Ring Out for Climate Change COP26

Faith demands it of us.

The Association of English Cathedrals is urging cathedrals to join the call for all churches to ring their bells on the eve of the United Nations Climate Conference in Glasgow, COP26

Ring out for Climate Change COP26

The Association of English Cathedrals is urging cathedrals to join the call for all churches to ring their bells on the eve of the United Nations Climate Conference in Glasgow.

“We join everyone across the world wanting action and commitment to safeguarding the integrity of the whole creation. Faith demands it of us.”

Adrian Dorber, chair of the AEC and Dean of Lichfield

The Ring Out For Climate Change campaign is being led by Edward Gildea, a Christian Aid climate campaign organiser from Essex who is asking churches to ring their bells at 6pm for thirty minutes on Saturday October 30 as a warning of the climate emergency and to mark the start of the conference.

He said: “We mostly associate church bells with the call to worship, weddings and very special national celebrations. But they also have another historic function: to ring out warnings. 

“I believe the climate emergency is a time of real national crisis and I would urge all churches to ring out a warning and to remind the delegates of the urgency of the dangers we now face.”

The UN Climate Conference, COP26, will see 196 world leaders and an expected 20,000 delegates meet in Glasgow and work together to commit to a reduction in emissions to avoid a climate emergency.

It comes just months after the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change described global warming as a “code red for humanity“.

The bell ringing campaign has already been endorsed by the Bishop of Norwich, the Rt Revd Graham Usher, the CoE’s lead bishop on the environment, who will join the delegation in Glasgow.

He said:

“Church bells have traditionally been rung through the centuries to raise the alarm for local communities. The recent “code red” report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is an alarm call for us all. 

“I am happy to endorse a nationwide “ring out for climate change” on the eve of the COP26 as a symbol of warning, but also of hope, that this conference will lead to action for us all, like Jesus, to tread more gently on our single island planet home and care more for those already adversely affected by climate change, especially in the economically poorest places on earth,” he added.

Almost half of all the 42 Church of England Cathedrals have achieved an Eco Church Award by the Christian nature conservation charity, A Rocha UK. Projects range from LED lights, solar panels, bug hotels, replacing disposable cups and plates, to rewilding and woodland projects.

Just last week Chelmsford Cathedral became the second cathedral in the UK to achieve the Gold Eco-Church Award for its work in inspiring and encouraging others to be good stewards of God’s earth. Salisbury was the first cathedral to be awarded Gold earlier this summer.

The Very Revd Adrian Dorber, who chairs the Association of English Cathedrals and is Dean of Lichfield, said:

“The start of the COP26 conference marks a serious moment of decision for the whole world. It is only right that Cathedrals up and down the country add their distinctive sound to the call for those right actions that will sustain and help heal our planet.

“We are committed as a Church to implement all the measures that get us to net carbon zero by 2030; we join everyone across the world wanting action and commitment to safeguarding the integrity of the whole creation. Faith demands it of us.”

Mr Gildea has set up a Facebook page for anyone wanting to join the campaign. You can find it by clicking the image below.

Or visiting www.facebook.com/groups/ringoutforclimate

Saturday 30 October: 6 -6.30pm: Ring out for Climate Change.

A Prayer for COP26 read by the Dean of Chichester, under the Museum of the Moon at Chichester Cathedral.