Westminster Justice and Peace began the year with not so much a bang as a clarion call for the Climate. We held a Service and a Midnight Mass for the Climate, then after an Auld Lang Syne and a mince pie or two, we watched films such as The Age of Stupid, and Conflict and Climate, to mark our climate initiative. For we have joined up with a wider movement called Pray and Fast for the Climate, which requires us to mark the first day of every month by praying and fasting for the climate, leading up to the UN talks – COP 21 – in Paris in December 2015.
The movement was inspired by a passionate speech by Yeb Sano, leader of the Filipino delegation to the UN Climate talks in Warsaw in 2013. He pleaded with the other delegates to come up with a definitive effective decision on carbon reduction binding on all countries, so as to slow down global warming. He told delegates that his own region of the Philippines was currently devastated and recovering from Typhoon Haiyan, and that his own brother was picking through the rubble for bodies of family and friends, and had not eaten for days. He was therefore going to fast until the UN had arrived at a definite and meaningful agreement on carbon reduction.
Pray and Fast for the Climate, which is both interfaith and ecumenical, has grown out of his inspiration. The Justice and Peace Commission is not only doing carrying out this witness on the first of every month in 2015, but is planning a cycling ‘pilgrimage to Paris’ at the beginning of December, so as to be there for the UN talks. Anyone who wants more information either about ‘Pray and Fast’ or the cycling pilgrimage should contact Justice and Peace at justice@rcdow.org.uk
