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May 2020

Dear friends,

Welcome to the May edition of Operation Noah’s newsletter.

It's been a busy month at Operation Noah. The largest-ever global announcement of faith-based organisations divesting from fossil fuels took place last week, at the start of the month we published our new Bright Now report, and we're currently planning both our online AGM and annual Supporters’ Event and a webinar to accompany the report. We also have news of Climate Sunday.

All the best,
The Operation Noah team

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Online Operation Noah Supporters’ Event and AGM

Wednesday 15 July, 10:30am-12:30pm
Register for your free place

Our Supporters’ Day and AGM is going online! Join us via Zoom.

Speakers:

▪ David Pickering, Moderator of the United Reformed Church National Synod of Scotland, and Chair of Operation Noah from 2005 to 2010. David played a key role in leading the United Reformed Church to divest from fossil fuel producing companies in 2019.
▪ Bokani Tshidzu, Bright Now Campaign Officer at Operation Noah. Bright Now is our campaign asking churches to divest from fossil fuels.
▪ James Anthony, Climate Sunday Project Coordinator. Climate Sunday is supporting churches of all denominations to hold a special service on climate change in the run-up to COP26.
David Pickering, Moderator of the United Reformed Church National Synod of Scotland, and Chair of Operation Noah from 2005 to 2010. David played a key role in leading the United Reformed Church to divest from fossil fuel producing companies in 2019.
Bokani Tshidzu, Bright Now Campaign Officer at Operation Noah. Bright Now is our campaign asking churches to divest from fossil fuels.
James Anthony, Climate Sunday Project Coordinator. Climate Sunday is supporting churches of all denominations to hold a special service on climate change in the run-up to COP26.

Workshop topics:

• A Green Recovery
• COP26
• Bright Now Campaign Update
• Climate Sunday Update

Register for your free place

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Jesuits in Britain divestment - photo credit Bokani Tshidzu 1

Global coalition of 42 faith institutions divest from fossil fuels

Last week, 42 faith institutions from 14 countries, including 21 from the UK, announced their divestment from fossil fuels. This is the largest-ever joint announcement of divestment from fossil fuels from faith institutions.

The global divestment announcement came at the start of Laudato Si’ Week, and was coordinated by Operation Noah, the Global Catholic Climate Movement, Green Anglicans, the World Council of Churches and GreenFaith.

The multi-faith announcement includes Catholic, Church of England, Methodist, United Reformed, Baptist, Quaker and Buddhist institutions, among others. The group includes the Catholic Diocese of Arundel & Brighton, Jesuits in Britain, Oasis Churches and Global Charity, three United Reformed Church Synods and local churches of various denominations.

The announcement was reported in The Telegraph, New York Times and Vatican News. Listen to James Buchanan, Operation Noah's Bright Now Campaign Manager talk about the announcement on UCB Radio.

Find out more here.

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New Bright Now report: Church investments in major oil companies: Paris compliant or Paris defiant?

Our new report, Church investments in major oil companies: Paris compliant or Paris defiant? shows the gap between the business plans of major oil companies and the Paris Agreement targets. Published this month, it calls on Churches in the UK to urgently divest from fossil fuels to tackle the climate emergency.

Rt Revd Dr Rowan Williams, former Archbishop of Canterbury, said in response to the report: ‘The current health crisis has highlighted as never before the need for coherent international action in the face of global threat. Can we learn the lesson and apply it to the global threat of climate change? To do so means taking practical and effective steps to reduce our lethal dependence on fossil fuels, and this report challenges the Churches to take these steps as a matter of urgency.’

You can read a summary and find the full report here.

Webinar: Church investments in major oil companies: Paris compliant or Paris defiant?

Wednesday 10 June
7pm-8:30pm
Online
Register for your free place

This free webinar will include a presentation of the key findings of the new Bright Now report with James Buchanan and Bokani Tshidzu from Operation Noah, followed by responses from speakers of various Christian denominations and a Q&A with our speaker panel. If you’re campaigning for divestment in your church or want to find out more about why divestment is a good idea, join us.

We will be joined by the following speakers:

▪ David Pickering, Moderator of the URC Synod of Scotland
▪ Canon Giles Goddard, Vicar of St John’s Waterloo
▪ Sally Foster-Fulton, Head of Christian Aid Scotland
▪ Stephen Power SJ, former Treasurer of Jesuits in Britain
▪ Michael Pryke, former Methodist Youth President
David Pickering, Moderator of the URC Synod of Scotland
Canon Giles Goddard, Vicar of St John’s Waterloo
Sally Foster-Fulton, Head of Christian Aid Scotland
Stephen Power SJ, former Treasurer of Jesuits in Britain
Michael Pryke, former Methodist Youth President

Find out more and register to book your place.

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Climate Sunday update

Climate Sunday is a project initiated by Operation Noah to help churches of all denominations hold a special service on climate change in the run-up to COP26. We continue to be involved in this project which is now being managed by Churches Together in Britain and Ireland. Although Climate Sunday events have been delayed due to the pandemic and the postponement of COP26 until 2021, Climate Sunday is still happening and will officially launch in June. In the meantime, find out more and register your interest at the project’s website.

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Catch up with our most recent blog posts

Introducing the Catholic Impact Investing Collaborative We are delighted to profile the work of the Catholic Impact Investing Collaborative (CIIC). In this guest blog on our Bright Now website, Maggie Stohler, CIIC Program Manager, introduces the network and shares the news of an exciting recent announcement.

Operation Noah supports Teach the Future Teach the Future is a student-led campaign calling for the education system to prepare young people to tackle the climate crisis.

Working together for a just and green recovery In the past month we’ve been co-signatories on a number of letters calling a for a just and green recovery from COVID-19.

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Read, Watch and Listen

1. Communicating climate change during the Covid-19 crisis. What does the evidence say about how to engage people on climate change while we're dealing with another crisis? Ten top tips and a webinar recording from Climate Outreach.
2. Church of England Net Zero Carbon Webinars. Following the announcement earlier this year that the Church of England would aim for net zero carbon by 2030, this is a series of webinars aimed at diocesan staff and volunteers whose role has an environmental aspect.
3. 360° Carbon is a new carbon footprint tool for Churches which enables them to measure their carbon footprint from different activities – energy, travel, food, waste, water and other expenditure. The site is free to use and is designed to work for all church denominations. Eco Church now asks that churches use 360° Carbon to measure their carbon footprint as part of their qualification for an award.
4. Laudato Si’ Week took place last week. Watch a podcast featuring Christiana Figueres, and Fr. Augusto Zampini-Davies, adjunct secretary of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Integral Human Development can be viewed here.
5. More than a month coal free. Coal-fired power plants have not contributed to the electricity grid in the UK for more than a month.

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Please support the work of Operation Noah

Our campaigns and activities rely on donations from individuals and organisations so please consider giving a one-off or regular donation.

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