Here's an interesting feature of Halloween: we may get dressed up scary — but we don't actually want to scare anybody. So why do we do it? Read more

"Christmas is killing us. Mad consumerism, rubbish by the planet load and dirty air travel that dumps pollution on us like no other industry.

So no presents. No holidays. Just stay home and plan the future."

And he says: "imagine the trucks that won't be needed as a result. Sorry drivers. Ummmm, upskill please."

Garner produced a long list of other suggestions that would help to reduce the rate of climate change.

While Christians maybe not so keen about doing away with Christmas, they are celebrating the Season of Creation from September 1 to October 4.

It might be a time for them to ponder on mad consumerism.

Last Friday's strike action in the name of climate change was believed to have attracted 170,000 people nationwide, according to strike organisers.

If accurate, it takes the lead as one of New Zealand's biggest strikes (in terms of attendees)

It beat this year's mega teachers' strike, but not quite the 1979 general strike which saw almost 300,000 workers nationwide join the picket line for one day.

Pope Francis has invited people to reflect and act to protect an endangered environment.

Taking inspiration from the Book of Genesis, Pope Francis describes God's gaze as "resting lovingly on his creation".

But he goes on to say that, "tragically, the human response to this gift has been marked by sin, selfishness and a greedy desire to possess and exploit."

"Egoism and self-interest", he says, "have turned creation, a place of encounter and sharing, into an arena of competition and conflict. In this way, the environment itself is endangered".

Source

• stuff.co.nz
• vaticannews.va
• stuff.co.nz
• Image: stuff.co.nz

He said it encouraged people to value wealthy people and wealth - at the expense of social considerations.

"It's ideological. It comes out in publications owned by wealthy people produced for mass consumption but targeted at other relatively wealthy consumers." Continue reading

1. Set a time to look in your wardrobe
2. Repurpose, reuse recycle
3. Stop it building up again

The challenge is part of the Tearfund's Lenten campaign. People who signed up, received a daily email suggesting people to rethink ethical consumption

Read more

Kiribati has a population of just over 100,000. The Marshall Islands about 52,000. And Tuvalu close to 10,000.

The problem for small Pacific Island nations is that on a world scale they don't count.

The only leverage they have is morality and common humanity.

When Micronesians sought justice and redress, the then US Secretary of State, Henry Kissinger is reported as saying "There are only 90,000 people out there. Who gives a damn?"

"Many of us from the Pacific Islands are old enough to remember how our small populations were used in the past to justify some of the worst environmental and human rights abuses in the form of atomic and nuclear testing," says Teresia Teaiwa.

Teaiwa is senior lecturer in Pacific Studies at Victoria University of Wellington.

"Today, all we have to challenge the giant perpetrators of climate change are moral arguments. And a bit of hyperbole," she says.

Recently the outgoing President of Kiribati, Anote Tong, compared climate change to trans-Atlantic slavery.

Was he really comparing climate change to nearly 400 years of brutalising enslavement of peoples stolen and sold out of Africa? Among them my maternal ancestors, Teaiwa asked.

Teaiwa is of Kiribati and African American ethnicity.

"Anote Tong's speech helped me focus my reflections in a way that I ended up appreciating."

"He made me think about slavery and climate change in simultaneously personal and systemic ways," she said.

Tong said slavery "was a system that was justified solely by its profitability."

"Morality was all that opponents of slavery had to argue against slave plantation economics."

This is the same with climate change, Tong argued.

Climate change is the consequence of a system justified solely by its profitability.

The fossil fuel and coal industries, for example, are profitable.

But they're also immoral.

They're reaping profits for the few, while spreading the costs around the world.

"If we are to learn anything additional about the abolition of slavery that might be useful to our struggle with climate change, it is probably this: abolition was achieved in what must have seemed like a glacial pace to slaves all around the world."

"And the most painful truth is that slavery has not been abolished."

"There are more trafficked and enslaved labourers today than there have ever been in human history."

"We have been and continue to be slaves to economic systems that are and always will be the ruin of us."

Source

• e-tangata.co.nz
• Image: itelegraph.co.uk

Colmar Brunton CEO Jacqueline Farman believes the findings are the result of consumers feeling bombarded with straight sales-driven messages that fail to capture the "true" spirit of festivities. Continue reading

MPs have voted 75 to 45 in favour of the bill, moving it to the Commerce Committee for consideration.

"We are disappointed that the vote in favour of sending the Shop Trading Hours Amendment Bill to Select Committee means the rights of vulnerable workers and their families to time off at Easter is under threat," said Cardinal John Dew on behalf of the Catholic Bishops of New Zealand.

"This is about ensuring that vulnerable workers can count on having time off for things that strengthen community and family life," Dew said.

"We are also deeply concerned that a dangerous precedent could be set in turning an issue that has always been a conscience vote, into a government Bill in which MPs are not free to vote according to their conscience."

"Conscience votes are an important protection for MPs and for society as a whole," Cardinal Dew said.

Dew said the NZ Catholic Bishops would be making a submission to the committee to oppose the bill.

Cardinal John Dew is the President of the New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference.

Currently, laws stipulate most shops must close or restrict what they sell on Easter Sunday — for example, bars can only serve food (no alcohol).

The bill was put forward by Workplace Relations Minister Michael Woodhouse, who reasoned current laws were out of date.

"The historical Easter Sunday shop trading exemptions are out of date and create an unfair advantage for certain businesses and regions that can continue trading while others stay shut," he said.

"We know there is a demand from communities across the country to allow for shop trading on Easter Sunday, particularly from those districts who rely on tourism."

Good Friday, ANZAC Day and Christmas Day were not affected.

Woodhouse said the holiday is still significant for many Kiwis which is why workers will still be able to refuse to work on that day.

Source

• Supplied NZCBC
• stuff.co.nz
• Image: bradleystokejournal.co.uk

She was responding to the announcement by the Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Michael Woodhouse that The Government will change "arbitrary" national Easter Sunday trading restrictions and put the onus on local councils to decide opening hours.

"There are a range of activities that take place at Easter because most New Zealand workers are guaranteed time off work - including church activities, but also sports tournaments, school reunions, hui, unveilings and other marae gatherings," said Hickey.

She says that once shops are open, many retail workers and others such as cleaners and security workers will end up working whether they want to or not.

"For those experiencing financial pressure, families and communities will be deprived of their presence, and our whole society will be the poorer for it," she says.

"Giving more choice to businesses takes away choice from working families and it impoverishes communities."

"We have a very long track record of submitting and commenting on proposed changes to Easter trading hours. However, there has been no consultation with Churches or unions on this proposed legislation."

Over the past 25 years there have been more than 10 attempts to make changes to Easter trading laws, each of which has been defeated as New Zealanders have consistently expressed their views on the matter.

Hickey points out that a number of National Members of Parliament have a record of voting against liberalisation of Easter trading hours in conscience votes, including the sponsor of this Bill - Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Michael Woodhouse.

"We are concerned and disappointed that now this is introduced as a government bill, rather than a private member's bill, a number of Government MPs will be required to vote against their conscience."

Although some businesses have expressed a desire for more commercial activity at Easter, Hickey said it is the most vulnerable workers with the fewest choices who should be the focus of debate around this bill.

"Easter is one of the few times of the year when many families and communities are guaranteed important time together."

"We should be supporting that, rather than undermining it and moving further towards a consumerist lifestyle that Pope Francis has warned against. "

Source

• crispin@caritas.org.nz
• Image: campaigncentre.com.au

At a press conference following the release of Laudato Si', the cardinal was asked about the encyclical's appeal for "sobriety and self-denial".

Cardinal Nichols said that people needed to go beyond reading the encyclical in a "puritanical way".

He said Pope Francis wanted the faithful to recognise that when it comes to consumerism "less is better".

The cardinal added that being trapped on an escalator where you "always want more" is not a "happy escalator".

Cardinal Nichols also highlighted that the encyclical made clear that when we purchase any object we make an ethical choice and that indviduals should ask themselves "do I need this?"

Among the many messages in Laudato Si' the Pope wrote: "A constant flood of new consumer goods can baffle the heart and prevent us from cherishing each thing and each moment."

Cardinal Nichols described the encyclical as a thoroughly Catholic teaching document.

Meanwhile, the Church of England's General Synod is set to approve a proposal that asks congregations to skip lunch on the first day of each month.

A motion to be launched by the Bishop Nicholas Holtam of Salisbury will require bishops and vicars to "encourage prayer and fasting for climate justice on the first day of each month".

Bishop Holtam has described climate change as "the most pressing moral issue in our world".

The plea is part of a green overhaul by the Church of England which will also see trainee priests instructed in "eco theology" and "eco-justice" alongside the Bible.

The new subject for theological colleges is designed to ensure that the next generation of vicars become "enablers for others in seeking change and a sustainable future".

Two days before the Pope's encyclical was released, the Archbishop of Canterbury produced a declaration signed by British faith leaders calling for a low carbon economy.

Sources

• Catholic Herald
• Daily Mail
• Laudato Si'
• Image: CathNews USA

Dom Aidan Bellenger, former Abbot of Downside Abbey and a leading historian of the monastic life, made this assertion in an article in The Tablet.

He suggested that communities had made "too much accommodation with consumerist ideals of the modern world, too many credit cards, too many expensive holidays".

"A decline in the number of vocations has combined with the ageing of the communities, and a tendency to middle class stagnation, strangulation by comfort and gerontocracy," Dom Aidan wrote.

He stated that many of the problems were to do with money and finance.

He also argued that the running of schools and parishes have taken religious away from their foundational ideas.

Traditionally communities have run schools, parishes and other institutions and have sought to balance the call to be contemplatives with work in the world.

Last year, Pope Francis proclaimed a Year for Consecrated Life, running from November, 2014, to February, 2016.

In his apostolic letter announcing the year, Pope Francis noted that he did this "on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church Lumen Gentium, which speaks of religious in its sixth chapter, and of the Decree Perfectae Caritatis on the renewal of religious life".

In his apostolic letter, the Pope challenged religious to examine themselves in terms of their openness to the Gospel, and whether it is truly the "manual" for daily living for them.

"The Gospel is demanding: it demands to be lived radically and sincerely," the Pope wrote.

"It is not enough to read it (even though the reading and study of Scripture is essential), nor is it enough to meditate on it (which we do joyfully each day).

"Jesus asks us to practice it, to put his words into effect in our lives."

Sources

• The Tablet
• Vatican papal statements
• Image: The Times

Balvo, who was recently the Pope's representative [apostolic nuncio] in Wellington was addressing the United Nations Environmental Assembly.

He said that while the desire to moderate the consumption of goods was commendable, it was necessary to abandon the model of "an uncontrolled consumerism, an immeasurable enjoyment."

"The current world economic system, manipulated by the powers of money," does not favour the inclusion of the poor for the sake of the common good," he said.

He added that there was a need to pay greater attention to the "spiritual dimension" of sustainable development.

The first United Nations Environment Assembly was attended by over 1065 participants, 163 member states, 113 Ministers and featured 40 events.

It took place in, Nairobi, Kenya 23 - 27 June 2014.

Archbishop Balvo is now the apostolic nuncio to Kenya and South Sudan.

He is also the permanent observer of the Holy See at the bodies of the United Nations for the environment and human settlements.

Read the whole statement

Source

• The Vatican
• Image: photo1.blogger.com

"Our preparation for Christmas in the season of Advent is a time of waiting for a child who was born in poverty, in a stable because there was no place that would take in his family," says Archbishop John Dew, President of the New Zealand Catholic Bishops Conference.

"For some New Zealanders, Christmas is becoming a time of over-consumption, while for others it is a time of great stress and anxiety to meet their basic necessities. It would be good if all of us could think about how we can live a bit more simply this Christmas and, wherever possible, reach out to someone who might be struggling even just a bit more than we are ourselves."

Archbishop John says there are many ways that people could assist others, from donating to a food bank or soup kitchen, to giving food as a Christmas gift to neighbours or friends, or inviting someone over for a meal.

Source

• NZCBC
• Image: remnantculture.com

One of the authors of the study, Dr Ekant Veer, said the research showed that supposedly core and unshakeable beliefs were not as hard to change as previously thought. The research uncovered that either beliefs were not deeply rooted or that advertising with regards to consumerism especially is starting to impact core beliefs and change them more easily, he said.

Dr Veer said the research was "eye opening." He said it was useful for allowing consumers to understand how easily they could be "duped" and for allowing advertisers to understand their target market better. He said marketing an item to the wrong group could have a detrimental effect to the brand.

Read the article

Image: National Business Review