Vanessa Elston

Priest, pilgrim, vicar of St Barnabas, Southfields, chaplain to Bishop of Kingston. Working for the future that requires a change of mind and heart.

[Vanessa Elston @ClimatePilgrims]

Let’s pray and act for mass shift in mindset. A waking up to our grossly abnormal system and chronic lack of political will to change it. #ClimateCrisis

[Janine di Giovanni @janinedigi]

I’ve reported 18 wars over 35 years. I’ve been shot at, kidnapped, threatened, nearly raped. I’ve lost friends from Sarajevo to Syria. I thought I’d seen the worst of humanity. I was wrong. Nothing compares to Gaza — or the complicity letting it happen.
#GazaGenocide #WarCrimes

[Vanessa Elston @ClimatePilgrims]

@MartinGainsbor1 @SouthwarkCofE We need a world where we want all to flourish. 🙏🏼

[Vanessa Elston @ClimatePilgrims]

@MartinGainsbor1 @SouthwarkCofE Glad you got a bed for night. Looks like Pen-y-Ghent in photo.

[Vanessa Elston @ClimatePilgrims]

@MartinGainsbor1 @SouthwarkCofE Love the chalet! You both deserve it.

[Paul Powlesland @paulpowlesland]

I fundamentally believe in the importance of free debate to democracy & find it utterly unhealthy that some seats have historically been considered so safe the candidates hardly meet voters & don’t even bother with local hustings anymore.

So, in standing as a Green Councillor in Thames View, I made sure the first local hustings in the seat in decades took place last night. Two fascinating takeaways:

- The empty chair where the Labour candidate should have been sat was a powerful reminder to local people of the contempt they are held in by @BDLabour. Labour has such entitlement you can sense how offended they are that other parties are daring to contest ‘their’ seat.

- Why its important to let Reform speak: The Reform candidate has already described Barking as a “nasty, disgusting place” & his hustings performance continued in the same vein. Weird rants about immigration (which he cannot change as a councillor), interspersed with threats to close down the much loved local social club (because it’s discriminatory for it to serve alcohol 🤷‍♂️) & for developers to build over local green spaces as it is important for them to make profit that can “trickle down”.

The hustings was important at bringing attention to Labour’s complacency & contempt and Reform’s weird incoherent mix of authoritarianism & Thatcherite community destruction, all in the same event.

[Platform @PlatformLondon]

"the British state was willing to go as far as training officers who were part of a repressive state apparatus [...] in order to help BP get its way."

Platform's James Marriott on the significance of the revelations in these newly declassified documents ⤵️

[Vanessa Elston @ClimatePilgrims]

@MartinGainsbor1 @SouthwarkCofE And your chaplain is also very pleased as it makes it much easier for her to lock up her 🚲

[Martin Gainsborough @MartinGainsbor1]

Day 6, final day, of @SouthwarkCofE Eco-Pilgrimage. We have arrived @Southwarkcathed 60 miles, 60 parishes in 6 days. Walking into the heart of creation, sustaining hopeful action on climate and nature at the local level, believing in a new heaven and a new earth.

[Martin Gainsborough @MartinGainsbor1]

Highlights of @SouthwarkCofE Eco-Pilgrimage. ‘May we revel in each other’s company and strengthen one another on the way’. 6 of 6

[Martin Gainsborough @MartinGainsbor1]

Highlights @SouthwarkCofE Eco-Pilgrimage. ‘May we know the worth of silence and slow walking’. 5 of 6

[Martin Gainsborough @MartinGainsbor1]

Highlights @SouthwarkCofE Eco-Pilgrimage. ‘May we see you in all that we encounter, in the skies above and the ground beneath our feet’. 4 of 6

[Martin Gainsborough @MartinGainsbor1]

Highlights @SouthwarkCofE Eco-Pilgrimage. ‘Give us the joy of new friendships kindled and old friendships reignited’. 3 of 6

[Martin Gainsborough @MartinGainsbor1]

Highlights @SouthwarkCofE Eco-Pilgrimage. ‘Our way finder at crossroads, our second wind in weariness’. 2 of 6

[Martin Gainsborough @MartinGainsbor1]

Highlights @SouthwarkCofE Eco-Pilgrimage. ‘Creator God, be our companion in our walking this day’. 1 of 6

[Vanessa Elston @ClimatePilgrims]

I just supported this case! https://t.co/4JEulIu14i via @CrowdJustice to enable a proper judicial review of plans that are not in the public interest. Please contribute to ensure a proper democratic and legal process on covenanted land for public benefit.

[Vanessa Elston @ClimatePilgrims]

⁦Proud to host ⁦@SaveWimbldnPark⁩ meeting this evening at St Barnabas Southfields. Democracy costs £200,000 to fund a judicial review of plans to excavate and destroy soil and trees of 73 acres. A test case for 50 London sites. Our public green spaces need protecting.

[Vanessa Elston @ClimatePilgrims]

War in Ukraine: 'Washington has become Nero's court,' says Claude Malhuret. - YouTube https://t.co/REAdWKW0pk

[Deborah Meaden 🇺🇦 @DeborahMeaden]

Really interesting piece on the Trump playbook from Timothy Snyder, professor history at Yale. Trump is destabilising, causing chaos, deconstructing Govt depts and when Govt fails, will bring wealthy Oligarch’s in to fill the void. Guess where Trump got that.
Second point… chaos causes friction and friction causes Wars. Ultimately Trump is a warmonger hiding in plain sight behind the shield of being a peacemaker.

Also… Trump interested in Trump and friends…. Ask not what you can do for your country.. ask what it can do for you.