By Katrina Tweedie (From Seeds Issue 97 – September 2020)

How to be Christian and act radically on climate issues? Katrina Tweedie has been researching options and was introduced to Rachie, an ecotheologian from Christian Climate Action. This was what Rachie told her about one group putting their faith in the environment into action.

Christian Climate Action (CCA) is a community of prayer, preaching and protesting, agitation, training and teaching for climate justice. It is the tribe I run with, my clan, a place I can breathe. We are a group of Christians who understand eco grief, sadness and fear but also have a view of God as close
and interested and with us no matter what.

CCA was founded about eight years ago by a few longstanding climate and peace movement activists who felt they had to do more to wake the Church up and to lead on God’s call for us all to act justly
and to speak truth to power.

Since the first Extinction Rebellion (XR) in 2019 our membership has boomed. We sit very comfortably within XR and have led on interfaith collaboration, regularly standing alongside our XR Muslim, Jewish and Buddhist rebels, praying together and holding sacred spaces. We hold a wide faith stream (Franciscans, Catholics, Baptists, Free, Contemplatives, Quakers etc.) and many are simply drawn to the love and the courage despite their own poor experiences of church before, and past hurt.

We find ourselves in a true sweet spot: bringing the love of God to XR in tangible ways and bringing the message of XR to the Church globally. We place a major emphasis on prayer and repentance and lament alongside nonviolent direct action, all underpinned with theological and biblical debate and prayer. We are truly all-age; those in their 80s are often the ones game-on for arrest! As a growing group we want to see more of God’s diverse nature reflected in his people. There genuinely is a role for all.

Climate breakdown didn’t pause for Covid-19. The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it. This is an emergency of the highest magnitude; we need you. You can find us at www.christianclimateaction.org and we also have a book published called Time to Act, a resource book that Rowan Williams has described as “timely, moving and highly motivating”. You can also see
me leading on Exodus 1 and 2 and the Biblical call for NVDA on the following link: https://youtu.be/s7Nl1-fclTE.

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