The Good Shepherd
This text is being edited.
Letter to the C of E Bishops
Hats off to Jonathan Sterling for his excellent, encouraging letter to our Bishops.
1 August 2023
Dear Bishop ,
It was a great encouragement to see that the members of General Synod overwhelmingly endorsed (by 256 votes to 36 votes) the Oxford Diocese’s Environmental Motion, at their recent meeting in York. It is another milestone we can all give thanks for, as the Church of England seeks to embrace its Fifth Mark of Mission.
As the Bishop of Reading, Olivia Graham, highlighted during her presentation, “The motion before you seeks to challenge us in all areas of life, from finances to buildings and political advocacy. We need the National Investing Bodies to be investing at scale in renewable energy and climate solutions. Doing everything we can in our dioceses and parishes to get to net zero. And asking every Christian in every church to pray for change and to lobby their MPs, as we ramp up to a General Election ... There is no greater issue facing society today, than runaway climate change. Our Church, with the level of resources, reach and influence we have, must be on the frontline of the battle, for the sake of every beloved part of God’s creation.” [see video link below at 50:25]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
I was also hugely encouraged by the National Investing Bodies [NIBs] recent decision to divest from all fossil fuel companies by the end of this year. I hope that the last few dioceses still holding investments in fossil fuels will also now rapidly divest. Reporting back to General Synod, Alan Smith, the First Church Estates Commissioner, stated in his opening remarks, “Synod, five years ago, you asked us to do something around what is the defining issue of our age: climate change.” [see video link below at 1:42:25]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
In the ensuing presentation, Alan explained, “Very, very importantly, through an unequivocal articulation that the target for net zero must be keeping average global temperature rises to below 1.5C, compared to pre-industrial levels. The kind of mantra of ‘1.5 to stay alive’ is not just a slogan. It is actually essential, if we are to flourish as communities.” [see above video link at 1:47:00]
Alan set out their decision to divest, within the context of these parameters that General Synod had previously given them. “You’d have read last week about our decision at the Church Commissioners to exclude eleven oil and gas companies for their failure to align with climate change goals. It was not a decision taken lightly. It was evidence-based and data-driven. It was a sobering decision, because it means that we haven’t seen the leadership that we would have expected and hoped for in some of the world’s most consequential companies.” [see above video link at 1:49:00]
As he concluded this presentation, Alan observed, “Our paper notes, Synod, that we are at a crossroads. I would expand on it a bit and give it another framing. We are either crossing the Red Sea, or the River Jordan, in how we engage going forward. We must ensure that it’s the Jordan that we’re crossing. We don’t have forty years to waste.” [see above video link at 1:51:10]
Responding to the NIBs’ presentation, Bishop Graham Usher, the Church of England’s Lead Bishop on the Environment, also sounded the alarm, “The cry of Creation is calling out amongst us all. The prophetic voice of the Fifth Mark of Mission is something that should be ringing in all our ears. Because climate change knows no international borders and its impact is being seen all around us.” [see above video link at 2:09:25]
Replying to the questions from Synod members, Clive Mather, Chairman of the Pensions Board, emphasised, “If there is one issue on which we all need to apply ourselves, personally, professionally, in all our various roles, and not least on our knees, it’s climate change.” [see above video link at 2:24:20]
In a further reflection, Clive said, “I am sure like many others in this room, climate change and the need to address it, is not something new in their lives ... I think we’re getting close [now], when this is really going to move. And it has to, because the warning signs are visible every day.” [see above video link at 2:34:15]
Sir David King, former Chief Scientific Advisor to the UK Government, stated in a recent seminar of the Independent Climate Crisis Advisory Group, “We, I believe, have put in an excess amount of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere already. This is driving what is happening at the two Poles. And what’s happening at the two Poles ... will impact the entire planet. So I don’t feel too satisfied that 1.5C, averaged for the whole planet, is fine ... Where we are today looks exceptionally dangerous. And we’re at 1.3C above the pre-industrial level, as a global average.” [see video link below at 43:25]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Another leading British climate scientist, Sir Bob Watson, who is a former head of the UN’s climate body (the IPCC), recently told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme, “I do not believe we will achieve [the 1.5C limit], in fact I’m very pessimistic about achieving even 2C ... The big issue is we need to reduce greenhouse gases now to even be on the pathway to be close to 1.5C or 2C. We need to reduce current emissions by at least 50% by 2030. The trouble is the emissions are still going up, they are not going down.”
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/
Or as Sir David King put it, “The reduction in emissions: without that, frankly, we’re cooked.” [see video link below at 44:20]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Sir David King concluded his recent remarks with the following call to action, “So I think the challenges are enormous, but we can set out a comprehensive programme of action. The problem is, which government leaders are listening to us? We really need to get the message from this meeting into every major government leader in the world, to just spell out the dangers of inaction.” [see video link above at 46:10]
The Bishop of Bath and Wells, Michael Beasley, was one of the General Synod members who spoke during the Q&A session with the NIBs, following their decision to divest from the fossil fuel companies. Bishop Michael’s contribution included this enquiry, “I just want to add my thanks for this and wish this could be the main story coming out of this Synod ... And we’ll speak into the Public Square as well. What would you like us to say about the disinvestment decisions that have been made?” [see video link below at 2:27:55]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
The key message for us all to be speaking into the Public Square at this daunting moment in history is this: if we are to have a liveable future, there can be no new investment in fossil fuels. This message now needs to be repeated unceasingly to our government leaders, to the fossil fuel companies, and to the banks who continue to finance their activities.
As Bishop Olivia expressed this in her presentation on the Oxford Diocese’s Environmental Motion, “The recent and very welcome announcement from the Church Commissioners and the Pensions Board on divestment ... [has] given a clear and unambiguous message that we share the conviction of the International Energy Agency, that net zero is not compatible with the continued development of fossil fuels.” [see video link below at 48:45]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Alan Smith, the First Church Estates Commissioner, expanded on this issue himself, towards the end of the NIBs Q&A session at Synod: “One of the big things ... that drives energy forecasts is the International Energy Agency ... Now that has been the industry body for the oil majors. And it’s their forecasts that are saying that we have to hit net zero in 2050. That actually there should be no new investment in fossil fuels, in oil and gas, because there’s actually enough there that we’ve discovered that can get us through the transition.” [see video link below at 2:35:40]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Alan continued, “So this is their industry that is saying that and [the oil majors have] chosen to ignore it! It’s a bit like, if you’re an Anglican and saying you don’t want to believe the canons ... You don’t give a target and then roll back on it. In particular, when you’ve made so much money from the windfalls of higher energy prices, that gives you that ability to invest more in the future [of clean energy] ... They’ve [instead] taken that opportunity with all the extra money that they’ve got, to either give it back in dividends, to pay themselves, or to buy back their shares. And even that is a statement of intent of how they ... [are] really just going to be doubling down more on fossil fuels ... If you have the energy companies not following what their own industry body is telling them, about what is necessary and what is possible, that will obviously make us have to think about the decisions that we’ve taken.” [see above video link at 2:36:20]
Christian Climate Action (CCA) members were there in prayerful support at the General Synod in York. As part of our public witness, CCA is calling on the Church of England to put pressure on the UK government to stop issuing new oil and gas licences, to invest in renewables and to ensure that those who will suffer job losses in this transition, are trained for alternative employment in the renewable industries. CCA also continues to highlight the need for climate justice, recognising that those who suffer most have done the least to contribute to this crisis. CCA is asking that the Church use its influence to amplify its voice in support of the Loss and Damage fund and to propose that mechanisms are set up, which will ensure that the fossil fuel and polluting companies pay to repair the damage that they have inflicted.
Immediately prior to the Oxford motion being voted through so overwhelmingly by Synod, Bishop Olivia concluded her remarks as follows, “The issues which face us are deeply spiritual ones. They have to do with us facing into our sinfulness in the way that we have misused and mistreated this beautiful, blue-green marble, floating in space, which is our God-given, single, planet home. Mistreating it through our greed and indifference and apathy ... We must all wake up and we must all change. We must pray and we must act. We must lobby and we must influence in every single context in which we are able to do this. This is the spirit in which this motion is offered and I commend it to you for your support today.” [see video link below at 2:01:25]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Bishop Olivia had already amplified her call to action in her preceding presentation, “Friends, we are just off the starting blocks. We must go further and we must go faster. All of us: as individuals, churches, communities; as dioceses, the Church of England; as the whole Anglican Communion; and with people of goodwill from all denominations and faith communities. We have only the rest of this decade to take decisive action. It’s a very small window.” [see video link above at 50:00]
Yours in faith,
Jonathan Sterling
London
Christian Climate Action member
christianclimateaction.org
R's poem
Photo is by Elvis Hardy.
Explanatory note: Section 12 refers to the Public Order Act 1986 which has been recently amended.
40 or so, in orange high viz,
today got the city turned out in a tiz.
They took to the streets with a message to tell
“No more new drilling – you’re creating hell”
Coppers attended, good humour was high
Someone tweets “Carnage” but that was a lie.
Several cars just had to go slow,
but disruption’s the aim – or didn’t you know?
We have to make headlines or nobody hears
the facts and the science that Rishi so fears.
The government’s policies must be deleted;
That’s why our protesting must be completed.
Our brave crew of marchers took Trinity Way,
their courage undaunted made everyone’s day.
Past the Cathedral (which I hope cried “Amen”
as it witnessed the orange-clad women and men)
Into the Arndale – the aisles were busy
with Saturday shoppers – the sight makes one dizzy -
Unwilling to hear, their heads in the sand,
we must wake them up – they might join our band.
A security guard is blocking the way
“Not on my escalator!” he’s trying to say.
He grabs at a bee in her bright orange vest
but a copper shouts “Move, mate. They’ve a right to protest”
So no Section 12, no violence, no capers
Just good conversations and headlines in papers.
A story worth telling – they all gave their best.
Next time, will you join them, wear a brave hero’s vest?
My sentencing - what I said to the judge.
 |
| With my wife Wendy outside the court. |
We were called back to London for sentencing on the 20 April 2023. We were permitted to speak "in mitigation".
This is what I said:
Revd Mark Coleman
Mitigation Statement Pre-Sentencing at ILCC on 20/4/2023
Your honour. I would like to speak about why I sat on the Highway in October 2021. This act led to me being found guilty in this court for the common law offence of Public Nuisance on 27/01/2023.
In mitigation I want to state that I acted to protect human life, to draw attention to the death and destruction caused by rising emissions and the impacts of cold damp homes on the health of the citizens of our country. I had learned of the effects of fuel poverty when I worked for the charity Age Concern in the 1980s. Later, in the Liverpool and Rochdale parishes where I served as parish priest, I saw the misery caused by these uninsulated homes and the fuel poverty and debt that often ensues. My nonviolent act of sitting on the highway was an act of witness against this injustice and cruelty. I sat in witness to the 8500 excess winter deaths that year.
I wanted to make this injustice widely known. I wanted the government to act to protect the lives of the vulnerable, as is their duty. In mitigation I want to tell you that I acted out of love, in keeping with traditions of protest which are recognised in a healthy society and very often recognised as legitimate defences in our courts of law
When I was summoned to Stratford Magistrates Court in April 2022, I opted for a jury trial in the crown court. I expected to be able - in this crown court - to speak to my peers - the 12 people in a jury - about why I had done what I had done. It was painful, in the trial which has brought me before you today, to not be able to present to the jury the full range of evidence. I believe that I should have been able to speak to them about the context for my actions. specifically the context of rapid and serious global heating,
You will agree, your Honour, that we all have a duty to tell the truth, especially in court. It grieves me as a Christian that I swore on the Bible “to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth” but I followed your ruling and did not talk about my motivation, the effects of emissions, the number of deaths in the UK from cold homes. In this I behaved somewhat like the Exxon scientists who kept quiet about their findings (about how burning oil etc heats the planet) because they were told to by their bosses to keep quiet. The bosses were simply following the law of corporations - that is to put short term profitability of their company above anything else.
We spoke at length in the trial about 'significance' and what the word meant. This word is at the heart of deciding whether the offence of public nuisance has been committed. In mitigation, I suggest that my act of sitting on the road was an act of tiny significance in global terms relative to the very significant disruption caused now and in the future by burning of fossil fuels. That significant disruption means many many suffering people and many many dead people because of the failure of harvests, water shortages, refugees on the move, bush fires, floods in ever increasing numbers.
That is not to say that I did not care about individuals who were delayed by our sitting on the road. I did and I do. But I have a duty, we all do, to think bigger, to care for their future lives and the lives of their children.I studied law at the University of Kent way back in 1977. I learned about how Lord Denning helped the law adapt to the new social reality of women owning property. I learned something about the rule of Law. It is good to live in a society where there is a functioning rule of Law. Rising global temperatures, with the brutal consequences on people, threatens our rule of law, our very civilisation. That’s why I am in nonviolent resistance, to protect what we have done as nations and peoples to make the world a better, healthier, safer place. Our legal system should be protecting life.
You have heard many of these cases, and much evidence of the death and damage caused by high global temperatures. Many people like me have quoted papers and statistics. After a while we get numb to all this. There is a limit to how much we can process
I’d like to make reference to one paper and share one story. It’s a story of hope - people coming together to solve a problem.
(i tell a story - A refugee in Rochdale, coming to church, the joy and privilege of welcoming people, the delights of culture - showing me how to unpack a pomegranate, parties at the vicarage, Iranians like to burn pasta. The mental health crisis, fears for loved ones back home. The destitute refugees who have nowhere to live - horror that we could allow this to happen. A kind recently widowed man offers his empty house. The Catholic church offers an empty house. Together we solve a problem. Sing old MacDonald had a farm at English Lessons. Giving evidence at the tribunal. The joy of getting leave to remain. Seeing them settle.. The joy of acting to protect those precious humans.The paper “The future of the Human Climate Niche” was published in 2019. The authors summarise the conclusions. “We show that for thousands of years, humans have concentrated in a surprisingly narrow subset of Earth’s available climates, characterised by mean annual temperatures around ∼13 °C. This distribution likely reflects a human temperature niche related to fundamental constraints. We demonstrate that depending on scenarios of population growth and warming, over the coming 50 y, 1 to 3 billion people are projected to be left outside the climate conditions that have served humanity well over the past 6,000 y”
In the Gospel of Matthew 22:35-40
... and one of them, a lawyer, asked him a question to test him. "Teacher, which commandment in the law is the greatest?" He [Jesus] said to him, "'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the greatest and first commandment. Love God above all else. And the second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbour as yourself.' On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets." It has become commonplace for it to be said that faith is a private matter and we should leave the running of society to the state, or the market, or private corporations. I must say to you, that I shall continue to do my best to love my neighbour, to minimise their suffering and to stop their premature death. That's a responsibility of each one of us as humans.To be clear it is my intention to choose life over death and to resist government policy where it leaves people in cold damp homes and continues to facilitate new oil and gas projects. I expect that this civil resistance will involve sitting on the public highway again.
In the ordination service priests are told that they should “resist evil, support the weak, defend the poor, and intercede for all in need”. For me of course it has moral authority. Poor people are more likely to die prematurely. I have tried to be true to my ordination vows. I see it as part of my vocation as a priest, to continue to resist until the government acts.
In conclusion, I believe I have acted morally, to protect others, out of love, out of a desire to serve the public good. I accept that I have been found guilty by the court. You must now hold me to account if you are seeking to uphold the law, for I have knowingly broken it. The law right now protects those who continue to harm and destroy our only home. The big corporations profit from a business that they know is killing us. They act within the law, as does our government, which facilitates and protects these corporate interests.
There must be a high level of justification to break the law, that is, something has become more important than obeying the law. That something is life on earth, justice for those dying now and for the generations who must inherit what is left to them. If you think my actions are justified, in this most remarkable context, you should let me walk away from this court without punishment.
Choosing Life
Choosing Life
Notes for Sermon preached at St Ann, Belfield 2022 and used in much abbreviated form in a short reflection given in the High Court in my hearing after breaking the North Warwickshire injuction.
Why would any of us knowingly do something very likely to hasten our death ? If there was a cliff edge just ahead of you, and experts said there was a cliff edge, would you keep on walking ?
If your leaders said “Keep going, don't worry about the cliff, trust us not those who know all about what happens when you walk off a cliff, would you believe them ?
And when some people started falling off the cliff, and you saw pictures on the TV, would you keep following the leaders ?
Of course You wouldn’t !
Yet that is exactly what is happening today. We are heading towards disaster. Professor Sir David King, the former government chief scientist, says what we do in the next three to four years will determine the future of humanity. He’s talking about our survival as a species.
But still our leaders are walking us towards the cliff edge.
Leaders of nations have made these reckless choices before. The words of Deuteronomy 30.15-20 cry out to us.
See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity. If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I am commanding you today, by loving the Lord your God, walking in his ways, and observing his commandments, decrees, and ordinances, then you shall live and become numerous, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to possess. But if your heart turns away and you do not hear, but are led astray to bow down to other gods and serve them, I declare to you today that you shall perish; you shall not live long in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess. I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying him, and holding fast to him; for that means life to you and length of days, so that you may live in the land that the Lord swore to give to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
Wendy and I were arrested last week. Wendy spent just under 12 hours in Chelmsford Police station. I went to Basildon Police Station. This happened because we sat on an access road to an oil refinery. As we did that, we later learned, some others had been tunnelling under the same road. Astonishingly they are still there having spent 10 days underground. The purpose was to block access to the depot which distributes oil and petrol. This has not been achieved because the authorities have decided to continue to run 70 ton trucks overhead even tho’ there are people underneath, no supports or boarding.
Why risk your life in a tunnel ? Why sit on a road in front of an oil tanker? The papers often label such people as mad or bad. Please try and suspend your judgement and hear me out. Just Stop Oil has the simple demand that there should be no new oil projects. Respected scientists, the UN, the world bank all say there should be no new oil, gas or coal. But our government is planning over 40 new oil and gas projects.
They are saying come on, let’s walk faster. And like zombies we are following !
See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, death and adversity.
Our vocation - as human beings, made in the image of God, is to choose life.
I interviewed the bishop of Bolton a few weeks ago. You can see it on YouTube. He spoke about his granddaughter. He wondered what sort of world she would grow up into. I wonder the same for my children and especially for my one grandchild.
The reading from Deuteronomy goes on to say that if we obey the commandments of the Lord ourGod, then we shall live and become numerous and the Lord will bless us.
There are good choices to be made. There is another way to live. We do not have to choose this path of death and destruction. The economy can be changed, redirected for life. Human beings can do great things. Consider how nations coped with COVID, supporting the weak, protecting the vulnerable. Or how the US economy was changed from making cars to aeroplanes and tanks to face the threat of war.
We do not have to be bewitched by the leaders who are leading us onto the cliff overhang. There is a way to a new life. It begins when each of us chooses life and resists the walk off the cliff edge.
Our Father in heaven loves us so much. How he must weep when he sees what we are doing. How we are held in mental captivity by false and dangerous gods. When I was arrested recently in April it was for holding a banner that had the words “Jesus Wept”. Many are weeping now because of the deaths that are caused in a hotter world.
Dorothy Soelle begins her book Choosing Life talking about the exile that Israel experienced in Egypt. They rather enjoyed the fleshpots of Egypt. They were slaves but they had sort of got accommodated to it. We in the wealthy industrial West do not feel that we are exiled from God, we have adapted ourselves to such an extent that in the very midst of Egypt under the domination of Pharaoh we feel quite at home. Referring to the passage from Deuteronomy 30:19 she says choosing life in the face of death means chiming in with the great yes to life that is God. She goes on to say that choosing life is the very capacity for not putting up with the routine destruction of Life. That routine cynicism that we are expected to follow.
Conclusion
(I’m not sure how I finished this sermon. Perhaps you, dear reader, can write/think of a conclusion that speaks to you ? )
This Little Light of Mine
This Little Light of Mine
Sermon preached on Sunday 5 February 2023 at St Ann’s Belfield
In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. (Matthew 5.16)
It should have been a delicious meal. All the ingredients were good. It looked delicious on the plate. But it had no flavour ! All it needed was salt. But there was none on the table. And I couldn’t say anything. I didn’t want to offend my kind host.
In the ancient world, having your own source of light at night was essential. If your light went out you were stuck. If there was a knock at the door you would not be able to see if it was friend or foe. There wasn’t much sympathy if your light had gone out because you had been careless and had not topped up the oil. Who are you going to ask for a light ? Of course neighbours are happy to help but … well.. It is a bit embarrassing.
The two Biblical images of salt and light are very familiar, and make perfect sense in any age. We can imagine our Lord speaking to the people who gathered to listen to him about being salt that has flavour, and not hiding your light under a bushel basket. (Matthew 5.13-14)
Homely though they sound, salt and light became for Jesus images of human resistance. They invite us to take the courage to stand up against hunger, exclusion, poverty, greed and all that hurts and harms God’s children. In a world where fellow human beings are made distant objects so we come to believe that their death is not our concern, the salt reminds us that small acts of love, small acts of resistance against death, really matter. The light tells us not to give up but to look at the light still shining. To keep oil in your lamp.
You may know the Gospel/children’s song “This little light of mine”. It’s become for me a mini song of resistance. When I was court a few weeks ago, it was often on my lips. Especially when the bombast of court was at its loudest.
How do we live in the middle of these crises ? Professor Sir David King, the former government chief scientist said in 2021 that what we do in the next 3 to 4 years “will determine the future of humanity.” But our government plans to add fuel to the fire
At such a time we cannot spend all our energy making shopping lists of our minor sins. Our collective folly needs to be tackled. As Walter Wink said “The issue is not, "What must I do in order to secure my salvation?" but rather, "What does God require of me in response to the needs of others?" It is not, "How can I be virtuous?" but "How can I participate in the struggle of the oppressed for a more just world?" (Walter Wink, Jesus and Nonviolence: A Third Way)
We invest our energies in establishing our own purity in the eyes of God. There is a secular version of this privatised spirituality, which the talk of carbon footprints plays into. As a church, even in our response to the existential emergency, others, we succumb to "a satanic temptation to die with clean hands and a dirty heart.”
I was in court in January. As I try to stand up against the destruction of the world, I feel almost crushed by the darkness. It was hard to hear the prosecution define what I had done as “causing chaos.” My intention was, and still is, for us - as humanity - to avoid chaos.
It was not a small thing to decide to block a road. I wish there was another way. But I and others have tried over many years to bring a stop to the murderous fossil fuel emissions, by lobbying Parliament, signing petitions, etc. I could not speak about my motivation in the court in January. Because of the nature of the offence we were charged with, we were silenced. I could not make reference to science, or the floods in Rochdale, or how I worry for my grandchild. Or that we have very short time to act.
The darkness may be great but it has not overcome the light. I sat there humming silently this little light of mine. I sat there in quiet contemplation of the love of God for each one of us. I thanked God for my co-defendants. I prayed for the judge and the jury.
I could not run from this situation. Like many of us, I have often tried to keep calm and carry on. We human beings are very good at avoiding the darkness.
Jesus stood up for love with every part of himself. The Light of the world faced the darkness head on - with mind, body and spirit - with love, with sorrow. Remember how he wept over Jerusalem ? He kept his light, God’s light, shining in the darkness. That’s what I hope to do.
In the film Gandhi we see a powerful depiction of the Salt March in India in 1930. You may remember the image of Indian protesters dressed in white stepping forward to be beaten by soldiers with big sticks. A growing number of non violent protesters walked 239 miles from Gandhi’s Ashram (place of prayer) to the coast. It began with 78 followers and resulted in 60000 Indians being jailed for breaking the law. The empire could not stop people making salt from sea water. It took some time but this and other acts of stubborn, loving resistance led to the end of British rule.
Today, we face a great darkness. The forces against us are rich and powerful. They are here there and everywhere. They have captured the minds and hearts of many talented people.
Remember how Jesus struggled with the devil in the wilderness. He knew the power of the Roman empire. They had their gods, their technological power, their confidence and conviction. But in its heart it was rotten; the Roman Empire ran on slavery and violence.
There is a very clear parallel with us in the UK. There are massive vested interests in fossil fuel extraction. They have captured the media.
But in spite of all this evidence, in spite of all the doom, we are a people of joy.
Because we have experienced that light shining in the darkness
We have seen it shining in others, they are truly “glorifying God” by their lives of courage, love and service
We know we are called to be light too
We know that light is desperately needed
And that when it shines empty empires crumble to dust.
May the light always shine in you
The power of love
The Power of Civil Resistance
Is there any point in trying to change anything ? Over the years I have been inspired by people and movements who have stood up against the state when it has been serving narrow interests and promoting injustice. I remember being inspired reading about Gandhi, the small, skinny man in a dhoti, and his challenge to the British Empire. On a Christians Aware pilgrimage to Robben Island in 2001 I sat in the cell that Nelson Mandela had lived in for years, remembered his courage and prayed that I too might be an instrument of God’s peace. Our power, our influence over history, is a good theme to consider at this point in history when it becomes ever clearer that we are on a runaway train taking us ever faster towards disaster. We are told that we have a very short time to cut emissions if we are to avert extreme temperatures that would make much of the earth unlivable, yet the UK government is issuing more oil and gas licences. Many of us are anxious and feel despairing. Can anything change ? We feel powerless.
I was arrested twice in October and spent some time in police cells. In September this year I spent a week in prison, on remand at His Majesty's Prison Birmingham. It was not unexpected. Along with another 50 other supporters of Just Stop Oil I had broken an injunction granted by the High Court. I had sat on the road at the main-gate to the oil distribution terminal. I had told the court that I considered it complicit with the fossil fuel industry which was responsible for mass death and destruction and that I planned to break the injunction again and that I would not willingly come back to the court. I was prepared to go to prison. We hoped that our action would put pressure on the government to stop the development of new oil and gas projects.
Like Mario Savio, a civil rights activist from Berkeley, USA in 1964, I felt compelled to act
“There is a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can’t take part; you can’t even passively take part, and you’ve got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you’ve got to make it stop. And you’ve got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you’re free, the machine will be prevented from working at all!
By its very nature prison takes away your freedom. I could not contact those I wanted to contact, I could not eat what I wanted, I could not buy things when I desired. Most of all I could not leave my cell when I wanted. There was only one hour of ‘socialisation’ each day, when I was let out and able to walk with other prisoners in the exercise yard.
True, I was not free, but I was not powerless. I had chosen to act in defence of life, I was in resistance to the forces of destruction. I had chosen to disrupt the fossil fuel industry out of love, inspired by my faith. I was challenging the gears and wheels that were killing so many of my fellow humans. It was for me fundamentally about following Jesus, in his emptying of himself, in his belief that love cannot be extinguished. As a bonus it was a retreat from the busyness of daily life; no mobile phone, no emails and only one book to read. Much time was spent thinking and praying I shared a cell with another in civil resistance with Just Stop Oil, who, fortunately, did not want to have the TV on all the time ! When we did talk we had some good conversations
We found ourselves alongside those who were marginalised by society. We had come into prison aware that God’s good creation was horribly despoiled, in economic terms treated as an ‘externality’. We were not good stewards but rather treating the sacred earth as a resource from which wealth was to be ruthlessly extracted. In prison, alongside those with much longer sentences than ourselves, I became more aware how society treated people as disposable, from whom wealth was to be extracted. There were many victims of inequality, abuse, violence there. Many should not have been in prison; they needed care and rehabilitation, rather than punishment. Many were black. Undoubtedly, racism and other systemic injustices were a factor in their incarceration.
In the Just Stop Oil recruitment talks I had delivered, many to churches, we would tell the story of the 'Freedom Riders', that band of civil rights protesters in the USA who in 1961 travelled, black and white together, into the southern states, where segregation was still well and truly established. They met with extreme violence but continued to break the segregation laws. In the end over 400 went to prison. They chose to act, to sacrifice their privilege and power, to open themselves to the violence of others. They freely gave up their relative privilege and safety to unlock a process of social change.
I hope we're seeing a similar process of change today. A growing number of activists are being imprisoned. As I write there are several in the UK who have been in prison without trial for more than 6 months.
At this time when things are so bad and we have so little time in which to stop the train hurtling to the end of the line, we should remember the power we have to act. It is immense, it is the power of love. Nothing can separate us from that love, not even the might of the state or wealthy corporation. Experiencing that power, especially the collective power of stepping into action with 50 other people, has been a joy. I commend it to all !
November 2022.
For more information visit https://juststopoil.org/
Littleborough Rushbearing
I'd never been to a rushbearing, so was thrilled to be there. I was covering as the local priest, Father Ian, had COVID. There is no Church of England authorised set of words for a rushbearing so I had to do my own research and soon discovered that this was a tradition that spoke to our contemporary crises.
It seems that the rushes were cut down and brought to church each year for two reasons: to provide insulation for cold churches and to protect the knees of the faithful on hard floors. This was long before central heating or pews. Care of people and grateful use of natural resources came together in the rushbearing. The local landowners would give the rushes, and presumably paid the workers for the cutting and carrying on a cart. But this was a community tradition; driven by many coming together for the common good.
The rushbearing chimed powerfully with the recent Insulate Britain campaign when the insulation of homes and the well being of the people came together in a campaign of civil resistance.
Later in the park I was part of a Just Stop Oil stall, and reached out to people about the destruction caused by oil and our resolve to engage in nonviolent civil resistance.
Rushbearing and these two recent expressions of people resisting the self interest of the fossil fuel industry were in mind that Sunday morning as I led the service of Holy Communion at Holy Trinity in Littleborough. Nature is bountiful and God provides, the people must be protected and those with wealth and land must provide for the people. We do well to see the blessings abounding and the lack of justice in our time.
In the Sunday readings Martha is not a good host to Jesus because she is anxious and distracted. (Luke 10.38) The Rushbearing nudges us to be attentive to the needs of the poor (whatever you did for one of these you did for me, said Jesus in Matthew 10.40) and to remember that "in him all things in heaven and on earth were created" (Colossians 1.16).
Vigil Story (Mourning a dying Planet)
Sitting in a public place, praying, meditating, holding silence, reflecting, contemplating - whatever you call it - is a very simple but very special thing to do. I sat and contemplated/prayed with some lovely people from XR Huddersfield and Calderdale in July. Being still, sitting on a camping chair in St George’s Square, outside Huddersfield Railway Station was pretty much all that I did, action bordering on inaction, but it was a rich and powerful thing to do.
Who was there ? Well I didn't really bother too much looking for labels. I am a Christian, I know there was at least one Roman Catholic woman there, and some Quakers also turned up with a banner. We were all rebels, precious human beings and that was the shared ground on which we met. The organiser had come up with the title ‘Mourning our Dying Planet’ and that was what had attracted me. As I had felt my energy for climate activism fade over the previous few months, I wanted to return to …. well, a quiet place, a desert of sorts. To do this with others who understood what this climate and ecological crisis was all about, would be a healthy, healing thing.
Lots of people passed by, coming in and out of the station, on their daily business, some heading off on holiday. There are direct trains to Manchester Airport; at this late stage in the Pandemic there are more flights somewhere even hotter. On the way into the station some would stop to take a leaflet and many would talk. (We always had someone there who was not vigil-ing but ready to listen, chat, smile.) Huddersfield folk are very friendly. So the silence was enhanced by snippets of conversation, alongside the roaring buses, drilling builders, trundling cases, and the like. Believe it or not, it was possible to go quite deep in the silence. It was like a mini retreat to me.
Physically, we were loosely scattered on the large square. But it felt like our hearts were centred and close to each other.
The first day of the Vigil had developed into “an action” which had a march up to Huddersfield’s producer of dangerous chemicals Syngenta. This once ICI-owned firm produced Paraquat and the like and exported poisons which were now illegal in the UK to other nations with less legal protections. I didn’t manage to join the small march up to the factory but followed it on social media. It provided an important real world edge to the vigil. We were claiming an island of Peace in a context - the profiting from destruction, and the suffering of the planet was right there for our hearts to confront with silent love.
It wasn’t all serious silence. Of course, there was chatting too, and during those times it was good to talk to others. All through my ministry as a vicar and now in retirement, I have met people who have taught me something and inspired me. I thank God for Helen and the other rebels.
Practical matters. The weather apps were predicting rain. In the end there was no rain but I did get sunburned ! So come prepared for every weather. Bring some snacks and drinks. Toilets ? It was easy to go to the loo because some of the lovely Huddersfield rebels had made an arrangement with the rail station and they let us through the barriers to the platform toilets. No problem at all.
Was it any use ? Can anyone know ? But somehow all that love and grief, that rebelling against our destructive economy, that silence, touched a deep place. Surprising people, with countercultural silence and grief, certainly had the potential to make for a deep encounter.
Already we are talking about another Vigil. Are you interested ?
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