Christian denominations and charities from across the UK came together on Sunday for a special “nations” ecumenical service marking Climate Sunday at Glasgow Cathedral, close to where the United Nations Conference of Parties on Climate Change (COP26) will take place in two months’ time.
The service, where the congregation wore Covid-related protective masks, was live-streamed to around 2,800 viewers. The Lord Provost of Glasgow, Councillor Philip Braat, welcomed visitors to Glasgow, honouring the commitment of Churches and their partners as they prepare for COP26.
As the service began, a bell was rung, both as a call of welcome and a call for climate justice, linking to the Celtic tradition of bells calling to account. A Prayer for the Earth by Pope Francis was read by Judith Allinson of Green Christian and Hannah Eves of the Young Christian Climate Network. COP26 was commended in prayer and the nations’ churches pledged to continue climate action.
The service assembled environmental commitments made by nearly 2,000 congregations to place before politicians and the wider Church. Eve Henretty of Focolare Youth received the collective church asks and commitments for handing over to political leaders from Andy Atkins, Climate Sunday chair and A Rocha CEO. Canon David Wallace, parish priest of Glasgow's largest parish Our Lady of Lourdes, Cardonald, led the closing blessing with gathered clergy.
Churches are calling on the UK Government to be more ambitious in seeking global emissions cuts and in delivering long-promised finance to help poorer countries adapt to climate disruption. Many had signed the Time is Now declaration, which calls on the UK government to go further and faster on climate action before hosting the COP26 summit in November. They also encouraged involvement with a church greening scheme, such as CAFOD’s Livesimply community award, A Rocha’s Eco Church, or Eco-Congregation in Scotland and Ireland.
Christians were invited to hold their own Climate Sunday services in parishes across England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland. One of these last Sunday was at St Chad’s Cathedral in Birmingham where Columban Father Jim Fleming, who spent 20 years on mission in Pakistan, highlighted that Pakistan is particularly susceptible to climate change and, “in recent years has experienced a total of 152 extreme weather disasters, from floods to heatwaves and storms which has led to the deaths of up to 10,000 people.” He prayed that upcoming United Nations’ meetings on Biodiversity and Climate Change may, “take the necessary steps so that God’s creation may truly become - in the words of Pope Francis - ‘a home for all’.”
Climate Sunday is the UK’s largest joint project planned by UK Churches on Climate Change. It is an initiative of Churches Together in Britain and Ireland’s Environmental Issues Network and hopes to leave a lasting legacy of thousands of churches better equipped to address the climate crisis as part of their discipleship and mission and to make a significant contribution to civil society efforts to secure adequate national and international action at COP26.
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