London: Christians hold vigil outside ARC conference

Source: CCA

On Wednesday a group of Laudato Si Animators and members of Christian Climate Action held a prayer vigil at the entrance to the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (ARC) Conference at the Excel Centre in East London.

This was the last day of a three day international gathering convened by Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson and funded largely by multi-millionaire businessman Sir Paul Marshall - who identifies as a Church of England Christian and is a strong opponent of net zero emissions targets.

Marshall has recently bought the Spectator magazine and co-owns GB News with Dubai-based Legatum Institute; his hedge fund Marshall Wace has investments of £1.8 billion in Chevron, ExxonMobil, Shell, Equinor and other fossil fuel companies.

Among the four thousand attending the ARC conference were conservative politicians, Christian leaders, oil industry insiders and prominent climate deniers. Far right politicians attacking climate targets, including US Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Nigel Farage, and the notorious climate skeptic Bjorn Lomborg, were invited to give keynote speeches at the conference.

Bishop Robert Barron, founder of Word on Fire Catholic Ministries, was also a keynote speaker.

Artist Helen Elwes who took part in the Vigil with her painted banner 'Mother of Mercy' said: "We felt it was important to pray and witness outside this gathering, for God's Creation and for the poor in the global south who are already experiencing climate breakdown. The disinformation and climate change denial being spread by the organisers of this conference is deeply worrying. Jordan Peterson has called manmade global warming "the great climate con" and has been described by climate scientist Michael Mann as "a central cog in the denial machine". The fact that so many, including Christians and church leaders, are being influenced by Peterson and his associates is disturbing when all the scientists are telling us we desperately need to take urgent action to curb escalating CO2 emissions and stop runaway climate change."

CCA member Melanie Nazareth said: "We prayed for the organisers and delegates at the ARC Conference to advocate and act with the urgency necessary to safeguard the gift of creation. Creation is crying out. Climate denial and delay is destroying our precious Earth and sacrificing the poorest and most vulnerable. We need action now."

The group held vigil from 8am-4pm. Helen added: "We had some good encounters with attendees, many of whom were Christians, including several Catholic priests. Because we were there praying we found we were able to talk together and find some common ground. We gave out prayer cards with Pope Francis 'Prayer for our Earth' printed on the back and some attendees even stopped to thank us for being there."

Towards the end of the day they were joined in prayer by an Italian Priest attending the conference. Together they read the day's Bible reading about Jesus restoring the blind man's sight and prayed for our Common Home and for Pope Francis's speedy recovery.