'No Faith in Fossil Fuels' Service and Vigil

Campaigners at St John's Waterloo after the Ash Wednesday service before heading off to the Vigil

The Ash Wednesday morning 'No Faith in Fossil Fuels' service at St John's, Waterloo, in South London was an inspirational occasion at a time when the climate crisis is being sidelined.

More than 200 people poured into the church, many as the 'scratch' choir and musicians were rehearsing, led by Green Christian's Ruth Jarman. The uplifting music and her dress, with its colourful pattern of giraffes and flowers, raised the spirits as the congregation joined in singing. She played her violin and directed musicians from Laudato Si Animators, Christian Climate Action, Christian Aid and a Faithful Companion of Jesus sister.

Salesian Fr Martin Poulsom, Barbara Echlin + dog and Melanie Nazareth were amongst those welcoming incomers. It struck me how faithful such people have been to the cause of promoting "ecological conversion" - as Pope Francis would put it - over many years.

There was a sense of a faithful community continuing the mission of raising awareness of climate change and action to promote sustainability for the common good. For Catholics, this is all in line with the Creation Care element of Catholic Social Teaching. At the service I was sitting with a Columban Father and Sister, both with extensive experience of how a changing climate and severe weather has harmed vulnerable communities in the global south.

It was a simple ecumenical service of reflection, repentance and hope with the distribution of ashes. And an opportunity to connect traditional Ash Wednesday observance with the harm that humanity's reliance on fossil fuels is causing. But more than that it was beautifully woven together to highlight human sensitivity to Planet Earth and gratitude for God's Creation by people of faith.

After a welcome from Revd Giles Goddard of St John's, and chair of the interfaith network Faith for the Climate, we watched a moving six-minute film 'Rise: From One Island To Another' by Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner from the Marshall Islands and Inuk poet Aka Niviâna from Greenland. The two poets met on a melting glacier in Greenland that threatens the Marshall Islands through rising sea level. They see the effects of how the choices the rest of the world makes is changing their homes quicker than in many other parts of the world. It was clearly illustrated how interdependent our world is.

Then there was a time for Penitential Responses: For the scandal of our dependence on fossil fuels; For our scorched and blackened Earth; For the silencing of protest: For the sin of consuming and commodifying our world; For the sin of Ecocide. We asked forgiveness "for all that has destroyed your love and the sacred, in ourselves, in each other and in all of creation."

The temptation of Jesus in the wilderness was the reading from Matthew 4. Then a prayer followed:

'And so, in this Lenten season,

we journey with Jesus,

Spirit-led,

into the wilderness of our apprehension

To face our demon of distrust,

and to find the courage

to lean once more into the winds of grace

to be uplifted by your mistral presence,

to resist the greed that seeks to destroy

and to stand before the walls of power. Amen'

A poem by Kathy Galloway - 'Lent' - was read, warning of the temptation to be indifferent to the world's ecological and justice issues:

'Do not retreat into your private world,

There are more ways than firesides to keep warm;

There is no shelter from the rage of life,

So meet its eye, and dance within the storm.'`

And this was picked up in the rousing final hymn:

'Sent by the Lord am I; my hands are ready now

to make the earth the place in which the kingdom comes.'

We were led in the prayer:

'This we know, that Earth does not belong to us,

All - we belong to Earth.

This we know, all things are connected,

All - like the blood that unites one family.

For we did not weave the web of life,

All - we are merely a strand of it.

Whatever we do to the web,

All - we do to ourselves.'

A final blessing was based on the poem 'Beannacht' (the Gaelic word for 'blessing') by John O'Donohue. It ended with:

'And so may a slow

wind work these words

of love around you,

an invisible cloak

to mind your life.'

Readers included Bokani Tshidzu and Clare Fussell of Operation Noah's Bright Now Campaign which is, prophetically, calling for UK Churches and faith institutions to lead the way in divesting from fossil fuels, investing in climate solutions and ensuring responsible stewardship of land to fight against climate change, and related problems such as diminishing biodiversity.

And I was delighted to see Green Christian patron Sir Jonathon Porritt, writer and founder of Forum for the Future, do a reading. I remember hearing him speak so eloquently about the need to challenge economic growth being at the heart of our model of progress at Green Christian's 30th anniversary 12 years ago in Bristol. "Today's 'ecological crisis' is in essence a crisis of the human spirit" he said, before heading off to join protestors at Hinkley Point nuclear power station in Somerset, calling for a halt to its development on the grounds of the problem of nuclear waste and the blighting of local communities. I read his regular blogs.

The Ash Wednesday service was followed by a 24-hour Ash Wednesday vigil outside the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero in Whitehall. As many of us processed there with banners - including the 'Mother of Mercy' banner by artist Helen Elwes - we stopped to pray outside the Shell HQ by the River Thames. This highlighted how the oil and gas industry is fuelling the climate crisis and intensifying extreme weather events that are destroying lives and livelihoods of communities around the world.

The UK government is in the process of consulting the public on whether to end new drilling for oil and gas. Operation Noah, Christian Climate Action, Christian Aid, Laudato Si Movement, the Student Christian Movement, Tearfund, Just Love, Eco-Congregation Scotland and Green Christian are using this moment to help our government listen to the science and the justice dimension and end fossil fuel extraction in the UK.

LINKS

Green Christian: https://greenchristian.org.uk/

Operation Noah www.operationnoah.org/

Rise: From One Island To Another': www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtT-hJBZlUY

Jonathon Porritt: https://jonathonporritt.com/blog/