Day 1 – Molly Clarke sets outs on the first leg of the Relay
A group of young Christians (18-30s) are organising a Relay, walking from the G7 in Cornwall (13th June) to COP26 in Glasgow (1st November) for climate justice. People are joining the Relay from thousands of different churches all along the route. Walkers can be of all ages but to be one of the leaders you have to be under 30!
The Relay reaches London on 2nd August and Hertfordshire on 10th August. There will be overnight stops in the parishes of Ashford, Twickenham, Muswell Hill, Borehamwood, Hemel Hempstead and Tring.
Two events are beings hosted on behalf of the Diocese of Westminster in Central London on 6th August – a vegan lunch at Farm Street Church, Mayfair, at 1pm followed by a walk to Westminster Cathedral and an Ecumenical Climate Prayer Service at the Cathedral at 3.30pm.
To find out more about the YCCN Relay, the route, events at all the other churches, and how to sign up to join the walkers or support the Relay for a day or more visit – https://www.yccn.uk/
It is July and I am watching birds pecking at the first signs of tiny fruit on a damson tree in my garden. I don’t mind – there is enough for sharing, and plenty of tasty ripe damsons will be harvested for us and our neighbours in the Autumn. It is wonderful that harvest services in our churches around October have long celebrated the fruitfulness of Earth, our common home, and the generosity of God, the Creator.
In Britain, planning has started for marking the Season of Creation in our parishes and schools. The Season of Creation is the annual Christian celebration of prayer and action, which starts 1 September, the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, and ends 4 October, the Feast of St Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of ecology. Within it is CAFOD’s Harvest Fast Day on 1 October.
United around this year’s theme ‘A home for all?’, Christians are planning to participate in initiatives of prayer, sustainability, and advocacy to care for our common home. Churches are invited to hold a climate-focused service on any Sunday before COP26 this November, but most will be in September. The collective impact of local church commitments and action will be presented to the UK Government at the Climate Sunday Service in Glasgow on Sunday, 5 September 2021 to demonstrate that the Churches are calling on our government to lead the way in delivering a cleaner, greener and fairer future.
This Season of Creation will also be a critical moment for Catholics to prepare to lift up the voices of the most vulnerable and advocate on their behalf ahead of two important summits, the UN Summit on Biodiversity in China (COP 15) in October and the UN Climate Summit in November (COP 26). The National Justice and Peace Network (NJPN), CAFOD, Columbans and others have prepared for the Season of Creation with sample services and resources for the whole month of September and early October. The NJPN annual Conference 23-25 July, ‘2021: Moment of Truth – Action for Life on Earth’, is a great opportunity for hearing about exciting creation-centred initiatives this year.
Ninety-five parishes and schools have now achieved CAFOD’s livesimply award, where they have worked towards projects to live simply, sustainably and in solidarity with the poor. Yet, the focus on Creation in the Autumn attempts to bring many more Catholics on board for caring for our common home. The Season of Creation offers the opportunity for a common witness of the Churches. And the time to do it is now, as the planet continues to warm, causing terrible suffering for the poorest communities on Earth, and many other species are being pushed to extinction.
2021 is also the year when the Vatican Dicastery of Human Development is inviting us to embark on a journey through the ‘Laudato Si’ Action Platform’, to be launched on 4 October 2021. All parts of the Church are expected to embark on this journey to sustainability, in the spirit of ‘Laudato Si’, towards integral ecology. It is hoped that each area pf the Church’s mission will make public commitments to the seven ‘Laudato Si’ goals:
– Response to the Cry of the Earth
– Response to the Cry of the Poor
– Ecological economics
– Adoption of Simple Lifestyle
– Ecological Education
– Ecological Spirituality
– Community Involvement and Participatory Action
Its time to start preparing for September and the Season of Creation.
The United Nations climate talks (also known as the Conference of Parties or COP), that were scheduled to have taken place in Glasgow in 2020, will now take place 1-12 November 2021. COP26 will be biggest summit ever hosted in the UK – Covid permitting – with around 30,000 attendees expected.
It is the most significant climate event since the 2015 Paris Agreement. That is because COP26 is the first summit when countries must report back on their progress since the Paris Agreement and set out more ambitious goals for ending their contribution to climate change.
DATES
23-25 July The Hayes Conference Centre, Swanwick: Annual Justice and Peace Conference- Action for Life on Earth’ With talks and workshops linked to COP26. www.justice-and-peace.org.uk/conference/
1-12 November Civil Society Convergence Spaces – creative hubs across Glasgow where activists can gather and connect together, warm up with food and drink, book meeting rooms, produce artwork and socialise. https://cop26coalition.org/
5-6 November Days of Action in Glasgow and across the UK
7-9 November Alternative Summit in Glasgow in-person and online
WALKING TO COP26
Young Christian Climate Network www.yccn.uk Cornwall to Glasgow 13 June – 30 October
Father Tom O’Brien, Parish Priest of Our Lady Immaculate and St Andrew, Hitchin, and member of Westminster Justice and Peace Commission, gave the following address at the online interfaith service to mark the start of London Climate Action Week “Take Care for our common home” on 27th June 2021.
Coming together as we are today, united in a passionate concern for our common home and sharing our insights and beliefs, is precisely what Pope Francis wanted to happen when, in 2015, he wrote a letter to everyone in the world called Laudato Si or Praise be to you. Recognising that we face a catastrophic crisis, Pope Francis publicly proclaimed and clarified our deep concern for the destruction happening to our planet. He also recognised that this crisis can only be addressed together and globally. Whatever our differences of faith or of non-faith, we are all united in our growing concern for the future of our planet. The letter spells out the challenges we face clearly and succinctly and also recognises that we need to act now before it’s too late.
We believe that God called us to be stewards of creation which Pope Francis summarises as cultivating, ploughing, working, as well as caring, protecting, overseeing and preserving the natural world. This implies a relationship of mutual responsibility between human beings and nature. Each community can take from the bounty of the earth whatever it needs for subsistence, but it also has the duty to protect the earth and to ensure its fruitfulness for coming generations. It is a call to work with a creation that is only too willing to work with us.
The letter recognises that: “We urgently need a humanism capable of bringing together the different fields of knowledge, including economics, in the service of a more integral and integrating vision. Today, the analysis of environmental problems cannot be separated from the analysis of human, family, work related and urban contexts, nor from how individuals relate to themselves, which leads in turn to how they relate to others and to the environment” (#141).
Throughout the letter care for the earth is conjoined with care for the poor. They are indispensably connected. Laudato Si: “The human environment and the natural environment deteriorate together; we cannot adequately combat environmental degradation unless we attend to causes related to human and social degradation. In fact, the deterioration of the environment and of society affects the most vulnerable people on the planet: ‘Both everyday experience and scientific research show that the gravest effects of all attacks on the environment are suffered by the poorest'” (#48).
Our exploitation and abuse of the resources of the earth have led to increased Tsunamis, a continuing global rise in temperature that affects climate in a way that the poor, who depend on the land for sustenance, face long term droughts leading to a lack of clean water and starvation (25,000 a day, UN). Seeking survival leads them into underpaid jobs in which they are exploited, their basic rights are ignored and their freedom denied, so that we can have cheaper food and cheaper clothes to which they have no access. Laudato Si states There can be no renewal of our relationship with nature without a renewal of humanity itself. There can be no ecology without an adequate anthropology” (#118).
We are called to an inner conversion to a radical change in lifestyle, to living more simply, being less wasteful, to recycle and re-use, to be more generous to those in need. We must urgently lobby the government not to decrease our overseas support aid and even increase it.
Some of the fastest growing businesses in America are in energy efficiency and renewable energy helping produce the same output for half the energy.”
Businesses, who promote sustainability through the supply chain, have reduced their costs. They see pollution as a form of waste.
An organization that doesn’t waste anything is proved to be more efficient and more profitable.
Young people, led by the likes of Greta Thunberg, are calling for and fighting for a radical reduction in Co2 emissions. The recent G7 meeting has committed to fading out the use of fossil fuels and investing in renewable energy.
Being positive and hopeful is actually an important way to combat climate change. “We must look toward our positive shared future. The more we articulate the ability to get to that place, the more likely we are to get there.”
Expression of Hope;
Encouragingly, in Laudato Si, Pope Francis adds:
“Yet all is not lost. Human beings, while capable of the worst, are also capable of rising above themselves, choosing what is good, and making a new start, whatever their mental and social conditioning. We are able to take an honest look at ourselves, to acknowledge our deep dissatisfaction, and to embark on new paths. No system can completely suppress our openness to what is good, true and beautiful. I appeal to everyone throughout the world not to forget this dignity which is ours. No one has the right to take it from us. (#205)”
This was the first time London Climate action week had held an interfaith service and it was organised by South London interfaith group and Faiths Forum for London. Among the wide range of speakers there was humanist Richard Norman and pagan Robin Horne. Dr Ruth Valerio of Tearfund, Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg, Zahra Kanani from Streatham mosque, Zoroastrian Vista Khosravi, Robert Harrap General director of SGI-UK, Sikh Balbir Singh Bakshi and Jain Varsha Dodhia all spoke about what there faith teaches about Creation and some of the practical actions their communities have undertaken. Bishop Karowei Dorgu, Anglican Bishop of Woolwich spoke about Southwark as an eco-diocese and what parishes are doing.
In a stunt on Parliament Square Green, Westminster, today, Thursday 1st July, a group of young people unfurled a banner reminding the government that the ‘Eyes of the World’ are watching. ahead of the UK hosting world leaders at the UN climate conference ‘COP26’ in Glasgow this November.
Inspired by the words of Pope Francis’s encyclical Laudato Si both the young student campaigners and gap year students from UK charity CAFOD’s youth programme ‘Step into the Gap, want Boris Johnson to tackle the climate crisis and ensure that those worst affected are put at the heart of this year’s climate talks.
University student from Kings College London, Alexander Ugoh, 19, explains why he got involved with the campaign run by charity CAFOD: “I am invested in my future and the future of those who are coming after me. As a young person I can no longer sit idle when the stakes are so high.
“In a few years’ time, it will dawn upon us as young people that the responsibility to protect and preserve our world falls wholly on our shoulders. When that time comes, let’s already have measures and legislation in place.
“I’d like to see the inclusion of young people in some capacity at the important table talks later this year- as well as redistribution of funds towards sustainability and the communities most affected and impacted.”
Fulford Sixth former, Jennifer Sayer, 18 said: “I would like the world leaders to put the world’s most vulnerable people at the heart of their decisions. This isn’t a national problem and globally people are already suffering from the consequences of climate change.
“Soon we won’t be able to reverse the damage we have done, and this could be the UK’s last big opportunity to make productive steps forward in creating a sustainable future.”
The ‘Eyes of the World’ banner first made an appearance on the opening day of the G7 summit in Cornwall in June.
Accompanied by a massive art installation, created by pupils from St Mary’s primary school in Falmouth, more than 12,000 young people have now joined CAFOD’s campaign, urging world leaders to take action on issues like the climate crisis.
Over the next five months, the banner will travel to 15 landmarks across the UK – including the Houses of Parliament, the Senedd (Welsh Parliament) and Blackpool Tower – reaching its final destination in Glasgow at ‘COP26’ in November.
Sinead Callaghan, CAFOD’s young leadership coordinator, concluded: “Young people in the UK want Boris Johnson and other world leaders to take responsibility and use this year’s COP talks to commit to concrete actions that meaningfully support those communities on the front line of the climate crisis, including increasing climate finance for low-income countries and ending support for all fossil fuels.”
Read about Three Actions for the Summer of Climate Justice:
1) As part of CAFOD’s G7 Youth Delegation, Caitlin Boyle, Caritas Westminster’s Information Officer, spent the weekend 11-13 June in Cornwall.
Caitlin writes: For as long as I can remember, I have been interested in campaigning for social justice, a key factor in why I wanted to work for Caritas Westminster, the social action agency of the Diocese of Westminster. We arrived in Cornwall on Thursday evening, and hosted an interfaith service at Truro Cathedral … read full article on the Caritas website
2) The Young Christian Climate Network (YCCN) is an action-focused community of young Christians in the UK aged 18-30, from different denominations, choosing to follow Jesus in the pursuit of climate justice.The YCCN has organised a 1,000+ mile relay pilgrimage from Carbis Bay in Cornwall, where the G7 summit took place, up to Glasgow, where COP26 will be meeting in November. The walkers want to see systematic change on a global and a local scale.
Molly Clarke, who walked the first day, said: “Our Relay is about rising to the moment. This year, with COP26 happening on our doorstep, is an opportunity like no other to call for change. Taking part in our pilgrimage was the most wonderful, once-in-a-lifetime experience, and I urge everyone to get involved…” read full article on Independent Catholic News website
3) Care of Creation Briefings take place online 1.00-1.45pm every Monday and will continue in the lead-up to the UN Climate Conference COP26 in Glasgow, 1-12 November 2021.
Colette Joyce and Nali Nathan report: Passionate social justice activists from across London and the South-East of England have been coming together on Zoom every Monday lunchtime in 2021 to pray, share ideas, and take unified action for Climate Justice. They discuss all aspects of Care of Creation including preventing habitat loss, protecting biodiversity, eliminating waste, promoting sustainable development, global racial justice, Live Simply Parishes, Journey to 2030, communicating with clergy, parishioners and bishops, and building ecumenical and interfaith partnerships. The Monday Briefings bring together Catholics from five dioceses – Arundel & Brighton, Brentwood, Portsmouth, Southwark and Westminster… read full report on the Westminster Justice & Peace Commission website
How often do we notice the trees in places familiar to us?..
Why is it important to do so?..
And what does care of trees have to do with our faith?..
On Sunday 27 June, I joined a group finding out about trees in the vicinity of Westminster Cathedral. I’ve visited the area many times since childhood, but hardly noticed them before now.
This was an event as part of London Climate Action Week. The experience, organised by Westminster Justice and Peace, was special because it seems to be the first time that valuing trees was firmly on the agenda of a diocesan body.
It seemed strange to be gathering outside the Cathedral under a banner, ‘Tree Walk from Westminster Cathedral,’ but it shouldn’t have been. Care of Creation is an element of Catholic Social Teaching, all underlined by the 2015 Encyclical, Laudato Si’.
Colette Joyce, Westminster Justice & Peace Co-ordinator, led the two-hour walk. She reflected on the importance of trees within Christian tradition and invited contemplation of some of the many beautiful trees within easy walking distance of Westminster Cathedral.
As we strolled, we were encouraged to think about the nature and purpose of trees, especially their role in maintaining a stable climate that enables all life Earth to exist and thrive. Trees bind soil, remove carbon dioxide from the air and release oxygen, as well as providing a home for many species of birds and insects. Along the way we considered, too, the significance we attach to trees – from the solemn prayer before the wood of the Cross to the celebratory decoration of Christmas trees.
When we met outside Westminster Cathedral’s West Door we were immediately invited to admire the two mature London Plane trees in the piazza. Plane was widely planted as a street tree during the 18th and 19th centuries, being sturdy and suitable for city life for many reasons. It requires little root space and can survive in most soils and a wide range of temperatures. One of these two trees provided welcome shade for my son James who spent a number of hours standing with young people from dioceses around England and Wales waiting to see Pope Benedict during his visit in 2010. The Westminster youth contingent was under the Plane tree nearest the West Door, and he was very grateful.
We learnt that more than half of London’s eight million trees are Planes and they provide the important service of removing pollution from the atmosphere. The mottled olive, brown and grey bark breaks away in large flakes to reveal new cream-coloured bark underneath, a process which cleanses the tree of pollution stored in the outer bark. Each year London’s trees remove 2,241 tonnes of pollution which is a major contribution to public health.
When we moved off down Morpeth Terrace we passed rows of Plane trees and stopped at the end under a statue of St Francis of Assisi for a short reflection and prayer. Then there was Willow Place, named after Willow trees that were formerly common here. And Ginkgo in Rochester Road, a tree which survived the dinosaurs and the ice age, and, Colette told us, was the first tree to recover in Hiroshima after the city was destroyed by a nuclear bomb in August 1945. Then we walked around Vincent Square, a 13-acre green space lined with mature trees including London Plane. In Rutherford Street we admired the Silver Birches, whose white bark reflects heat and whose tolerance to pollution makes them a common sight in urban landscapes. Silver Birches also provides food and habitat to more than 300 insect species.
By gardens near the Cardinal Hume Centre we heard the tenth century, ‘The Dream of the Rood’ and heard how trees are mentioned in the Bible more than any living thing other than God and people. 56 Bible verses talk about trees.
We crossed Victoria Street and sat down in a grassy area for a short reflection on what trees mean to us. “Daily walks in the trees of Dulwich Wood got me though Covid” said one person. “This walk is a spiritual journey, about making a connection with trees,” said another.
“They’re the lungs of the world,” and “we must learn to keep the mature trees, not just plant new ones,” seemed to be common concerns about global deforestation and the HS2 project in particular in Britain. One member of the group lamented the disruption around Euston Station where she lives and has seen several public gardens destroyed and trees axed. We considered the quote from JRR Tolkien on our flier: ‘Every tree has its enemy, few have an advocate. In all my works I take the part of trees against all their enemies.’
Of course, London used to be covered in forest. This is reflected in the fact that so many parts of London are named after trees and woods. There’s the three Oaks (Burnt, Gospel and Honor), Nine Elms, Royal Oak Station, Wood Green, Forest Hill and Forest Gate.
Our final stop was St James’ Park, a green gem of 57 acres and we stopped to admire a Black Mulberry, Weeping Beech and a Caucasian Wingnut! There are around 1,250 individual trees in St James’s Park from around 35 species. The two islands in the lake, with their secluded woodlands and shrubberies, serve as nesting sites and refuges for birds. As we watched the ducks and geese waddling between the trees we thanked Colette profusely for this beautiful experience.
The walk was so successful that she has organised another one on 5 September! Several people have booked in already.
The G7 meeting did produce some good news for our common home, but right now, to be honest, good isn’t good enough. We need bold leadership. We need inspiring action, and we need prophetic agreements from world leaders.
As Catholics, we owe it to our sisters and brothers around the globe to make sure that world leaders do better later this year. At the United Nations Biodiversity Conference (COP15), scheduled for October in China, global leaders will have the opportunity to set meaningful and robust targets to protect creation.
In November, at the United Nations 26th annual Climate Change Conference (COP26), countries must announce their plans to meet the goals of the historic 2015 Paris agreement.
Between now and October, it’s our responsibility as Catholics to make sure world leaders know how to care for God’s creation.
In the petition we’re calling for leaders to tackle the climate emergency and biodiversity crisis together, and to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, among other must-dos.
Dr David Ko and Richard Busellato presented a King’s College webinar on investments and sustainability on 16th June 2021. Their book on the ethics of sustainability is due to be published by Panoma Press in November. Both David and Richard are participants in the London & South-East Care of Creation Monday Lunchtime Briefings hosted by Westminster Justice and Peace. Dr David Ko is the Justice and Peace Parish Contact for Our Lady of Victories, Kensington.
What is going on with sustainability? Why do we keep damaging the environment? What is really driving the problems? Is it the fault of the big businesses and the economy? Or, is it actually all on us? A case of “Lord make me pure, but just not yet”.
With three decades of investment experience working with pensions and savings institutions, Dr David Ko and Richard Busellato explored the ways in which we are all pushing the world beyond its limits. Our investments are draining the world of its resources just so we can hoard money for our individual futures – our retirement. If we are going to be sustainable, forget retiring – it is the ethical thing to do. If we can’t retire, what are we working for? If investing is unsustainable, should we save at all?
Speakers Dr David Ko and Richard Busellato are authors of a book on the sustainability issues of investments. After three decades in the industry, even as seasoned professionals they somewhat ashamedly admit to only recognizing recently the extent of the problems. We save to protect our own future, but the savings need to grow by so much that they destroy the future. The problem is our economy is not designed for a world with finite limits; an economic model for this needs to be centred on ethics and purpose. Having worked at renowned hedge funds such as LTCM and Millennium, and investment companies such as Henderson and Bank of America, they have recently left the industry so they may speak more freely.
The Webinar was hosted by King’s College Fellow, Dr Kamiar Mohaddes.
Watch interfaith messages to G7 leaders from an Interfaith Event organised by CAFOD at Truro Cathedral on the eve of the G7 Leaders meeting in Cornwall, Thursday 10th June 2021.
Truro Cathedral hosted an online ‘act of witness’ this evening, on the eve of the G7 summit. Participants sent messages to world leaders of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States that people of faith in the UK and internationally expect the leaders at their summit in Cornwall to put in place plans for a global green recovery from Covid-19 and other crises.
The event was organised by CAFOD, Christian Aid, Tearfund, World Vision, Islamic Relief and Faith for the Climate Network. Speakers were from faith groups and from communities affected by the coronavirus, climate, and debt crises globally. Young campaigners who had travelled to Cornwall for the G7 summit were among around 80 people in the Cathedral but more than 1,000 joined online. Afterwards, CAFOD provided an online message board where anybody could send a message online to the leaders.
Ruth Valerio, Canon Theologian of Rochester Cathedral, welcomed everybody and homed in on the issues of vaccines, debt cancellation and climate action. She felt the G7 and COP26 in Glasgow in November provide, “huge opportunities for us to leave the damaging track we have been on.” Some hands of the ‘waves of hope’ initiative were waved in the cathedral.
Fr Augusto Zampini of the Vatican Covid-19 Commission called for better international access to vaccines and the suspension of intellectual property rights, which have held up vaccine distribution. He urged the cancellation of the debts of poor countries and called on G7 leaders, “to take seriously the commitment to care for our common home and implement the Paris Agreement of 2015”. He felt, we must “use creativity to improve our relationship with ecosystems” and “do our best to change this course of ecological destruction.”
Rt Rev Nicholas Holtam of Salisbury urged for political leaders “to put aside selfish concerns and work for the world’s common good.” He wanted the UK government to reinstate the full foreign aid budget which was reduced last year. His focus was a call for spiritual change and to rebuild human relationship with creation and the creator. “We cannot depend on techno-optimism” he suggested. Bishop Mark O’Toole of Plymouth received a clap when, quoting from Laudato Si’, he said the Catholic Church stood alongside other denominations and faiths in listening “to the cry of the Earth and the cry of the poor.” He urged a reduction in consumption, work for change in the direction of justice, and community conversion to act for the common good. And he touched on the need for structural change, particularly re-evaluating the current model of economic growth which promotes inequality and commodification of the environment.
Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg and a young Muslim, Sikh, Hindu and Buddhist called for moves towards a more sustainable relationship with nature. Andy Norfolk, Pagan representative from the Cornwall Faiths Forum, said faiths, “should find it easy to find a vision for a better world” and urged G7 leaders to look beyond short-termism and urgently address long term challenges. Davina Bacon of the Young Christian Climate Network spoke of the young people’s relay walk to Glasgow, starting on Sunday, recalling that “the tradition of pilgrimage is strong in many faiths.” She also highlighted that near the affluent G7 conference centre and local holiday homes around St Ives live many people on low incomes. She told the G7, “when you are making decisions – remember those made poor by systemic injustice; they don’t have a seat at your table.”
Diocese of Westminster Justice and Peace Commission 