A Fossil-Free Nativity

This year I'm singing in two very different productions of the Christmas story. I've written previously about Holy Boy, a choral nativity we're perfoming in York on 21st December. Yesterday I took part in a fossil-free nativity play outside Methodist Central Hall, next to Westminster Abbey, calling for the Methodist and Anglican churches in the UK to follow the lead of the World Council of Churches and divest from fossil fuels. 

As we told the story of a saviour born to redeem the world, we sang with gusto alternative lyrics to well-known carols (no oil, no oil, the angels did sing...). We also posed for a photo with John Wesley inside, who preached that Christians should work hard but avoid working with poisons like arsenic which would hurt them or others. Carbon is now the pollutant that is hurting the poorest in our world today: it's time to stop funding the production of more.

King Herod is challenged by the narrator on our stage outside Methodist Central Hall, Parliament Square

In essence, it is foolish to address just the demand for fossil fuels: we must also address the supply side. There are two good reasons to move our money: the moral imperative (if it's wrong to wreck the planet, it's wrong to profit from wrecking the planet) and the problem of stranded assets: it has been conservatively estimated that two thirds of all known fossil fuel reserves must be left in the ground to avoid catastrophic climate change. That means any investments held in Shell, BP or others are actually worth only a third of what you paid for them. Now is a good time to get out of that particular market and invest in the future instead - clean technology, scaling up renewables and great local food supplies.
I'm going to leave the last words on this topic to Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who is calling for action by all of us on the scale of the fight against apartheid:

The bottom line is that we have 15 years to take the necessary steps. The horse may not have bolted, but it's well on its way through the stable door.
Who can stop it? Well, we can, you and I. And it is not just that we can stop it, we have a responsibility to do so. It is a responsibility that begins with God commanding the first human inhabitants of the garden of Eden "to till it and keep it". To keep it; not to abuse it, not to destroy it.
It makes no sense to invest in companies that undermine our future. To serve as custodians of creation is not an empty title; it requires that we act, and with all the urgency this dire situation demands.We cannot necessarily bankrupt the fossil fuel industry. But we can take steps to reduce its political clout, and hold those who rake in the profits accountable for cleaning up the mess.

See also:

• Bright Now press release
• Climate Politics: where are we now?
• It's a Wonderful World

John Wesley poses for a photo with us inside Methodist Central Hall