Church group responds after council bans 'religious' posters
Following the news that a north London council had refused to display posters advertising a 'St Francis weekend' of events about climate change, because of their religious content, the organisers have issued the following open letter:
An open letter from the Climate Change is a Christian Issue group (CCCI) at Our Lady Help of Christians Church, Kentish Town.
We were taken aback to learn that Camden Council will not display our posters about a weekend of events concerning climate change, because of a policy banning the promotion of religious events.
Last year our Green Fair hosted several stalls run by Camden council and was attended by Frank Dobson MP, and many Camden councillors.
This year we are again promoting fairtrade, recycling and energy conservation. Our concern, as it was last year, is to promote awareness of climate change issues, not to promote religion. Our keynote speaker is Mark Dowd, from Operation Noah, one of the leading authorities on climate change in the country. (He will be opening the weekend at 7.30pm on 2 October). We felt his talk would be of interest to people of all faiths and none.
It seems paradoxical that Camden Council which has a good record on climate change issues should refuse to support this initiative.
The Pet Blessing on the Sunday is completely religious of course. This is a very traditional Catholic event appropriate for the Feast of St Francis, who is a patron saint of animals. We thought it would be fun for Christians and non-Christians alike, especially children. I don't think we realised it would cause such a problem.
We have a separate poster for that.
We are still hoping Camden Council will reconsider their decision to ban our posters for the Mark Dowd talk.
Kind regards
*Picture from Mayhew Animal Home www.mayhewanimalhome.org/adoptmeetandcare/dogs.html