Bright Now, Right Now

Book your place at our supporters’ day

Everyone is welcome to join us at our supporters’ day on Saturday 7 June in Central Birmingham. This will be a great opportunity to learn first hand about what Operation Noah has been doing during the past year, and in particular about developments with our campaign Bright Now. Come and hear from members who’ve been involved directly in encouraging disinvestment from fossil fuels as well as other campaign work, including anti-fracking and work in Bangladesh. You can choose from a range of workshops designed to equip you to take our various campaign work forwards. Please book your place at the supporters’ day here.

Workshops on offer include:
Disinvestment role play - a fun, thought-provoking role play exploring fossil fuel disinvestment from different view-points.

Encouraging Church denominations to disinvest - exploring next steps for taking the disinvestment campaign forward through national Church denomination infrastructures, for example at Methodist Conference, General Synod and URC.

Faith for the climate - introducing a year of prayer and fasting in the build-up to the crucial UN climate talks in Paris in 2015.

Campaigning with letter writing - launch of the Bright Now letter writing campaign to Church investment decision-makers, exploring effective letter writing and running workshops in your church; plus other letter writing campaigns, such as Hope for the Future.

Church and community responses to fracking - sharing personal experiences of local campaigning and direct action against fracking, and further strategies at the local and national levels.

Taking forward our work with Ambassadors - how we can facilitate good communication, support and equip ambassadors and effectively work together in raising awareness and encouraging action on climate change in our community.

Faith for the climate

Save the date: Operation Noah is planning a special service on Saturday 1 November at St John’s Church in Waterloo to launch a year of prayer and fasting. It is envisaged that faith groups will hold days devoted to prayer and fasting on the first day of every month in the run-up to the UN climate talks in Paris in December 2015 to support significant international action on climate change. Revd Steve Chalke will be speaking and it is hoped that simultaneous multi-faith events will take place across the country and beyond.

See this resource available from Christian Aid to get started. We are also supporting Our Voices: a new platform for all faith groups around the globe working for action on climate change to urge world leaders to agree a meaningful treaty at the Paris 2015 Climate Summit. You can sign the petition to world leaders.

Building the will for action

‘It is time for faith groups and religious institutions to find their voice and set their moral compass on one of the great humanitarian issues of our time.’ Over 1000 people turned up at St Paul’s Cathedral on 7 May to listen to Christiana Figueres, the Executive Secretary of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. The evening was chaired by Bishop James Jones and other speakers included Dr Tony Juniper, Admiral Neil Morisetti and Peter Pereira Gray, with plenty of challenging questions from the floor.

Christiana covered a huge range of topics, all echoing the urgent need for change, and change led by a moral agenda. The transcript is available here and the full recording of the event here.

She talked of humankind being at a crossroads with two possible paths. These are governed by technology, finance and policy but the direction we take surely cannot result from inertia! It must be governed by intentional moral choice. Read our blog here.

First UK church to disinvest from fossil fuels

We are greatly encouraged that Brighthelm Church and Community Centre, a United Reformed Church in Brighton, has added its voice to the growing fossil fuel disinvestment movement. Inspired by the Bright Now campaign, Brighthelm Church is pulling out of investing in fossil fuels. Like many charities, Brighthelm has investments across a portfolio of businesses, but Brighthelm’s trustees have decided to sell their investments in companies whose core business is fossil fuel.

Brighthelm’s minister, Revd Alex Mabbs, explained, ‘One of our core values at Brighthelm is sustainability. It is increasingly clear that the burning of fossil fuels is not sustainable. Through its direct effect on climate change and increasingly intensive extraction methods it is causing huge damage to the environment and harming animals, plants and humans. We don’t want our money to support an industry that is killing the planet. Instead, we want to contribute to a world in which all life can flourish.’

As well as working to effect change at the national Church denomination level the Bright Now campaign is also encouraging individual churches that hold investments in fossil fuels to look at disinvestment. Brighthelm is the first church since the launch of the campaign to make this decision.

Operation Noah board member found not-guilty for anti-fracking protest

A group of activists, including Operation Noah trustee Ruth Jarman along with Caroline Lucas MP, were found not guilty at Brighton Magistrates Court on 17 April, for taking part in a peaceful protest at the Balcombe drilling site in August 2013.

Ruth Jarman said, ‘To take a peaceful stand against the madness of drilling for oil and gas in the British countryside, when we already have enough fossil fuel to wreck God’s creation five times over, should not be illegal. This verdict is the right one. The Christian faith has a long history of non-violent acts of resistance, as a means of speaking truth to power. For me, this was about the integrity of my discipleship of Jesus Christ. I hope our acquittal will encourage people to courageously campaign by all peaceful means necessary to switch the direction of our country from dangerous fossil fuels to clean forms of energy. I would like to thank everyone for their prayers and messages of support.’

You can hear more about this at our supporters' day and read our press release here.

For the love of … Peace, Justice, Humanity

Have you taken part in the Climate Coalition’s latest campaign For the love of…? This is a simple platform to engage others in your church in taking action on climate change. It enables people to speak about what they love that is threatened by climate change. This will be presented to politicians this summer as well as during key political moments over the next two years to demonstrate the huge growing concern about climate change across the UK. You can add your voice and encourage others to here.

Sustainable communities: what has the church got to offer?

This conference in March hosted by the Transition Movement, the John Ray Initiative, A Rocha and Redcliffe College was a great way of hearing from people working in a wide variety of situations but with the common aim of encouraging sustainability. It looked specifically at the role of communities and the church in addressing the many challenges we face.

Dr Ruth Valerio of A Rocha spoke on ‘Being at the Heart of Your Community’ – as Christians there is a need to be a real part of the community you are working in, rather than work into a community from the outside. Professor Tim Gorringe described some of the characteristics of community from a Christian perspective and reflected on the role of the church in the Transition movement. You can read more about this event here.

Sharing resources

The European Christian Environment Network (ECEN) gives a big welcome to Operation Noah’s paper on Climate Science: An Outline of the Basic Science of Human Induced Climate Change. This timely contribution, compiled by board member Bishop David Atkinson, is received as a succinct and clear summary of the present situation from the standpoint of scientists who are also Christians. It is being translated into several languages as it makes its way to far flung places and churches. ECEN has representatives from the Christian European Churches and also the Commission of the Bishops’ Conferences of the European Community.

See other recent papers from David Atkinson reflecting on the latest IPCC assessment report on impacts, adaptation and vulnerability and reflections on church ethical investments and fossil fuels.

Upcoming events

Time to Act: 10 June, 7pm - 9pm, October Gallery, 24 Old Gloucester Street, Bloomsbury, London WC1N 3AL
Campaign Against Climate Change is holding a public meeting bringing all campaign groups together to help bring about a new energy future and highlight the urgent need for effective policies to tackle climate change.

'Islands and Diversity' International Day for Biological Diversity: 22 May.

Environment Sunday on 8 June, World Oceans Day on 8 June and World Environment Day on 5 June.