Join the Oil Fast - 3 Oct 2010

Take a look around the room you are in. How many things can you see that are made of oil? Or, maybe easier, how many things can you see that are not? Oil is used in many things, from plastics and paint to cosmetics and synthetic fabric, is necessary to produce most of the food that we eat and, of course, fuels all the travelling that we do.

Our civilization is built on oil - we are dependent upon it. So what? There are three main problems with this:

i) Firstly, burning oil as fuel puts carbon dioxide into the atmosphere which is heating up the earth beyond what is comfortable for much of the life on earth.

ii) Secondly, as we saw in the Gulf of Mexico , getting oil out of the ground can be hugely dangerous for the local environment.

iii) And there's a third thing. In just a few geological seconds we have gobbled up about half of the oil that there is. The oil that is left is deeper in the ground, further under the sea, and in a different form, as tar sands, harder and more damaging to reach. Mining oil will become more dangerous and conflict-ridden as countries fight for dwindling supplies.

For the world to stay as safe and beautiful as God intends it to be we need to leave oil in the ground. This will need great discipline and spiritual strength.

To prepare ourselves for leaving the oil in the ground, to repent of our thoughtless miss-use of oil, and to help us learn to live without so much oil, Operation Noah (www.operationnoah.org ) has called an oil-fast for the 3 rd October. On this day we are all encouraged to find ways we can make do with less oil. And afterwards let's continue to try to use it sparingly and thankfully.

Ruth Jarman and Barbara Echlin