special, Sovereignty Saturdays , describes how environmental deregulation and extreme inequality lead to authoritarian ism and what we can do to stop it from happening here is available at: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/do-you-want-kings-because-thats-how-you-get-kings-a/id1726272348?i=1000732418732  

                                                                                                                                                                                             

Prayer for God’s Loving Kindness, Our Healing, and the Healing of Creation.                                               

Adapted from The Rhythm of Life: Celtic Daily Prayer by David Adam, Vicar of Lindisfarne.                                  

“Upon all who seek to care for our world, upon all who seek to conserve and preserve  the earth’s goodness, upon all who work as your co-creators, Lord, have mercy.

Upon all who work in dark or dangerous places, upon those who suffer through pollution, upon those whose land has been spoiled by war, Christ have mercy.

Upon those who work on land or the sea, upon all artists, writers, and craftspeople, upon all who seek to make this world beautiful, Lord have mercy.”

(‘Mercy’ here refers to God’s compassion, loving kindness, faithfulness and steadfast love, shown to those in need, those who are penitent, those suffering or in difficulty.)

Review of Nova Scotia’s Government’s Omnibus Bills 127 and 137   by Margaret Machum

During the recent Legislative Assembly, Omnibus Bills 127 and 137 were passed and assented to by the Lieutenant Governor on October 3, 2025.

Bill 127, An Act to Protect Nova Scotians, is in 9 parts and amends several Acts already in place. The Acts are: in Part I, the Cemetery and Funeral Services Act; in Part II, the Crown Lands Act’; in Part III, the Embalmers and Funeral Directors Act; in Part IV, the Liquor Control Act; in Part V, the Personal Health Information Act; in Part VI, the Residential Tenancies Act; in Part VII, the Social Insurance Number Protection Act; in Part VIII, the Wildlife Act. in Part VIII, the Effective Dates for the various amendments to have effect are given.

Bill 137, An Act Respecting Regulatory Burden Reduction and Service Efficiency to Enable Economic Growth has 23 parts. The Acts involved are: Agriculture Appeal and Review Board Act; Apprenticeship and Trades Qualifications Act; Baby Chick Protection Act; Beaches Act; Building Code Act; Collection and Debt Management Agencies Act; Companies Act; Consumer Protection Act; Corporations Registration Act; Court and Administrative Reform Act; Crown Lands Act; Direct Sellers’ Regulation Act; Embalmers and Funeral Directors Act; Farm Registration Act; Farmers’ Fruit, Produce and Warehouse Associations Act; Health Protection Act; imitation Dairy Products Act; Invest Nova Scotia Act; Margarine Act; Potato Industry Act; Public Highways Act; Regulatory Accountability and Reporting Act, including Regulatory Governance, Service Standards, and Natural Resources Development and Burden Reduction. Part XXIII lists the Effective Dates and Schedule for An Act to Establish the Agriculture Appeal and Review Board.

While parts of Bill 127 may help with Protecting Nova Scotians, some changes could be harmful. As written in the Ecology Action Centre Newsletter of September 26, 2025, “it makes it illegal to ‘block, obstruct the use of, or impede access to’ forest access roads. The vague language of this amendment could make it easier for the province to criminalize citizens trying to resist bad forestry practices.”

Bill 137, The Making Business Easier Act, quoting from the EAC Newsletter, “creates a ‘single-window service’ for mining to streamline the regulatory process, and allows government to create an ‘efficiency team’ that would help expedite decisions.”

These bills are dangerous as they combine changes to multiple pieces of unrelated legislation into a single bill. They cover matters that are of significant importance to Nova Scotians as well as to our environment. Our environment is already showing signs of stress with increased wildfires, stronger storms, and conditions, like we have experienced this summer, due to drought. We are already pushing our planet into unknown territory and to remove standards that would reduce regulations in the name of efficiency to enable economic growth is foolhardy.

These bills were enacted in a very short time frame, with insufficient notice to allow informed discussion or consultation. It was impossible for the opposition, the public, the experts and lawmakers to fully analyze or debate them before they passed with Royal Assent in a matter of days. This procedure is not in alignment with our democratic traditions.

For both environmental issues and our democracy, the use of omnibus bills is a dangerous way for a government to conduct business.

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Almighty God, without You we are not able to please You. Mercifully grant that your Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts, through Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen. From The Rhythm of Life, Celtic Daily Prayer, by.  David

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Pumpkin Soup    Shared by Margaret Machum

Makes 6 servings; preparation time:12 minutes; cooking time:10 minutes

Ingredients                                                                        

1 Tbs olive oil

1 cup onions, chopped                                                                                                                                                                               

1/2 cup celery, chopped                                                                                                                                                                  

3 cups pumpkin, peeled, cooked, and pureed                                                                                                                         

3 cups vegetable stock                                                                                                                                                                      

1/2 tsp ground ginger                                                                                                                                                                                                       

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon                                                                                                                                                                       

salt and pepper

Directions

Heat oil in a soup pot over medium heat.                                                                                                                                                     

2. Add onions and celery and cook about 8 minutes.                                                                                                                                                         

3. Stir in pureed pumpkin, vegetable stock, and seasonings.                                                                                                                             

4. Heat through but do not boil.                                                                                                                                                                        

5. Add salt and pepper to taste.                                                                                                                                                                        

6. Enjoy your pumpkin soup!

 

Alice Loyd. Collapse-Able: Three handbooks for living now and later. Chapel Hill, NC. Center for Ecozoic Studies. 2024.  

A review by Anne Marie Dalton

The two words in the title of this book that best describe its intent and tenor are “Able” and “handbooks.”  Both point to a confident hope and actions for what the last handbook calls “A Time for the Future-Oriented.”  Alice Loyd is a long-time environmentalist, an organic farmer, and a spiritual seeker. She is also a consummate realist.  “The world is changing. Along with every other member of the Earth community, humans live now at the edge of the unknown. The next fifty years are not likely to look much like the previous fifty (p. 1).” The reader is never permitted to lose sight of that fact throughout the entire book. But that is not a doomsday prediction.  Humans have proved themselves “able”; they will step up again relearning and regaining the skills, do the things required to live in a different world.  It will take work, however. Hope can only be realized in action including the efforts required for spiritual growth.

There are many handbooks available to those who seek to find practical ways to deal with the effects of the climate crisis in an attempt to contain or slow down the many losses already happening. What is different about this book is the strong and grounded argument for “Strengthening our Spirits.” (Handbook One).  Loyd emphasizes the value of goodness. Goodness, she claims, stems from placing trust in the undying principles and virtues of truthfulness, mercy, justice, forgiveness, peace and so on, which stand in direct contradiction to materialism, mechanical efficiency, profit, war and the other evils that drive the present dominant world. That trust is only sustainable if rooted in an inner strength of spirits such as is empowered by the traditional faiths but also mediated in a natural world--- the Earth we inherit and through which we are sustained. She cites Cynthia Bourgeault (mystic and author), who refers to the virtues of goodness as “not just nice character traits,” but as nutrients for our being and nutrients for the world. It is through human action flowing from such goodness that the Earth itself is nourished, just as the Earth nourishes us with food, air, water and energy.  We do not obtain these virtues, however, without our own search and receptivity. There are skills for this, practiced and handed down from the spiritual giants of the past. For example, the first of these is “paying attention.”  This is an action, a human action, as is our entire thought process.  “Give goodness our full attention.” “Embrace it with our hearts.” Practice “choosing the good.” Spend time with those who embody goodness. Read the spiritual writers of any or all traditions. Withdraw support from unfairness. Seek to be the goodness to others. And more.

In the spiritual journey going forward, as the Earth, its systems, and our ways of life become degraded, the biggest change, Loyd claims, is the necessity for a fulsome inclusion of nature as sharing in the spiritual qualities. Nature is not a thing, a commodity, stuff, or body apart from spirit.  Nature embodies all the qualities we find in human existence as well as the mysterious presence we call God.  Our modern neglect of nature has left us with a dearth of language, even, to conceive of and explain other-than-human relationship to God and thus to our own spiritual lives. Our predominant relationship to nature must become one of respect, justice and care, but also one of wonder and awe. It is a confrontation with the mysterious and ultimately unknowable source of all being.

There are many worthy efforts happening to correct the imbalance between careless waste and destruction, and lives lived within the boundaries and capacities of the natural world. Some of these are laid out in Handbooks Two and Three. The real contribution of this Collapse-Able, however, is Handbook One. There Loyd lays out the very basis on which we humans are “Able” to live with dignity and hope in the future as it is already unfolding. It will take a deeply spiritual journey. She provides the Handbook for that too.

From the Eucharistic Prayer for All Saints’, the Book of Common Worship, Presbyterian Church, USA  (adapted)

“t is our greatest joy to give You thanks O Lord our God, creator and ruler of the universe. We praise you for saints and martyrs, for the faithful in every age who have followed your Son and witnessed his resurrection.

Number us with your saints, O God, and join us with the faithful of every age, that strengthened by their witness, and supported by their fellowship, we may run with perseverance the race that is set before us… Give us strength to serve You faithfully until the promised day of resurrection, when with the redeemed of all the ages we will feast with You at your table in glory. In Christ and in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all honour and glory are yours almighty God, now and forever. Amen”

Lord our God, you renew the face of the earth and bring newness to our world:                                                

Restore the waters,                                                                                                                                                           

 Refresh the air,                                                                                                                                                                                 

Revive the land,                                                                                                                                                                       

Breathe new life into all your creation,                                                                                                                                        

And begin with us.”                                                                                                                                                                    

From The Rhythm of Life, Celtic Daily Prayer by David Adam.

 

Prayer for the Season of Creation (Adapted from Anglican Diocese of Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island Environmental Newsletter)

Creator of all, we praise You for the gift of life, and for the faith that unites us in care for our common home.  We confess how estranged we have become from one another, from creation, and from our truest selves.  We acknowledge that our greed and destructive impulses have fractured our relationships with You, with others, and with the earth. Fertile fields have become barren, forests lie desolate, oceans and rivers are polluted.                  Thriving communities have become places of suffering and the earth cries out.

Beloved Christ, who spoke ‘Shalom’ to frightened hearts, stir us to compassionate action.                 

Inspire us to work for the end of conflict, and full restoration of broken relationships with You,                      

the human family, and all creation.

Prince of Peace, through your wounds, lead us to stand with the woundedness of creation, of others in the human family, and the world. May your Resurrection make us people of hope, with tears transformed into joy.  As one human family may we live your peace… with creation, and with one another, so all may live in justice and safety, in joy and peace. Amen.     

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The next Issue, Advent & Christmas, New Creation, will be published in mid-December. May you ‘abound in hope’ in this season of God’s magnificent beauty and love.