Judith Russenberger

Day nine No Faith in Fossil Fuels’ vigil

22nd February 2024

I managed a 6.30 start this morning as others from the night shift were leaving early. As I crossed Westminster Bridge it was spotting with rain. Prayer stool out – the pavement was still dry. Poncho on creating a little tent – my warm dry space.

Today I am tired. Prayer doesn’t come easily. What more can I say to God that I have not already said?

It feels like the same flow of people passing along the pavement. I even recognise some as ones I have seen several times already this week. Maybe they recognise me – or if not me, then the presence of a small group gathered on the edge of the pavement. Certainly the police think this, and several wish us a ‘Good morning’ as they pass.

My friends the gulls are busy feeding, but no geese today.

Faint trails of prayer: all who pass by are God’s children – children of our heavenly parent.

Pupils from Westminster School drift by sporting a variety of sports gear and musical instruments. Do their lessons include climate change? Do they learn about the right to protest? Might they become members of parliament or civil servants in due course?

God’s kingdom come, God’s will be done. What would this world look like if that were the case? A place of equality, where all have enough food to eat, homes to live, medical aid according to need?

Could those in the building behind us bring in such a world? Is it a world that people would want? Is it a world that faith groups could further?

The rain comes and goes. The flow of people waxes and wanes. I struggle to focus. Up above the sky and the clouds shift and change in colour and intensity.

Time passes. At last Big Ben strikes eleven.

Counting on … day 51

22nd February 2024

Tipping points – “In climate science, a tipping point is a critical threshold that, when crossed, leads to large, accelerating and often irreversible changes in the climate system.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tipping_points_in_the_climate_system

Likely tipping points if we reach 1.5c of warming include the loss of boreal permafrost in the artic regions. This would result in the release of large amounts of methane rapidly increasing the rate of global warming.
Another potential tipping point would be the die-out of mangroves and seagrass meadows in the tropics, reducing how much carbon dioxide is absorbed by the oceans and so fuelling further global warming.

Tipping points accelerate global warming.

Further reading – https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/dec/06/earth-on-verge-of-five-catastrophic-tipping-points-scientists-warn?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

The Green Tau Issue 5

Day Eight of the No Faith in Fossil Fuels’ Vigil

21st February 2024

Another wet morning as I walk across Westminster Bridge. The night shift report that it has only been raining a few hours and that they are all relatively dry. Vanessa and I settle into their seats, draping our ponchos strategically to keep as much dry as possible.

Rain isn’t all bad – Brethren Seagulls are again enjoying a delicious breakfast as they peck their way across the grass.

I stay an hour before moving on to Shell where it’s just as wet! This is my regular Wednesday slot and I receive encouraging greetings and acknowledgements. The ‘F*ck Shell’ from a cyclist is emphatic.

Back to Parliament and where before there were just two vigilers, now there is half a dozen. Likewise the footfall has increased. As tourists gather around the statues in Parliament Square, their umbrellas form an undulating sea of colour.

School children and students on the other hand are less concerned about the rain and walk passed bareheaded. They are seem bemused by our presence. The words from a World War I poem go through my mind: ‘For your tomorrow we gave our today.’ What can we give or do now to ensure a liveable future for this next generation? Our efforts sometimes seem so futile in face of what is coming. On the other side of London, my daughter is on trial with 4 other women for breaking the glass of the offices of JPMorgan Chase in an attempt to give the bank a wake up call about the urgent and catastrophic nature of the climate crisis.

But we are faced not just by a climate crisis: we have a biodiversity crisis, an ecological crisis, and a justice crisis. We need to change the way we live as humans. We cannot go on as greedy beings (mainly those of us in the global north) consuming resources at an annual rate that needs one and three quarter worlds to be sustainable.

We need to change our aspirations and priorities. We need to work together, to collaborate. Does the answer lie with the world faiths? Is this where we should find the teachings and the impetus to create a different and better way of living together as human beings?

Heavenly Parent, may your kingdom come, your will be done.

The rain is not a disincentive. Our numbers continue to swell and soon there are maybe two dozen people plus two beautifully behaved dogs. It is no just tourists and school parties walking by. There are more and more activists – maybe first time activists – with kefir scarves or Palestinian flag and badges, heading for the Cromwell entrance. They are going to Green Card their MPs and use this democratic right to impress upon Parliament the urgent and pressing need for a ceasefire in Gaza. Here is an overwhelming crisis of justice.

Does it matter which bank we bank with?

21st February 2024

Banks are key players in ensuring the flow of finance through global and national economies. As such they can influence which industries and companies receive funds and grow, and which do not. One of the greatest threats to life is the climate crisis which is primarily driven by emissions from fossil fuels. The International Energy Agency (IEA) has already told us that if we are to keep emissions and hence global warming at a tolerably safe level, we should not open up any new oil and gas projects. Yet this is precisely what the fossil fuel industry is doing, with funding secured by a – still – large number of banks.

Make My Money Matter has long been urging us to direct our money so that it supports action to tackle the climate crisis, rather than allowing it to fill the coffers of those who perpetuate the problem.

“The fossil fuel industry cannot exist without banks, yet our high street banks are continuing to pump money into them. So our message is simple – don’t bank on fossil fuel expansion. Banks must act and you can drive that change. ” https://makemymoneymatter.co.uk/

Another such platform advocating and enabling change is Switch it Green.

“Together, we will move £7 billion out of fossil fuel support this year; pressuring banks to phase out their climate-harming investments.

“We are harnessing the power of switching en masse. By switching alongside thousands of others – and maximising your switch with our ready-to-go lobbying features – your individual action is transformed into a collective call for change.” https://www.switchit.green/why-switch-it/article/how-do-banks-contribute-to-climate-change

And coming from a specifically Christian focus there is Just Money which provides information and leads campaigns on issues of money and justice.

“The money that we put into a bank helps it to do its work. A growing movement of Christians want to bank more ethically and campaign for a fairer, greener banking sector…Some banks are good news for people and planet. As Christians we can champion these, and support ethical alternatives, like credit unions.” https://justmoney.org.uk/

This Lent Just Money has a special campaign encouraging us all to switch to a green bank – https://justmoney.org.uk/the-big-bank-switch/

I am involved with Christian Climate Action and their campaign to highlight the harmful practices of Barclays Bank – the largest European funder of the fossil fuel industry (2016-2022) – and to encourage both individuals but also organisations and charities to switch to greener, more ethical banks.

Actions taken by CCA include regular vigils held outside local branches of Barclays. This is done by local CCA groups often in conjunction with other groups concerned about justice and the environment. See CCA’s event page for more details – https://christianclimateaction.org/events/

CCA has also written to and met with organisations – such as Christian Aid, Oxfam and The National Trust – and have held prayerful vigils outside their headquarters.

Charities, Churches and Universities are all Dropping Barclays

CCA is also liaising with those Church of England dioceses that bank with Barclays, and recently organised a workshop for diocese to share and explore how they can switch to a better bank. (For more information about CCA’s campaign with dioceses – https://christianclimateaction.org/2023/11/14/urging-church-to-drop-barclays/

Success is being achieved. Christian Aid, Greenbelt, Sheffield Cathedral and Oxfam have all undertaken to switch away from Barclays.

Counting on … day 50

21st February 2024

1.5C is the level of warming within which we should be trying to stay if we are to avoid an unbearably worse deterioration of the global climate. This figure is the product of over 6,000 scientific references, and was prepared by 91 authors from 40 countries. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_Report_on_Global_Warming_of_1.5_°C

This is not to say that even with global warming at 1.5C there won’t be adverse effects. The extreme hot summer temperatures, floods, wild fires, droughts, and storms that we have experienced over the last few years will now be the norm. Glaciers, sea ice and ice caps will continue to melt and disappear, causing rivers to dry up in the summer, and elsewhere raising sea levels. The change in climate is already altering natural habitats reducing numbers of plants, birds, animals, insects etc, and having similar adverse effects on agriculture. Food and water security are already being threatened. Warming oceans is reducing marine life. All this will increase as temperatures rise.

Each fraction of a degree of further global warming will accentuate these problems for all life forms. The charts show how much greater would be the effects of 2C warming over 1.5C.

Day six of the No Faith in Fossil Fuels’ Vigil

19th February 2024

As I walk over Westminster Bridge just before seven, I see twelve cormorants swoop and swerve and land in the buoyant waters of the Thames.

I’ve come to relieve the night shift who all looked amazingly bright and alert! Maybe being outside for the occasional night is good for us – a bit like the tradition of putting babies outside to sleep in their prams.

Monday morning and these are the going to work hours. The flow of pedestrians (from right to left) comes in rushes as, presumably, the pedestrian crossing upstream turns green. So many people pass by. A few do give a nod or a smile but hundreds don’t. Do they notice us? Or are we blanked out along with so much else that we ignore in order to manage our hectic pace of life? But I notice two passers-by whom I had seen earlier in the week – one who slated us about the futility of prayer; the other who had prayed with us. So maybe it is distraction not disinterest.

From across the street a man shouts an inaudible greeting that could be positive or negative. He weaves his way through the traffic and lands in front of us.

‘Do we want a cigarette? No? Well can he sit down – he’s tired.’

There’s an empty chair so we say yes. He half talks to us and half talks to passers-by shouting out greetings with a ribald feel.

We’re praying we explain. We’re not ignoring him but praying is what we’re doing here.

After a few more minutes he lurches to his feet, leaves and then swings back to give us a final piece of advice.

We continue to pray. Across the Square the trees stand clear and upright but less shiny than they were in the rain.

A smart business man, briefcase in hand, pauses to read the sign. He’s the business side of what we’re doing. Money is the solution to the climate crisis. His company redirects the massive sums of finance needed to boost renewable energy. He advises other companies, knows the people one needs to know. He’s on first name terms with the head of the Church of England’s investment board.

I venture that CCA has been active in encouraging charities and dioceses to switch from Barclays. ‘Why ever so? They have just announced they will not be funding new oil and gas.’

‘Is it that clear cut? They’re still providing a lot of funds for the oil and gas industries.’

‘XR don’t understand. We need oil and gas to keep people supplied with cheap energy in the interim. We can’t just stop investing in oil and gas – you need to invest to continue to the extraction from developing wells. Here, take my business card.’

Earlier the bells at Westminster Abbey chimed in anticipation of the 8 o’ clock prayers. Now they sound for the 10 o’ clock prayers. After I have gone, they will ring again for the noonday service. There are, I think, more services on a week day than a Sunday.

I welcome Michelle who is taking the next hour, gather myself up and walk back over Westminster Bridge now heaving with tourists.

8.00pm for the evening shift. The departing crew are numerous including four from one church -I’m impressed: I’m the only one from my church and I’m a given.

I settle into place tucking my feet under my prayer stool and my hands into my gloves. The banner and thus our place of gathering has shifted. Now I’m facing a tall lamppost. At the top is a round bright line that suggests the moon brightly glowing. But I look up into the clear sky above and there is the genuine thing – serene and surreal, nothing can match her beauty!

On the banner before me are two nightlights their flames gently flickering in jam jars. I’m alone for the first hour – they keep me company, whilst across the Square my other faithful companions remain resolute in their isolation.

Your kingdom come – what were Mandela and Gandhi and Fawcett trying to establish? The right of self determination for the poor and marginalised. For their freedom to live as equally and as comfortably as those with power. For justice.

Evening is the hour of the car. No construction vehicles and work trucks now. Instead fast and expensive cars glide effortlessly around the Square, their sleek outlines contrasting with the workaday shapes of the double decker bus and the London cabs.

We have created a kingdom where the car rules supreme – the pinnacle of a achievement. A luxury self contained capsule where in quiet and ease we can travel oblivious to the troubled lives of others.

Hot of foot Daniel joins me. He is soon drawn down into the other world of the vigil. Here in the edge of the Square we’re not part of the stream of human life that trickles and flows through the Square. We’re not part of the traffic that flows in, and round, and out. We’re part of the infrastructure – living stones – of the Square.

Evening is the hour of entertainment. Those walking by do so with a leisurely gait – hand in hand or laughing. Night tour buses and rickshaw bicycles bedecked with lights loop the Square. One bus is a travelling restaurant serving haute cuisine.

Not everyone’s entertainment has been so refined. Roy is certainly under the influence of something other than fines wine. His clothes too are street weary. He wants to talk, to express his support for what we are doing. His body can’t keep still and his words won’t come out straight. Swear words slip in unbidden – he knows they will but he’s also apologetic. He tries to divert his conversation to the police on gate duty but the wrong words come out – expressions of pent up feelings. He pulses his body together and his feet waver off down the street.

Your kingdom come – what would that look like for Roy? A place where is respected and valued, where his needs are fully furnished not approximated, where he can be free of addiction.

Gentle quiet Esther joins us. The vigil accentuates calmness in those who participate, but some people have it with them always.

The news is full of fighting and the threat of fighting. Your kingdom come – what would it look like in Gaza? In Israel?

Evening is the end of the working day in Parliament. They exit in ones or twos – slightly weary, heading home – or as small groups full of cheer and camaraderie – a good meeting or meal, a successful day! These are mostly young things – political interns or policy makers?

For other Parliamentarians (the more senior ones?) journey home is motorised: the police open and close the heavy metal inner and outer gates that guard the driveway, allowing these solid heavyweight vehicles to slip quietly out before powering off down the street. Others come out wheeling their bikes. Then swinging over a leg, they pedal off into the night.

The night shift arrives equipped with sleeping bags and warm clothes! It’s time for me to move, to unbend my legs, flatten my feet and stretch out my toes.

Counting on … day 49

20th February 2024

Global warming is defined by the IPCC as “an increase in combined surface air and sea surface temperatures averaged over the globe and over a 30-year period. Unless otherwise specified, warming is expressed relative to the period 1850–1900, used as an approximation of pre-industrial temperatures… For periods shorter than 30 years, warming refers to the estimated average temperature over the 30 years centred on that shorter period…” (1) https://www.ipcc.ch/sr15/ An IPCC Special Report on the impacts of global warming of 1.5°C 2018

The chart below shows a baseline which is the average (mean) of the combined surface air and sea surface temperatures for the period 1850-1900. The bred and blue columns shows the annual deviation around that base line. Between 1850 and 1900 the blue and red columns cancel each other out. The increasing number and height of the red lines thereafter show the extent of global warming.

Counting on … day

19th February 2024

Carbon dioxide – parts per million

The concentration of carbon dioxide is measured as so many ‘parts per million’. Measurements of carbon dioxide are made at the Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii (NOAA). Recordings there first began in 1958.

Pre industrial levels of CO2 were fairly constant (for at least 6000 years) at around 240ppm. However since the Industrial Revolution this has been rising. Between 1750 and 1800 the average CO2 levels was 278ppm and it is from this baseline that the IPCC has been measuring increases. It has been suggested that between 280 and 350ppm represents a safe level. However we have past 350ppm in 1987. In 2018 scientific models suggested carbon dioxide levels of 425-785 ppm would lead to 1.5 °C temperature rise, and and 489-1106 ppm for 2 °C.

As of January 2024 the level of carbon dioxide had risen to 423ppm. In 2023 global temperatures were 1.5 °C higher than the pre-industrial average – but this in part was due to the El Niño effect, so in terms of human-made heating, the rise for 2023 is calculated at 1.3°C of warming.

The red lines and symbols represent the monthly mean values, centered on the middle of each month. The black lines and symbols represent the same, after correction for the average seasonal cycle. The latter is determined as a moving average of SEVEN adjacent seasonal cycles centered on the month to be corrected, except for the first and last THREE and one-half years of the record, where the seasonal cycle has been averaged over the first and last SEVEN years, respectively.

Day five of the No Faith in Fossil Fuels’ Vigil

18th February 2024

It has rained all night and I hope those outside have stayed warm and reasonably dry

5.40 I dress and pack last things in my bag. Bike lights on. Waterproofs secure. Go. The road is empty and sparkling with the combination of street lights and rain.

Like everywhere else, Parliament Square is sodden but the overnight vigilers are positive! We perform a tricky dance as we swop places, adjust rain clothes, fold and unfold umbrellas. With my ponchos spread like a tent I sit on a small camping stool. Inside a foggy warmth builds up – it keeps me warm if not dry. Waterproofs have a tendency to be less so as the wet persists!

Calm returns and Jonathan and I settle into the composure of vigil.

Jonathan reads a passage by Thomas Merton about rain in which he talks about rhythm and sound of rain. Parliament Square has its own sounds for a wet Sunday morning. There is the swish of car wheels against water. The gentle slap of running shoes – running on a Sunday morning is clearly popular come rain or shine. The illusive sound of wetness that seems to hang in the air.

There are few people walking by. Sunday is not a working day for many. There are no construction vehicles wheeling past, and few delivery vehicles either. Even the police presence is diminished.

The Square has both a daily rhythm and a weekly rhythm and even a yearly rhythm. Sit here long enough and you’ll become part of it.

On the far side of the expanse of flat green grass that fills the Square, a row of London plane trees provides a lacy edge to the sky, whilst in the rain their patterned trunks stand out proudly. In between at head height, way-farer palms trees look oddly out of place in a rain soaked London.

On the grass seagulls stab for food – maybe worms brought up by the rain. Picking up on yesterday’s thoughts, I greet Brother Seagull with a silent “Good morning”. His reply comes back, “Awk….awk…awk!”

The gulls are joined by a pair of Egyptian geese, their feathers glossy in the rain-washed light. “Good morning Mr and Mrs Goose!” Egyptian geese are known for their fidelity.

There are few tourists this morning. Sight seeing is a fair weather pursuit and only a few resilient Japanese walk past following their tour guide.

The rain which has blown both heavier and lighter, dwindles and fades away. Faint patches of blue appear in the sky and ten flags unwrap themselves from their flagpoles.

Wetter weather may well be a consequence of increasing temperatures: warmer air can hold more water. Adapting to wetter winters and drier summers is something we will have to embrace.

A pavement cleaner stops to talk. He’s seen our signs and is from personal experience deeply aware of the effects of the climate crisis and equally convinced that it is unlikely we will make changes to turn the situation around. He is 73 and comes from Bangladesh. Rivers that used to teem with fish – the key part of their diet and a source of income – are lifeless, the waters polluted with pollution from factories and cities. Children can no longer swim there – nor too do the dolphins. He despairs that it will never change – yet he tells us that whilst simply to pray will not achieve anything, to pray and act is a different matter altogether. And he prays all day – and as to working, his name, Abdullah, means slave of Allah. He left us feeling greatly uplifted. Somehow despite the odds, he radiated hope.

Second Sunday in Lent

18th February 2024

Reflection (readings follow on)

Is the story from Genesis actually acknowledging that we humans are always going to be sinful, that we are always going to be falling back into ways that are selfish and thoughtless, cruel and destructive? And that God is frequently going to have cause to feel anger and grief? Certainly looking at my own life and the life of the world around me, this does seem to be a truthful observation.

Is it also a useful observation? Does it help us understand our relationship with God and with each other?

This thinking about the inate tendency of humans to be sinful tallies with the continuation of the story in Genesis. The rainbow is a reminder to God that such is the fallen nature of humanity and that that is why God undertakes to always show us mercy and to protect us from our own actions. The covenant of the rainbow is that God will stand by humanity however foolish and stupid and downright evil we may be.

George Herbert expressed something of this in his poem, The Holdfast. He discovers through repartee that he has no way of his own making or will of holding onto God. Even to confess that he has nothing is not for him to take comfort from. Rather it is only, solely and totally through Jesus Christ that he is held fast with God. (The poem is below).

It is also a view that Paul expresses clearly in his letters – there is absolutely no way to salvation other than through Jesus Christ. Apparently the Greek grammar, when he writes of faith and Jesus Christ, is ambiguous: it could be read as faith in Christ that saves us, or as the faith of Christ that saves us. The former credits us with some of the success, the later leaves it squarely with Christ himself. I personally would have more faith in Jesus than in myself.

This suggests a very one side relationship within which we are never going to be able to fully reciprocate. Nevertheless we have been created in God’s image and are called to ‘seek justice, love mercy and walk humbly before our God’. In this we must be as ready to recognise that our fellow brothers and sisters are equally prone to be being sinful, of doing the wrong things, of being careless or even harmful towards each other – or maybe just of being mildly irritating. We must strive to be forgiving and understanding, and never to discard or ignore them. At the same time we need also to accept that what we hope to achieve won’t be perfect: we are called simply to keep on trying. I have a phrase I find comforting: I am called not to be successful but faithful.

The phrasing in the letter of Peter also chimes in with this thinking. The writer notes that the baptism which saves you is not so much about removing the dirt of sin as ‘an appeal to God for a good conscience’. Is this good conscience ours or is it God’s? If God’s it is again that message that we contribute absolutely nothing of ourselves to gain salvation: it all comes from God.

So to our gospel reading and the baptism of Jesus. As with story of the ark, which as the letter of a Peter says, prefigures baptism, so with Jesus’s baptism God’s sign is to be seen in the heavens. The skies are rent apart and what appears to be a dove descends. Jesus is filled with the Spirit and God’s voice is heard, “You are my Son!” From now on God needs no rainbow as a reminder of the need for mercy in the face of human foolishness. Now God knows unique way what it is to be human, and in that human form always sees the image of the Son. God’s salvation comes to us absolutely without hesitation or deviation through Jesus Christ. The good news of salvation is made real to us in the one true human form – the one who can not fail or fall (to quote from Herbert).

Alleluia!

Genesis 9:8-17

God said to Noah and to his sons with him, “As for me, I am establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you, and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the domestic animals, and every animal of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark. I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.” God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: I have set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.”

Psalm 25:1-9

1 To you, O Lord, I lift up my soul;
my God, I put my trust in you; *
let me not be humiliated,
nor let my enemies triumph over me.

2 Let none who look to you be put to shame; *
let the treacherous be disappointed in their schemes.

3 Show me your ways, O Lord, *
and teach me your paths.

4 Lead me in your truth and teach me, *
for you are the God of my salvation;
in you have I trusted all the day long.

5 Remember, O Lord, your compassion and love, *
for they are from everlasting.

6 Remember not the sins of my youth and my transgressions; *
remember me according to your love
and for the sake of your goodness, O Lord.

7 Gracious and upright is the Lord; *
therefore he teaches sinners in his way.

8 He guides the humble in doing right *
and teaches his way to the lowly.

9 All the paths of the Lord are love and faithfulness *
to those who keep his covenant and his testimonies.

1 Peter 3:18-22

Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God. He was put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit, in which also he went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison, who in former times did not obey, when God waited patiently in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were saved through water. And baptism, which this prefigured, now saves you– not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers made subject to him.

Mark 1:9-15

In those days Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee and was baptised by John in the Jordan. And just as he was coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens torn apart and the Spirit descending like a dove on him. And a voice came from heaven, “You are my Son, the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”

And the Spirit immediately drove him out into the wilderness. He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan; and he was with the wild beasts; and the angels waited on him.

Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God, and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news.”

The Hold-fast

BY GEORGE HERBERT

I threaten’d to observe the strict decree

Of my dear God with all my power and might;

But I was told by one it could not be;

Yet I might trust in God to be my light.

“Then will I trust,” said I, “in Him alone.”

“Nay, e’en to trust in Him was also His:

We must confess that nothing is our own.”

“Then I confess that He my succour is.”

“But to have nought is ours, not to confess

That we have nought.” I stood amaz’d at this,

Much troubled, till I heard a friend express

That all things were more ours by being His;

What Adam had, and forfeited for all,

Christ keepeth now, who cannot fail or fall.