LIVING LIGHT

Welcome! You have found the site of the CreationKeepers team (Christ Church's Eco Church Committee), which shares ideas and experiences about how we can all lighten our environmental footprint. We do this because we see our planet and its resources at a breaking point and believe in the power of personal examples. Most weeks, we will reflect on some aspect of living, working, shopping, consuming, reading, learning, etc. These are all local experiences and can easily be adopted by others in our community. Our authors (Rosie and Monika) look forward to any comments or ideas that you may also have and want to share. Send us your ideas at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Blog #51: Speaking Truth to Power

December 30, 2021
Monika Weber-Fahr

He chose a Sunday to leave us: Desmond Tutu, Anglican priest and Archbishop emeritus, uncompromising fighter against apartheid, activist fighting for social justice in its many realms, Nobel-prize winner, husband, father, grandfather, as charming as he was morally uncompromising, died on December 26 at the age of 90. Honoring him, I read many obituaries over the past days that paid tribute to him, the Archbishop of Canterbury’s, the BBC’s, the Guardian’s, the Washington Post’s, the South African TimesLIVE’s, the South African Business Day’s. None of them mentioned Tutu’s fight against climate change, and how he is - was - challenging all of us to take an active stance against the behaviors and politics of climate change. Yet, only last February, our then intern, Rosie Evans, had featured Archbishop Tutu in this Blog as one of the foresightful church leaders calling on Christians to change the tides on Climate change. In paying tribute to his life, we would like to use today’s Blog to share three key elements of his teaching that you might find illuminating and inspirational in regard to climate change and the environment!

Adaptation apartheid is how Archbishop Tutu had described the situation already in 2007: Climate change was - and still is - hitting disproportionately the poor and those in the Global South. Those who can adapt more easily are the countries and people living in the Global North, the very same whose industrial development had actually caused the changing climate in the first place, an ethical dilemma often described as climate (in)justice. No wonder that such language would come from Tutu - someone who called environmental destruction the human rights challenges of our time. Two weeks ago, Patrick had circulated an invitation to an online lecture about his life - The Gospel according to Mpilo Desmond Tutu. Regrettably I missed it - but I am sure it would have told us about the ethics of justice and forgiveness so fundamental to his teaching.

Divesting from fossil fuels was a focus for Tutu’s climate campaigns. Just as he did during apartheid years, he challenged the financial system - those who invested and those who benefited from these investmens - to divest from the perpetrators of climate change. Back in 2014, he went public with an anti-apartheid style call for a boycott of the fossil fuel industry. “We live in a World dominated by greed”, he noted at the time. “We have allowed the interests of capital to outweigh the interests of human beings and our Earth. It is clear [the companies] are not simply going to give up; they stand to make too much money”. In 2019, he wrote an OpEd in the Financial Times, referencing the 1,00 institutions who had by then divested $11tn from the sector and invested in renewable energy, challenging others to do so. Only with everyone’s participation would the world push itself to the tipping point from which one clean energy would be cheap enough that fossil fuels could be outlawed. “Apartheid [was] a global enemy”, Tutu wrote; “now it is climate change’s turn”.

Speaking truth to power was perhaps one of the most defining characteristic of Archbishop Tutu’s approach to life. It was also the title of the 2021 Desmond Tutu Annual Peace Lecture - offered jointly by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Graca Machel, Mary Robinson and Thuli Madonsela. The Annual Peace Lectures, held on or around Tutu’s birthday in October each year for the past 11 years, have become an important platform for leadership messages on the future of humanity. This particular set of four lectures, in October 20221, was very moving. For this Blog, I chose to quote from Mary Robinson, mostly because she also spoke directly to and about Archbishop Tutu. Demanding climate justice cannot be separated, she said, from wider struggles to end exclusion, discrimination and injustice. And while it’s easy to be disheartened, she recounted a moment when, while traveling in New York with the then Archbishop, he was chastised for being an optimist. His answer, said Mary Robinson, was: “Oh, no, I’m not an optimist. I’m a prisoner of hope.” Reflecting on this statement, she spoke about the human qualities needed going forward. Navigating our collective path through the challenges ahead would take human qualities of grace, faith and love “so wonderfully embodied by Arch".

In honoring the Archbishop, activist for peace and justice throughout his life, what better thing to do than to reflect on these qualities, and on his acts and commitments. “Real power lies not with those with the biggest bombs or bank accounts”, he wrote in the FT in 2019. “it resides in the people who elect them to power, invest in their schemes and tolerate their trampling on the rights of others. We must use this power wisely!"

RIP, Archbishop Tutu. You are right: There is a lot for us to do, as we go into 2022 this week!

Inspired? Thoughts or reactions? Or ideas for forthcoming blogs? We look forward to hearing from you - best via email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Blog #50: Christmas for CreationKeepers - Places of Hope!

December 23, 2021
Monika Weber-Fahr

Christmas is the feast of love and hope, encouraging us to walk in the light of Christ during moments of spiritual darkness. Light is much needed, I find. Across Europe we seem to be drowning again in bad news on skyrocketing Corona infection rates, overflowing hospitals and lock-downs. Elsewhere, the news seem to not be much better; inflation in Turkey, natural disasters in the US, fears in the Ukraine, and the list goes on. Even my BBC morning fix, the Global News podcast, announced this morning that they’d have a “good news special” on the 25th, seemingly finding it necessary to single out moments that show us rays of hope. Also amongst those of us caring for God’s Creation, the list of defeats and losses seems to be dominating conversations, and it’s easy to go into the Christmas days with a feeling of doom and gloom!

This week, though, I saw many rays of love and hope when taking a trip through local history as I visited the exhibition Danube. A journey into the past. It’s a small exhibition - set right in the middle of one of my favorite museums, the State Hall (Prunksaal) of the Austrian National Library. It tells the story of a magnificent part of local nature - the mighty River Danube - and how people interacted with her over the centuries. Mostly an untamed natural space, the Danube was both friend and foe, offering water to drink, fish to eat, and opportunities for transport, but also threatening livelihoods through dangerous floods and currents. Over the centuries, man found many ways to tame the river, turning the Danube into a waterway that was both safer to ship and less prone to unmanageable floods. And just in case you were wondering why that mattered: It turns out that Vienna alone has seen 450 floods, both smaller and larger ones, in the past 1000 years. That means we have, on average, nearly every other year a flood to deal with here.

Where is the good environmental news, you might ask? Well, one of the exhibits in the Museum documents what was at the time a monumental disagreement between the city’s and the country’s leadership on one side and those in the environmental movement on the other: The planned construction of a major hydropower plant in Hainburg, about an hour south of Vienna. It was supposed to bring jobs and low-carbon energy - but there was also a serious downside to consider as it would involve the destruction of a major and unique habitat, the Donau Au. The disagreements lasted for years and culminated in December 1984 when construction was about to begin. About 8000 protesters had come for a demonstration and many decided spontaneously to stay. They wanted to disturb and slow down the bush clearing and construction work through peaceful passive resistance. Many stayed for days, day after day, night after night, in the bitter cold and snow. When eventually police were asked to remove them, pictures of peaceful protesters being carried away by police - sometimes with force - created a major national uproar, with 40,000 demonstrating in Vienna’s streets on December 21st, 1984. The subsequent canceling of the construction, and the eventual preservation of the area as a National Park, are directly attributed to these days of peaceful protest. In short: The Hainburg protests marked a complete turning-point for Austrian politics and the role of the environment in political decision-making. The exhibit in the Museum tells the story briefly but beautifully.

Foto: A picture from Friedrich Hundertwasser, inspired by the Hainburg protests, as shown at the Exhibition in the Museum

Today, the DonauAuen area is a National Park and a unique space for wildlife and people; it protects the last remaining major wetland environment in Central Europe. Here, along 36 kilometers, the Danube flows feely, and the wetlands form a green ribbon between Vienna and Bratislava. As the water levels rise and fall quite dynamically here - up to 7 meters - nothing stays the same and the landscape is shaped and re-shaped again and again. The Park itself was formally set up only in 1996, 12 years after the protests at Hainburg opened up the possibility for creating and preserving such a unique habitat and international refuge. By now it is recognized as as a Riverine Wetlands National Park by IUCN, hosting 800 kinds of vascular plants, more than 30 mammalian species,100 breeding bird species, 8 reptilian and 13 amphibian species, and around 60 species of fish. What abundance!

Foto: A spectacular 44-meter long reproduction of the famous Pasetti map of 1857 shows the Danube from Passau to the Iron Gate, including flora and fauna.

So, yes, there is hope! Christmas is a good time to remind ourselves that hope and peace can inspire positive change. In researching about Hainburg, I found even more such stories, collected on Protestwanderung.at, listing examples where people have taken matters in their own hands over the past two centuries - if you speak German, a great resource! Not all of the protests were peaceful and not all ended as positively as the Hainburg protests. But if you are looking for some inspiration, check out the National Library and the Danube exhibition. Contrary to what you see online on the Museum's English website, the German-speaking one will inform you properly: It is open until the end of January. Maybe it’s even good for a last minute present to a loved-one: Get a ticket and enjoy!

Merry Christmas!

Blog #49: Christmas for CreationKeepers - A time for giving, also to creation ...?!

December 16, 2021
Monika Weber-Fahr

Advent is a time for giving. Today’s Western Christians will know all about this, if only because every radio station, shop or advertisement is telling us what to buy for whom, amongst friends or family and beyond. But the mandate to give goes much further. If we had any doubt, last Sunday’s Gospel made this very clear (Luke 3:7-18): “‘What should we do then?’ the crowd asked. John answered, ‘Anyone who has two shirts should share with the one who has none, and anyone who has food should do the same.” Should this matter to those of us looking to find ways to protect God’s creation? Do flora and fauna fall under the definition of someone who has no shirt? And if so, what shirt to give? Presumably we can take this figuratively?!

Personally, I have answered the first question - should we consider flora and fauna to count as someone - with a resounding Yes. In fact, in a growing number of countries the legal system has begun assigning to nature what is called environmental personhood. It means that a particular part of nature - a forrest, for example, or a river - is assigned rights, protections, privileges, responsibilities and legal liability of a legal personality. As a principle, this allows protecting nature for future human generations and it recognizes the relationship that many indigenous peoples have with natural entities. Nor surprise then that the legal frameworks in countries such as Ecuador, Colombia, New Zealand or Canada - where the rights of indigenous populations are increasingly recognized - know concepts of environmental personhood. For example, some of the rivers in these countries are considered legal persons, and where the rivers are being polluted, there is now a possibility to take legal action against the polluter - on behalf of the river.

So if we consider God’s creation to be persons - in the meaning of Luke 3:7-18 - what should we give, at the occasion of Advent? The LivingLIght blog is always trying to keep a local - Vienna or Austria specific - focus, and so we reviewed a longer list of Austrian government approved environmental charities and organizations on two different websites. Indeed, we found many worthy organizations listed there that would be safe recipients of an Advent-inspired donation of yours. They range from multiple organizations protecting animals (bees,bird, dogs, strays, and so on), through organizations promoting the protection of rivers, mountains or natural habitats more generally, to political organizations looking to lobby and mobilize political action. I am listing here my personal three favorites - just to get you inspired.

My first personal favorite is the Jane Goodall Institute Austria. Many will know Jane Goodall, the extraordinarily successful secretary-turned-anthropologist who famously confirmed the smartness of chimpanzees. The JG Institute Austria works with Austrian school children (and grown ups) on environmental education, awareness raising and mobilization, inspiring action both locally and globally, essentially teaching kids to take environmental matters in their own hands. What I like about them most: Jane Goodall’s message - and the Institute’s message - is profoundly a message of hope, something that should sit well with us as a faith-based community.

Secondly, there are the Green Heroes Austria. They are an environmental charity and organization that works on Waste Avoidance and Waste Management and focuses on awareness raising and public education, including through activities such as regular Danube Clean-Ups. Yours truly participated in one such activity earlier this year - and Blog #36 Why clean up the Danube tells the story of what happened. Green Heroes Austria work locally and that may get your attention; they don’t really have a faith-based dimension, but they create ways of concretely making things better

Third on my personal list of environmental charities to give to is a bouquet of politically active organizations, starting with Greenpeace Austria, through Sea Sheperds Austria and through to Fridays for Future Austria. If you want to contribute to the protection of God’s Creation by helping organizations that try to influence politics - right here in Austria as well as globally - these are a good place to start.

Other organizations are, of course, also great and worthy of your contributions. The Alpenverein. World Wildlife Fund. Arche Noah. Let’s explore - and let’s give. Advent is a time for giving!

P.S. I am glad to report that the our Church Council agreed, on one of its recent meetings, to include the Jane Goodall Institute Austria in the list charities that we, as a community, contribute to.

Blog #48: Christmas for CreationKeepers - Not all Christmas Trees were created equal!

December 9, 2021
Monika Weber-Fahr

Sunday, December 12, is this year’s day when it all begins: Christmas Tree sales are opening up in Vienna! On many many corners across town, sales booths will welcome you and friendly tree people will advise you on which of the trees they have may be right for you. Living in the US, we bought our tree much much earlier, right after Thanksgiving mostly, so that we could enjoy it to the max - but Vienna has its own ways. Estimates seem to vary, but from what I can gather I conclude that, here in the city alone, somewhere between 400,000 and 570,000 trees find their way into one household or another, and most of them are bought local, at a Standler. But what’s the environmental impact of all of this? Is this whole Christmas Tree Industry a good or a bad thing from a planetary footprint perspective? We looked around and found three things to consider.!

Firstly: Buying local matters and is possible here in Vienna. Well over half of the Christmas Trees sold in the city hail from the countryside around Vienna, Niederoesterreich mostly. At 160 of the 270 sales places, you can buy a tree with what’s called Herkunftsgarantie (guaranteed local denomination), just ask your salesperson. If you don’t want to buy your tree in the streets, you can also drive out and buy it directly at one of the tree nurseries or even chop it down yourself. The Austrian Association of Christmas Tree producers (yes, something like that exists) has a beautiful website where you can find locations and options: weihnachtsbaum.at. Perusing through the site you will also see that you might be able to save yourself the journey - the same people where you can buy your tree on the farm are also the people that offer the trees in town.

Foto: The Austrian Umweltberatung publishes a list of locations where you can get a ecologically grown Christmas Tree - and make no mistake, it makes a difference.

Secondly: You can go all in and buy a tree that has been grown in ecologically mindful ways. That’s where the use of pesticides and artificial fertilizer would have been avoided, and where the right growing and harvesting methods, as well as appropriate distances between the trees limit exposure to harmful insects or other pests. And yes, the Austrian Umweltberatung has a brochure with a list of places where you can get such Eco Trees. This is not a fancy or overly woke consideration: Most Christmas Trees, whether local or otherwise, come from large monocultures. And as a beekeeper I know how bad these can be, not just for other plants but also for the animals, the soil and the water. So: finding yourself an EcoTree could be something to try this year. You can easily recognize them based on various certificates being used, amongst them Bio-Siegel, Bioland-Siegel, Naturland-Siegel, Demeter-Siegel, FSC-Siegel.

Thirdly: Plastic trees, you might have guessed it, are not the solution. But don’t they help us to not purchase and use an actual natural tree? Reduce the demand for natural trees? Based on what I could gather, it seems that a plastic tree needs to be re-used at least 10 if not 20 years in order to come even close to the environmental impact from purchasing and using a natural tree. There is a lot of plastic involved, and since most of the plastic trees are produced in Asia, there is transport also to be considered. But on the other hand, if you start exploring alternative options, there are tree-like decorations, made from wood, cardboard, or other more natural materials, the list of options is rather long.

In conclusion: Affording oneself a Christmasy Tree simply is not really fabulous for the environment. Interestingly, it makes a difference how the trees are disposed of - via landfill or via incinerator. Interestingly, using incinerators for tree-disposal generates comparatively the lowest Green House Gas impact, so we should be on the better side of things here in Vienna where the city's incineration plants have a great reputation for their low emission profile. If you do choose to get a tree this year: Don’t forget to dispose of it properly, in early January, when the city-wide tree collecting is scheduled.

So what to do? A tree-in-a-pot is of course always a solution. Or make a compromise, between your tree this year and other things you are doing in managing your impact. A promise to planet earth, to God’s creation. No better gift to give!

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