Quakers back 'The Big One' climate protests
Quakers from across Britain are travelling to London to take part in The Big One climate demonstrations outside the Houses of Parliament.
Quakers in Britain are supporting the Extinction Rebellion-led event on 21-24 April which will give witness to Quaker concerns for climate justice and the climate and ecological crisis.
A silent Quaker Meeting is planned outside the House of Commons around 3.30pm on Friday, 21 April, and Quakers are being urged to make a 1msq banner displaying their feelings about the protests.
Westminster Quaker Meeting House on St Martin's Lane will offer Meeting for Worship at 10.30am except on Saturday, when it will be held in St James's Park.
The building will also be open for support, rest, and hospitality until 5pm each day.
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We have the power to act
- Paul Parker
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Organisers hope more than 100,000 people will attend the protests which are supported by many organisations including CND, Greenpeace, Friends of the Earth, Tearfund and War on Want.
The wealth of the UK and other industrialised countries is built on the violent and racist exploitation of people and the earth and Quakers are led to seek just responses to climate breakdown.
Quakers in Britain are working to push the UK government and financial institutions to stop supporting the fossil fuel industry, and to create support for those facing the worst impacts of climate breakdown.
Many Quakers have been taking nonviolent direct action as part of Extinction Rebellion and other groups over the last few years.
Others have been providing support to activists through providing housing while they face trial, or taking action in other ways including rewilding meeting house gardens.
Paul Parker, recording clerk of Quakers in Britain, said: “As our book of discipline, Quaker Faith and Practice, notes, it is a stony road ahead, but our faith will uphold us.
“We have the power to act, which is God's power channelled through each of us as we support one another. We hold our fellow Quakers and others in the Light as they work for an equitable and ecological future for us all."