50 years ago this week Neil Armstrong landed on the moon.

For those of us alive at that time it was a culmination of the great Apollo Project, and I can remember exactly where I was when he stepped out of the lunar module and said the famous words, "A small step for a man and a giant leap for mankind".

The years of the 1960s were years of great hope for the future, but 50 years on, people are uncertain about the future concerning our environment, national and international relationships and population growth. In 1969 3.6 billion people lived on the earth. Today it has doubled to over 7.7 billion and rising..

My abiding memory of the space program to the moon was the photograph of the planet earth taken from the moon. It was the most awesome photograph. Planet Earth from all those miles away was a beautiful orb of white and blue suspended in the blackness of space. That image reminded me how beautiful and fragile is our planet which is home to all of us.

50 years on we still need to see that picture to remind us all that we need to take the greatest care of it. It is the only home we have!

At last people like David Attenborough and others are finally alerting us to the predicaments of today. 50 years ago the technology of the day took men to the moon.

In today's world, there are technologies which can address the environmental challenge for us, but there needs to be in every home, community and nation across the world the human will, and heartfelt passion, to live a less self-centred life and live for the common good.

In the Stroud Valleys, we are blessed that there are vibrant communities of men, women and young people looking beyond themselves with a track record of concern for our environment and one another.

The challenges for our human communities across the globe are immense, truly immense, but we need to be people of both hope and action. The future is in our hands.