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Available for over a year

Good morning. As we prepare for the end of one year, making resolutions for new beginnings, I have been reflecting on the UN’s annual Climate Summit, which concluded 2 weeks ago in Madrid. 2019 has been an unprecedented year for environmental campaigns, largely led by teenage activists. As these campaigns have strengthened, so have their critics. It has also been an unprecedented year for positive-sounding speeches, apologies, and promises to do better. And yet global emissions still rose. We have watched record breaking rainfall flood the East Midlands, fires devastate California, Australia, and the Amazon Rainforest, and drought trigger extreme food shortages across southern Africa. And at the Climate Summit, protestors were ejected, observers were barred from talks, and attendees reported that the demands of indigenous peoples and countries most threatened by inaction were effectively ignored. Many Christians will be holding Watchnight services tomorrow, closing the year with prayer and repentance in preparation for the year ahead. In the Christian tradition, repentance doesn’t just mean saying sorry. Repentance means turning around, abandoning one path to choose a different one: a resolution for change. During the Christmas season, Christians remember that this change is possible because the birth of Jesus declares a new reign of peace on earth. Jesus’ mother Mary proclaims that God has lifted the lowly, filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty. The prophet Isaiah rejoices in anticipation of the wilderness and desert bursting with new life and peace between all creatures. In my own work for climate justice I am guided by their reminders that a transformed world is coming. This July, I stood alongside members of our faith communities at a vigil, following the London Climate Strike. Together we cried, laughed, shouted, and prayed, and I caught sight of a path we might still take – one requiring the courage to change to an entirely new direction. Next year, Glasgow will host the UN Climate Summit. As this decade ends, scientists have identified that we occupy a vital window of opportunity for action. Activists are calling for our governments to turn around – to offer a courageous vision which defends those most vulnerable to climate and ecological crises. In the coming decade, life on earth will be transformed one way or another. It is time for us to find the courage to choose repentance – to forge a new path, signposted by peace for all life on earth.