Manchester holds outdoor XR worship
Friends held an outdoor Meeting for Worship in support of Extinction Rebellion in Manchester
Manchester Quakers held an outdoor Meeting for Worship (MfW) in support of the four-day ‘Northern Rebellion’ that occupied part of the city.
Forty people attended the MfW on 1 September as part of the Extinction Rebellion (XR) action, which included a five- metre ‘Angel of the North’ sculpture made from waste plastic and a yellow boat proclaiming the words ‘Planet before Profit’. Protestors said the occupation from 30 August to 4 September, as well as the global climate crisis, was about local issues such as plans to expand Manchester Airport and a lack of action on car use in the city.
Antony Froggett, co-clerk of Central Manchester Meeting, said: ‘The “pop up” Meeting for Worship went very well. We left MfW after fifteen minutes and walked together to the XR protest. Around twenty people stayed in Meeting and continued the worship there. It was still rather quiet on the Sunday morning, but a number of people saw us and took photos and there was the feeling that this was an exciting and spirit-led thing to do.’
The XR ‘Northern Rebellion’ included one attender from Wooldale Meeting who was photographed by the Manchester Evening News holding the banner ‘Do what love requires’. Protestors occupied Manchester’s most polluted shopping street Deansgate, which in 2018 had pollution levels that exceeded the legal limit. Quaker Ian Bray who has been arrested for XR civil disobedience also spoke at the protest on 1 September.
Extinction Rebellion also demonstrated at the Preston New Road fracking site near Blackpool with anti-fracking activists.
