At the end of last week, we joined a small demonstration by the members of Cambridge Christian Climate Action (CCCA) standing with a banner outside the magnificent Ely Cathedral, asking the Cathedral to consider switching its banking away from Barclays Bank, (which is the bank most invested in the fossil fuel industries) - and therefore at complete odds with the Cathedral’s A Rocha, Gold award for ecology.
We were met by the Acting Dean, Canon James Revelly who listened to our request that the Cathedral should reconsider its use of Barclays; understandably countered by listing the Cathedral’s credentials as a climate-change-oncerned organisation. It was, perhaps, significant that the eco-awareness of the Cathedral appears to be achieved by just a small group of members of the congregation encouraging the Cathedral authorities.
Canon James, as acting Dean is, of course, not in a position to agree to such change but did agree to see whether the Cathedral Chapter would be prepared to meet with members of CCCA to hear their argument for what seems to be a very modest change and would make the Cathedral's concerns about the biggest existential threat to the planet clear, and which would be wholly consistent with a Christian approach to Climate Justice. The climate justice issue was expressed powerfully by the CCCA’s principal advocate who contrasted the effects on Climate change on the poor of the poorest nations in the world with the impact on the less affected wealthy West.
As we could have predicted, our pamphleteering was met with a wide range of attitudes. A few were genuinely sympathetic, too many simply weren’t interested and a few were opposed to any form of Climate Action, absurdly believing it to be a hoax.
One man on his way into the Cathedral was unpleasantly aggressive, quoting what the LSE Global School of Sustainability has described as ‘The Misinformation of Lomberg and Tol' (Commentary published in April 2024 which can be found at More misinformation and nonsense on climate from Lomborg and Tol - Grantham Research Institute on climate change and the environment ). That was not a good moment but a dramatic demonstration of the dangerous attitudes that will see the planet destroyed in short order and endorses the reason that such demonstrations are so very important, because the Cathedral taking such action as changing their bankers would be an exemplar to churches throughout the Diocese and a signal to other Cathedrals.
