Quaker chains themself to cross for climate
Sue Hampton joined others from Christian Climate Action to call on the Church of England to do more to tackle the climate emergency
A Quaker was among a group of Christian activists who chained themselves to a cross on Good Friday on the steps of St Paul’s Cathedral.
Sue Hampton, from Berkhamsted Meeting, joined other Christian Climate Action (CCA) members to call on the Church of England (CoE) to do more to tackle the climate emergency.
James Grote, sixty-nine, a retired Baptist minister; Sue Parfit, eighty-four, a retired CoE priest; and Deborah Wilde also chained themselves to the wooden cross. Four other people held a banner reading ‘Don’t Crucify Creation’ and held up the cross.
The group sang in worship before they were each carried off the steps by cathedral security. The protesters described their witness as ‘an act of worship and grief’ as the climate emergency worsens.
Sue Hampton, sixty-nine, a writer, said: ‘As we focus on the crucifixion of Jesus, we want to remember victims all around the world of a climate crisis inflamed by our entitlement and by the failure of governments to embrace the radical change needed to protect life on Earth. Our act of worship is a way of calling on the church to act and speak out now in Christ’s name.’
A document by CCA called ‘Stop Crucifying Creation’ acknowledges the work already being done by the CoE to tackle the climate crisis but calls for it to go further. It also urges the church to ‘speak out prophetically and persistently about climate change and those who are causing the most damage’. It presses the church to ‘return to its roots of prayer, confession and building loving community in the face of climate breakdown’.
Last month more than 100 CCA members contacted Sarah Mullally, the new archbishop of Canterbury, asking her to meet with CCA to discuss the document.
