A reflection on the Mass Lobby of 2025

Our interim communications officer, Jon Chew, reflects on Faith for the Climate’s contribution to the Mass Lobby of Parliament on 9 July, 2025.

On a table at our Faith for the Climate stall, there was a tree. And on the tree hung scores of paper hearts. And on these blue and red and yellow paper hearts, people wrote out prayers for the world we live in. Our hopes, our dreams, our cries, all on behalf of the only place we can call home.

Know your impact, read one. FOCUS ON PEOPLE NOT PROFIT!, said another. Let’s build a future for my our grand-children X, read another. 

This prayer tree anchored the Faith for the Climate stall during the Mass Lobby, a summit that gathered citizens and our elected representatives into the same room. Over 5,000 people from all walks of life, all faiths, all types of climate justice and nature organisations, came together across three venues in Westminster, including the festive Lobby Hub at the Queen Elizabeth II Centre to ‘Act Now, Change Forever’. As part of the day, constituents got to meet their MPs to have deeper, more nuanced conversations about concerns and questions surrounding how well – or badly – we are tackling climate change. 

A community in action is a joy to behold. At Faith for the Climate, many of us consider caring for our planet as nothing less than an act of worship. Amandeep Kaur Maan, co-founder of Eco-SikhUK, reminded everyone of this during a panel moderated by our chairperson and co-founder Canon Giles Goddard. She shared this evocative section of a shabad, taken from the Sri Guru Granth Sahib, the main holy scripture of the Sikhs. Pavaṉ guru pāṉī pitā mātā dharat mahat, which in part, translates to: 

Air is our Guru, water is our father, the earth is our mother. – Guru Nanak Dev Ji (SGGS p.8)

The work we were involved in during the Mass Lobby, in essence, was a clarion call from our planetary family tree. As we met our MPs, as we chatted across stalls and tables, as we heard speakers telling us about their experiences in their part of the world, the teeming life of earth and all of nature pulsated through our collective voice. There was a sense of hope, but also humility — that as we teach each other, it’s only because the natural environment we build so much of our human lives upon has much to teach us in return. 

That sense of education permeated the Lobby Hub. A plethora of stalls were set-up in what we decided to call the Faith Pavillion, ranging from Brahma Kumaris to the Catholic Agency for Overseas Development (CAFOD), each aimed at letting others know how their beliefs intersected with the desire to protect our common home. Our own Faith for the Climate table became a place of interfaith nourishment. Different faiths fighting for the same climate issues — including Hindu Climate Action, Islamic Relief UK, Quakers in Britain — used our station as a platform to speak of how our faiths could inspire a way for us to heal our burning planet. Those who came to the table got a chance to ask questions about different faiths, and receive information about the work done by different organisations. It was a congregation of hearts and minds, everyone welcomed around a table, with thought for food. 

On the surface, a tree of paper hearts sitting on a stall in the corner of a giant hall can appear so small in the grand scheme of the Mass Lobby. Given that the following Friday would see energy and net zero secretary Ed Miliband deliver a proposed annual ‘state of the climate’ report to Parliament, this opportunity to come face-to-face with those who hold the UK’s future in their hands was a rare chance indeed. During the afore-mentioned panel session, Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg of EcoJudaism captured an incredible paradox that exists for those of us who are climbing the mountains of climate justice. 

‘When I think about this issue on an international or national scale, I despair,’ he explained. ‘When I think about this issue on a local scale, I get incredibly inspired.’ 

That thought, refracted through the Mass Lobby, said so much about the nature of the work. The QEII Centre is located under the literal and metaphorical shadow of the Houses of Parliament a block away. On the same day as our proposed conversation with MPs, politicians from both sides of the aisle gathered to pass the much-talked about Universal Credit and Personal Independence Payments Bill. ‘You couldn’t have picked a worse day for a mass lobby,’ said one MP’s assistant to a Mass Lobby organiser, apparently. It seems the issue of climate justice always operates in the shadows of other needs that can feel perpetually frustrating. If not now, when? When will the sense of urgency and possibility ever kick in?

But then, I looked around. And all around me, in the most beautiful, localised way, I saw flourishing analogues of our prayer tree. I saw these as prayers carved on the most creative placards and costumes — ‘Ocean and Climate Emergency’ written on a surfboard, Water Aid toilets, someone dressed as a giant panda. These other ‘prayer trees’ thronged the Lobby Hub and Parliament Square in their hundreds and thousands, eager to make their presence known. These prayer trees were also young and vibrant, made up of children and teenagers alike, and will soon grow into a forest to be reckoned with. ‘Act Now, Change Forever’ wasn’t merely a tagline. It is the acknowledgement that we are acting in the present so we can ensure the security of our future. Now has become our when.

During his talk to begin the day, Reverend Charles Chilufya, a Jesuit priest working for the Jesuit Conference of Africa and Madagascar (JCAM) as director of the Justice and Ecology Office (JEO), sent us forth with this exhortation.

‘Today, you are not just simply protesting. You are prophesying.’

Imagine. We were being anointed prophets, and this made our mission a truly spiritual act. By the end of the Mass Lobby, as stalls were closing up at 4.30pm, many were still rushing to meet their appointment times with their MPs, including our director, Dr Shanon Shah, and Canon Giles Goddard. While the day was ending, the work would continue. Prayers will always be hung on a tree in every corner of the globe. Hope will always be reaching out towards the day we see salvation for our beloved earthly family. – 16 July, 2025