Why the church should be political

Last weekend, Christian Aid’s campaigns team took this year's Prophetic Activists to our residential.

The Prophetic Activist Scheme is a 6 month training programme for young adult christians passionate about climate justice, and we equip them to put their faith into action and build a campaign as a group. We had an absolute blast with them, with the young activists throwing themselves into all of the sessions, including ones on ‘why should the church be political’ ‘community organising’, ‘climate and racial justice’ and ‘campaign tactics’. Together we created a really great environment and space to learn in where everyone felt able to share.

Throughout the weekend, we always came back to the question of, what would Jesus - the ultimate example of an activist - do. We finished the weekend by starting to think about the campaign they would build. They were dreaming up some fantastic ideas, and you can see on this mural board some of the brilliant reflections from throughout the weekend. We can’t wait to see what this campaign builds into as they put their faith into action.

But, instead of speaking for them, here are Rebecca & Meg’s reflections from the weekend and their journey as Prophetic Activists so far!

Meg Thomas

The Bible encourages us to love as our greatest commandment (Matthew 22), however, in a world where much of our politics seems to be fuelled by hatred, this is easier said than done. As Christians, we are often left feeling unequipped on how to tackle political problems without being drawn into hostility. Thankfully, the PAS residential gave us the tools so that we could fulfil this commandment.

While planning our campaign we realised that we couldn't act as a community unless we accommodated everyone's needs, to ensure our activism was rooted in love we would need to prioritise accessibility. The Prophetic Activist Scheme allows us to utilise our diverse backgrounds towards one shared goal - shaking up the church for climate justice. We learnt how to meet our churches in all their different attitudes towards climate justice and realised how important it is to ensure that every church is given the tools to get involved.

On the topic of accessibility, we learnt that to love effectively was to recognise the unequal burden that is the effects of climate change. We had a workshop on racial justice, allowing us to reflect on our privileges but most importantly prompting us to think about how our activism should centre the global majority most affected by the climate crisis, rather than people from the West.

All this brainstorming, planning and learning took a lot of energy. As activists, we often get the urge to do everything at once and this often leaves us burnt out and unable to achieve much action at all. Throughout the residential, we had time to rest and learn from each other. Some of my best memories from the weekend were the early morning walks with the cohort, where we discussed our lives, faith and passions. This served as an important reminder to prioritise recharging. Certainly, to ‘love your neighbour as you love yourself’ requires you to put in the time to ensure your own needs don't get left behind.

If I could sum up the Prophetic Activist residential in one word, it would be that word that is important to Christians - love. We learnt more about our duty to love our planet, about our command to love others but most importantly about how we can use this command to create a better world.