The Pope and Martin Luther were two characters in a play performed by a group of Christians outside a site in Nottinghamshire threatened with fracking last week. Members of Christian Climate Action travelled from across the UK to meet with local people for a prayer vigil at Tinker Lane near Blyth.

CCA perform Reformation play at fracking site

The vigil included liturgy, prayer, sung worship, and a play entitled ‘A Radical Reformation of the Economy’ in which Pope Frances and Martin Luther are characters calling for a reformation which sees humanity place care for creation above success of the economy. Most of their lines in the play are words the real Pope Francis and Martin Luther wrote.

IGas has planning permission to carry out exploratory drilling for shale gas on the site. This is the first step towards fracking. The vigil offered those who attended a chance to pray for the protection of creation and that fracking will not happen.

Caroline Harmon, a member of Christian Climate Action who attended, said:

‘Local people don’t want fracking in Nottinghamshire; science tells us that the earth cannot sustain life as we know it if we continue to extract fossil fuels; and the bible calls on us to care for the creation God has placed us in.

‘We first visited Tinker Lane in the summer of 2017. It’s fantastic to come back and see lots of local people fighting this at the gates of the site, but also sad to see the progress IGas has made in erecting equipment on the site.

‘We prayed for strength and perseverance for local opposition groups, and for the repentance and conversion of humanity as we seek to learn to live within our means in God’s earth.’

More information and photos are on the CCA website: https://christianclimateaction.wordpress.com.

More about possible fracking at Tinker Lane and those who are fighting it here.