A day in the smoke

London was hit by a 48 hour tube strike, so it was entirely appropriate ( but not entirely straight forward) that I should take my bike on the 0600 hrs train to Euston to cycle on to the Church of England briefing on The Church and Climate Change at Lambeth Palace.

London has changed since I was there 25 years ago - many more bike lanes and places to park bikes I even got mine through the House of Commons security system, but Virgin Rail jobsworths almost thwarted me on the 2030 train back to the north west!


My 9 am meeting with a friend, former parishioner and sitting Member of Parliament on the Terrace of the H-o-C overlooking a sunny, glistening River Thames went far too quickly, and so much time was spent catching up, my questions didnt get fully answered.....


Then off on the bike again across the river to Lambeth Place, bumped into former college friend and leading light in Arocha- also on his bike! And then met author of a booklet that will really help me with my studies - and she wrote it on the very same balcony overlooking the Indian Ocean where I will be in 2 weeks time. She certainly whetted my appetite for what I will see.

As for the briefing conference - the big guns were wheeled out including the Bishop of London, Minister of State for the Department of the Environment and Climate Change, key figures from the Environment Agency, Natural England, and representatives from almost every diocese, including the Bishop of Lancaster from Blackburn.

There is no longer any doubt that the situation is serious: the science is good, the prognosis for the future is not, and steps need to be taken by the church - as institution and as individuals - now to meet very tough targets to curb carbon emissions by 2020. So much to take on board, including some very good presentations as to what other dioceses and support organisations are already doing. We have loads to do here. And ironically all this took place in a large room called the Guard Room with three huge chandeliers each with 21 inefficient-looking lightbulbs in!

So, it was then out onto the wild streets of South London after the cloistered serenity of LP - the Archbishop of Canterbury dropped in and said a passing hello to me as he gate-crashed our lunch - and in need of some virtual retail therapy, I called in the French Horn player's mecca(!) , Paxmans just 10 minutes away where I indulged myself by having a wonderful blow on an Alexander 102 - a £6000 equivalent of something like a Rolls Royce in the horn playing world!

Then with four hours to kill before the only train my cheap ticket was valid on, a gentle stroll, and sandwich in a park, not a care in the world, until with 15 minutes to go, the train was called for boarding, and virgin staff told me I needed a booking for the bike - I already had one, but I apparently needed a ticket as well - that was a frantic 10 minutes spent. I nearly hit the whisky bar in the train, but proportionally that would have cost me as much as a £6k French Horn and not lasted as long, or brought as much pleasure ( !!!) to others, nor possibly sent so much hot air into the atmosphere!

The adventure continues.