Cathedrals divest from fossil fuels
Quakers are taking part in vigils and protests, organised by Christian Climate Action (CCA)
Friends have joined a campaign to urge cathedrals to ditch banks that support fossil fuels.
So far, a total of seven cathedrals have switched from these institutions. Four Church of England cathedrals – Durham, Southwark, Truro and Worcester – are the latest to have started the process. They join cathedrals in Chelmsford, Derby and Sheffield, which have already committed to switch to a fossil-free bank, or have always banked with one.
Quakers are taking part in vigils and protests, organised by Christian Climate Action (CCA), at cathedrals across the UK from the second weekend of Lent, in mid-March. The group is calling on cathedrals, and the wider church, to move away from the big five banks (Barclays, HSBC, Santander, NatWest and Lloyds). In November 2023, members of the group interrupted a live broadcast of the BBC Radio 3 programme Evensong at Chichester Cathedral over the diocese’s refusal to divest from fossil fuels.
Phil Laurie, from East Kent Area Meeting, and member of Quaker Support for Climate Action, told the Friend: ‘People don’t often stop to think about how much banking shapes our world. By choosing what to fund, banks decide what kind of world we create and what future we are building for our young people. The big five banks are set on funding fossil fuel companies, which are causing widespread suffering – to people and ecosystems. Quakers have long understood that we should not hold investments in fossil fuels. It is also now clear that having savings and current accounts with banks that fund fossil fuels is not acceptable in a similar way. Let’s encourage each other to bank in such a way that we are creating the future we want to see for our children, not destroying it.’
CCA said that, since the Paris Agreement in 2015, ‘the world’s sixty largest banks have provided US$6.9 trillion in financial commitments to the fossil-fuel industry, with US$673 billion in fossil-fuel financing in 2023 alone’.
The bank switches come as part of a wider movement among faith organisations. Christian Aid switched from Barclays in July 2023, and the Greenbelt Festival also moved from Barclays to the Co-op at the end of 2023. Britain Yearly Meeting divested from fossil fuels in 2013.
