Pilgrimage to Paris

Empathy Action volunteers, Paul and Heather Williams are joining a team of 48 other people from other Christian organisations, including Tearfund, to walk from London to Paris, setting out this Friday (13th Nov). The ‘Pilgramage2Paris’, as it has been titled, aims to show their commitment to people around the world living in desperate poverty, who are affected by the changing climate.

The journey, organised by the Church of England in partnership with Christian NGOs Tearfund, Christian Aid and CAFOD, are asking people to join a 200-mile walk from London to Paris, aimed at encouraging world leaders to agree a fair, ambitious and binding deal at the United Nations Climate Change Conference.

The walk will begin at St Martin-in-the-Fields in central London on 13th November and finish in the French capital on 27th November whereupon the pilgrims will hand in campaign petitions as negotiators from more than 190 nations gather for the start of the talks. They will then join a mass climate march in Paris on the 29th.

Speaking about the climate talks, Paul said they were a crucial moment in the fight for climate justice. He went on to say,

We in the developed world should be caring for God’s creation and not exploiting it for our own self interest. People living in extreme poverty need a binding agreement from world leaders, to help them cope with the devastating effects of climate change they face daily. That’s why I’m joining this two week walk to stand up for those who have no voice.

Tearfund is encouraging people to come along to one of the climate marches happening in cities across the UK, on the weekend of Nov 28th and 29th. For more information on your nearest march and other ways to get involved, visit www.tearfund.org/paris.