Apr 26, 20233 min read

Here Comes EVERYONE!

Late on Thursday night of last week I submitted my first essay at Oxford titled: Transforming Apocalypse: Developing a 'Good-News' Apocalyptic Imagination in The Episcopal Church USA in the face of environmental destruction and eco-anxiety. The next morning, I boarded a train for London to join Christian Climate Action (the explicitly Christian wing of Extinction Rebellion) to march on Parliament for what they called "The Big One" (check out the video below) with the central message to immediately cease all new fossil fuel exploration and development; a promise the government had made at one time but since these empty words all major oil companies are ramping up development.

1400 of us filled St John’s Church Waterloo for the No Faith in Fossil Fuels worship service to hear from and organized by the Bishop of Oxford Rt Rv. Steven Croft and Baroness Karen Parminter both members of the House of Lords Environmental & Climate Change Committee.

At the end of the service, we walked to Shell headquarters on the way to Parliament led by the former Archbishop of York, Lord John Sentamu where he intended to deliver an official letter. As we got close, Shell locked their doors placing a lone security guard at the door (he informed us he was a minimum wage employee and wasn’t entirely sure what was going on). We were then notified by the police (who were walking with us) that Shell had contacted them regarding Lord Sentamu. Shell knows who the Bishop is, that we were peacefully coming to simply deliver a letter and childishly choose instead to bar the doors and call the police. Bishop Sentamu who also chairs Christian Aid, said: “It is the most arrogant experience I’ve ever had. We want simply to deliver a letter. We’re coming in peace. This is the sheer, sheer arrogance of Shell. They think they are the masters of the universe. I’m afraid they have got to change their ways.”

You can read the letter HERE.

This is further reason why we as Episcopalians must ensure we are not profiting (in our personal retirement funds / investments and those managed by Church Pension Group) from the arrogance of companies who continue to set the world on fire in spite of increasing climate destruction. They have enough of your money in the form of government subsidies. They don't need the rest of it too. This week 31 additional faith bodies divested from fossil fuels representing more than $2 billion in assets under management, (more than half of Church of England dioceses, including the diocese of London). An article in the Church Times stated “Church investments hold particular power, as they are seen to give moral backing to an industry’s activities.”

I have much more to say about that weekend and my continued work on eschatology, Creation Care, and liturgy, but that will have to wait for another time! I’ll leave you with a poem from Martha Postlethwaite a friend posted a few weeks ago:

Do not try to save the whole world Or do anything grandiose. Instead, create a clearing In the dense forest that is your life And wait there, patiently, Until the song that is your life Falls into your own cupped hands And you recognize and greet it. Only then will you know how To give yourself to this world So worthy of rescue.