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.
The Green Tau 