Christians gather to reflect on climate change

Christian Climate Action and Christian Aid joined forces to hold a prayer vigil to reflect on how God’s creation is being treated.

Around 30 people took part and prayed, listened to readings and stories by vulnerable people threatened by what was described as a “climate change crisis”.

Melanie Nazareth from Christian Climate Action and Extinction Rebellion spoke to Premier from the event.

She explained why the vigil was so important: “We wanted to do this in the middle of the campsite because we really thought it was particularly important for our faith to be really visible.

“For us, faith without action is not the way that we would express our faith. But to do action and works without visibly expressing our faith is unsustainable.

“So we were there to sustain ourselves, but also to be a presence in the community.”

The campaign group Extinction Rebellion have held a number of protests across the capital recently in an effort to encourage the government to do more to deal with the issue of climate change.

While the protests have caused disruption to many commuters, Nazareth insisted that was a necessary price to pay.

Its so powerful when prayer & protest come together ✊

Thank you so much to everyone who made the prayer vigil for life so inspiring today at the @ExtinctionR
protest site in Wateroo

Really great to stand together with @christian_aid, @fftcnetwork,