Message from our minister, Clare
Annwyl ffrindiau/Dear friends
This harvest time as we give thanks for our food and God’s provision in time-honoured tradition, it has felt slightly surreal to hear new advice coming from the UK Government about the importance of building up small reserves of food. The Government has advised families to have a small stock of food supplies that could tide them over in an emergency should they be impacted by extreme weather, so households can be ‘a bit more resilient’.
It’s striking because for so long, consumers have been urged not to panic buy (we all remember the messages against stockpiling at the start of the pandemic) and there has been confidence in the food supply chain in all scenarios. It’s also striking for me because in my former work with Christian Aid’s media team a lot of the messaging we produced was about helping families in other parts of the world ‘develop resilience’.
And here we are, in the autumn of 2026, hearing warnings about the El Niño weather pattern, and yes, not being told to stockpile or to panic, but to be aware of the fact that extreme weather could limit our ability to access food in our usual ways and that being prepared is wise.
Risks to our food supply chain such as climate change, weather patterns and cyber-attacks, all move us into a different era and as with any change we have a chance to reflect on our response. Do we look inwards, turn outwards, or do both? Harvest services and the Season of Creationtide remind us of our connections and interdependence with God, the earth and one another. My hope is that in hearing the word ‘resilience’ being associated with our own nations we have a new sense of understanding for, and solidarity with, those both here and overseas who struggle in a much more profound way to feed their families or to look to the future.
A BBC headline ran ‘Stock up on food to prepare for extreme weather’. I wonder what alternative headline, churches, other faiths and communities might write as we develop a new consciousness of our own vulnerability and are prompted to act? This governmental advice might not be a call for us to simply look after our own store cupboards but be a moment that reminds us of what was always true, that together we are stronger.
Pob bendith/Blessings
Clare
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