Cloaked in black and carrying white buckets filled with artificial blood, the group filed in silence behind a troupe of child and teen protesters to the entrance of London’s Downing Street.
Ringing a bell as they walked, the 45 adults — all participants in Extinction Rebellion, a protest movement seeking rapid action to curb global warming — formed an arc facing the British prime minister’s residence and poured out their buckets, turning the surrounding road into a sea of red.
They said that the liquid symbolized “the blood of our children,” which would be on the hands of politicians who have failed to act on climate change and stem its effects, from worsening floods and droughts to growing poverty and water and food shortages.
Illustration: Louise Ting
Among those at the protest in last month were three members of Christian Climate Action, a small group of retirees and students who said that their religious faith compelled them to take an increasing role in trying to stop climate change.
Climate change “is leading to a social collapse. We need to respond in more caring and collective ways,” said Phil Kingston, 83, a Catholic from Bristol, England, who took a train to London to participate in the Downing Street demonstration.
As climate change protests pick up in London and around the world, they are drawing an increasingly broad range of protesters, from students following in the footsteps of 16-year-old Swedish “school strike” leader Greta Thunberg to grandparents concerned about the growing risks that their grandchildren face.
Religious groups — from Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim and other faiths — are among those joining the protests, out of concern, in some cases, over the moral and spiritual implications of human-driven climate change.
Christian Climate Action took shape about six years ago, initially with just a handful of members from a range of Christian denominations, said Ruth Jarman, 55, one of the group’s original members.
However, as the group has become involved with Extinction Rebellion — an emerging movement that uses nonviolent protest to demand action on climate change — interest in the Christian action group has grown, especially among the younger generation, members said.
“Finding Extinction Rebellion really fitted in with our values so well. It’s very clear on using nonviolence, being motivated by values of love and care, rather than anger,” said Jarman, who lives in Hampshire, England.
Since November last year, Christian Climate Action advocates have disrupted traffic; spray-painted government buildings with political messages and the Extinction Rebellion hourglass symbol; blockaded entrances — and prayed for action, Jarman said.
An Anglican parishioner, she has been arrested five times for those protests — a risk not all Christians are willing to take, she said.
However, “for me, it’s the first verse of the Bible that hits home: If God created all that is, what does it mean for us to be destroying it?” she said.
“For us to be participating in its destruction is sacrilegious — not something believing Christians should be doing,” she added.
Faith groups, in Britain and around the world, have taken a growing role in pushing action on climate change, with some churches, mosques and temples pulling their investments out of fossil fuels, championing efforts to cut food waste and raising awareness about climate risks.
The Church of England’s governing body, the General Synod, in July last year voted to disinvest by 2023 from fossil fuel companies that fail to meet the aims of the Paris climate agreement.
Under that 2015 deal, world governments agreed to hold global average temperature increases to “well below” 2°C.
As faith groups control trillions of dollars in assets, such pledges can help drive action in companies that fear losing investment, or push much-needed cash to greener investments.
Experts have said that religions, which connect with people’s emotions and personal lives, could help mobilize them in the fight against climate change where facts and politics have failed.
Kingston cited the Laudato Si — the 2015 papal encyclical of Pope Francis that called on the world to unite against the effects of climate change, particularly on the poor and powerless — as one of his motivations for taking action.
Most members of Christian Climate Action have a history of campaigning against climate change by writing letters to politicians, doing charity work or walking in marches, Jarman said.
However, over time, they saw their efforts produce little action — one reason that the group has stepped up its tactics, she said.
“As Christians, we should be prepared to make any sacrifice necessary to serve and protect God’s creation,” Jarman said.
Father Martin Newell, 51, a Catholic priest who works with the Congregation of the Passion, a religious order devoted to serving vulnerable communities, has been committed to civic causes for decades, having previously advocated against nuclear arms and weapons trading.
However, these days, Newell — who lives at the Austin Smith House, a shelter for refugees and asylum seekers in Birmingham, England — is also working with Christian Climate Action.
“I realized when someone asked what keeps me up at night that I was having nightmares about climate change,” he said.
When the group asked Newell, who has been arrested many times as part of protests, how to start taking a greater role in climate campaigning, “I thought this is maybe an answer to my prayers,” he said.
The priest has since educated group members on how to effectively use civil disobedience tactics and has become an integral member of the group.
Christian Climate Action in late February held a training session in London that featured everything from prayer and discussions about what the Bible says about nonviolent action to practice with protest tactics, a flier for the event said.
Kingston said that at such events, he has “gained much clarity about the nuances of nonviolent direct action,” including how to best interact with the police and other authorities.
“Being respectful in word and deed to all persons is the essential component,” he said.
Not all of the Christian Climate Action protesters have had the support of their churches and some said that they have faced strong disapproval.
For example, Kingston’s priest was “rather horrified” when the parishioner was sent to court in 2016 for criminal damage, stemming from a protest during which Jarman and Newell were also arrested and fined, Kingston said.
Protesters had targeted the British Department of Energy and Climate Change building in London to point out that the British government’s actions at home on climate change did not match its rhetoric at talks leading up to the Paris climate agreement.
“We painted whitewash — it’s from the Bible; it comes from Jesus talking about hypocrisy — on the building, and we painted in black paint: ‘Department for Extreme Climate Change,’” Jarman said.
“Then we kneeled down on the pavement and prayed, and got arrested,” she added.
Kingston subsequently was banned “from any kind of public face with the parish” by his priest at the time, Jarman said.
However, he has pushed ahead, contacting other parishioners through his private e-mail and becoming increasingly public with his views.
“I don’t care — the stakes are too high. The church should be much more upfront and brave,” he said.
Kingston said that he began seeing climate change as a serious threat when his first grandchild was born, nearly two decades ago.
He realized that “my grandchildren and all the generations in front of them ... are voiceless,” despite being likely to face the worst effects of climate change, he said.
“It’s a justice issue. The upcoming generations need life and we are creating tremendous suffering” by destabilizing the planet’s climate, he said.
Having older protesters working alongside young advocates in the Extinction Rebellion protests has its particular benefits, Kingston said.
“What we’ve realized is that neither the corporations nor the government want to arrest us,” he said. “We are a liability in terms of health.”
The advocates said that their protests aim to achieve a few things in particular: big cuts in Britain’s climate-changing emissions, more honesty from politicians about climate threats, and the creation of a formal parliamentary “Citizen’s Assembly” to discuss needed changes to climate policy and advise the government.
The assembly is crucial to “do what is right rather than what is politically acceptable,” Jarman said.
However, the protest movement is having a secondary effect as well, in bringing together people who might not otherwise have met and joined forces, Jarman said.
For example, Mothiur Rahman, a legal strategist who works with Extinction Rebellion, said that protesters who are members of faith groups have asked their churches to house out-of-town participants arriving to take part in a new round of protests scheduled to begin tomorrow.
“One church has given their support and will have their doors open for us to sleep over in, and I am speaking to a mosque as well,” Rahman added.
Newell said that he thinks faith-based protesters have found a solid welcome among more traditional environmental advocates, and have a role to play as climate protests grow.
“The people who started Extinction Rebellion — and environmentalists — tend to be more secular, but they understand faith and trusting God, and are open to people joining them,” Rahman said. “We appreciate them and they appreciate us.”
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