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Pilgrim on the 'Camino to COP'

  • Sr Kate Midgley

Melanie

Melanie

When I heard that a friend from Christian Climate Action was walking from London to Glasgow for the UN COP26 summit on Climate Change I was inspired. That there are people who care enough about our Mother Earth, our Common Home, and future generations, and the lives of people living in climate vulnerable countries right now ... I felt that this was a story that needed to be told.

Melanie is not some 20-something-year-old with no responsibilities, but a 60 year old barrister and mother of four. When I put it to her that this is an absolutely huge undertaking - physically, psychologically and spiritually - she agreed.

She sees the 'Camino to COP', as it has been named: "as a form of nonviolent direct action, it's not civilly disobedient at all, we are abiding by all the laws and regulations, we're even doing tight COVID risk assessments. But the very fact that people are making the sacrifices of walking, and being tired and still talking to people, but also just being away from home for that length of time, and sleeping on church floors, and even people just doing it for a week or two. It's quite a big ask, you know, just sleeping on a church floor, and then walking the next day, and then doing it again, and then doing it again. So there's that element of sacrifice and vulnerability that I think underpins a lot of nonviolent direct action. And that was really important to me."

The practice of going on pilgrimage is a very ancient one in Christianity, whether it be to a specific place that is considered holy, or the practice of "Peregrinatio pro Christo" as our patron St Columban did; getting into a boat, leaving one's homeland, and letting the wind and the waves take them God knows where, being a wanderer for Christ - as a way of freeing oneself to more radically put oneself in the hands of God and be led by God.

When I ask Melanie about this she says: "I think that's kind of the route of pilgrimage, isn't it? That you do that, you do your walk for Christ. And although a lot of the people walking with us are not Christian, in fact, the majority probably don't affiliate with a particular religion, most of them are sort of spiritual, but not religious. And I think it's really important that actually we connect with people who are good people and feel the call of God in other ways."

However, she also adds: "There's more to this, I think, than just the traditional sense of pilgrimage. One of the things that has struck me is that actually climate refugees, climate migrants … have to do this. There isn't a choice. Those of us who are doing it make the choice to do this. But what we're experiencing is only a tiny bit of all those people who have to keep doing it, because they have no choice. It feels a little bit about trying to experience something that stands in solidarity with them….and hopefully, to find an empathy in that."

She adds, "it's partly about the spiritual aspect and offering something to God. But a large part of it to me is being able to talk to people about the climate crisis, I just think that people haven't connected with it enough. And even though the Earth is flooding and burning, people aren't connecting with their hearts. And I just thought if we could go and talk to them and tell the stories of people and places, the there are places that are really close to my heart because of my background."

Melanie has indeed deep connections with places which are on the front line of climate change. She was born in Kenya where the Maasai pastoralists are saying now they don't think they can survive because of the droughts and they can't keep their cattle alive. When she was two or three years old Melanie's family moved to the Solomon Islands which are suffering from rising sea levels and over fishing from Japanese fishing fleets. Ethnically, Melanie is from Goa where environmental groups are trying to protect the Western Gnats which is one of the world's eight biodiversity hot spots and through which the Indian government wants to build a huge railway and highway to import coal from Australia.

I ask Melanie what is her hope for this Camino to COP. She says "my biggest hope is that the leaders at COP will actually recognise their responsibilities to take quite dramatic action. And it requires global cohesion to do this, because they have to stand up to transnational companies. That is a sort of miracle that only God alone could do and bring about. But my smaller hope with this, as a human being, is that we will persuade people to take action in a systematic sense, not only to look at their own lifestyles and reduce their carbon footprint, but also to recognise that the government has a responsibility to other parts of the world…. "

The Social Teaching of the Church, and Laudato Si' and the need to hear both the cry of the Earth and the cry of the poor could not be more urgent.

In Glasgow, Melanie and her companions will be joined by many others who will have walked from Cornwall, Spain, France, Sweden, Norway, Germany, Poland. There will be an interfaith Vigil throughout the duration of the COP.

The name of the city of the COP26, Glasgow, is thought to come from Scottish Gaelic and mean "dear green place". The city's motto is 'Let Glasgow flourish' (originally from a sermon of St Mungo, 'Let Glasgow flourish by the preaching of your Word and praising of your Name'). May our prayer be that the COP26 will protect our dear green place of Mother Earth so that all the peoples of the world may flourish.

Sr Kate Midgley is a Columban Sister.

'Camino to COP' sets off for Glasgow from Parliament Square, Central London, on Sunday morning 5 September.

Details at: https://caminotocop.com/

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