By Carol Somplatsky-Jarman, Sunday, December 13
Photos by the World Council of Churches Media Services
We started the day outside Copenhagen Rathouse at the Hopenhagen Live (the events to include all local people in the COP 15 program). Thousands gathered to see Archbishop Desmond Tutu receive Countdown to Copenhagen petitions and watch local bands.*
Bishop Tutu dancing with Outlandish at the rally.
Climate change effects are being felt most "by those who did not cause it, the poor and the vulnerable", Tutu said, speaking before a crowd at Copenhagen's City Hall Square. This is the "injustice of climate change," that poor countries are the ones "that have to pay for something they didn’t cause."
Archbishop Desmond Tutu addresses rally when presenting over 500,000 signatures for the Countdown to Copenhagen pledge.
We then walked to The Copenhagen Lutheran Cathedral, The Church of Our Lady, where the Ecumenical Celebration for Creation took place (See the order of worship). We all joined Danes in standing for the Queen’s arrival, and listened to music before the ceremony began.
Queen Margrethe II of Denmark in the Processional.
Aavaat, the Greenlandic Choir, the Copenhagen Royal Chapel Choir and the Church on the Rock Choir from Africa sang from two levels of balconies, and then led us in “All Creatures of Our God and King,” as three regional symbols of climate change were carried into the church—Bleached corals from the Pacific, dried up corn from Africa, and glacier stones left by receding glaciers from Greenland (as church leaders from three affected countries, two women and one man, gave the prayer).
Procession of Boys Choir carrying coral by warming oceans.
The Very Rev. Anders Gadegaard, Dean of the Cathedral and President of the National Council of Church in Denmark opened us with prayer, Bishop Emeritus Tutu read Psalm 136 (“O give thanks to the Lord, for God is good, who alone does great wonders…”), and the Rev. Dr. Rowan Williams, The Archbishop of Canterbury preached. The procession represented many church traditions and a colorful array of church vestments, and representatives from around the world led the service.
Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams and Evangelical Lutheran Church in Denmark Bishop of Greenland Sofie Petersen in the procession.
We spoke like the church at Pentecost with our Choirs in Greenlandic, Danish, Zulu and Kiswahili, congregational hymns with multiple language options, and the Lord’s Prayer in dozens of languages.
Following Bishop Tutu’s blessing, the Cathedral bells rang 350 times. This was done in other churches throughout Denmark as part of a global chain of prayers and bell-ringing for creation and climate change that started in Fiji in the South Pacific early Sunday, and sounded through all time zones to Copenhagen, on to Greenland, to the Americas, “right around the earth and back to the South Pacific where the day ends.” The 350 rings refers to the 350 parts per million which, according to many scientists, is the safe upper limit for carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.
Procession of Greenlanders carrying stones exposed by receding glaciers due to climate change.
The more than 500 in attendance joined in a candlelight procession into the square and the early Copenhagen nightfall. It was quite an event.
*The 512,894 signatories committed to reducing their personal contribution to CO2 emissions through recycling, reusing and reducing consumption, and to press political leaders for a climate change agreement that is fair to poor countries.
Find the S-J's in the pizza.
All pictures are used with thanks to the World Council of Churches Media Services.
Related links from the World Council of Churches website:
Sound recording of speeches by Desmond Tutu and Yvo de Boer
Recording of the press conference at Copenhagen Cathedral
High resolution photos: Free of charge high resolution pictures (please credit: Peter Williams/WCC) are available for downloading at:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/oikoumene/sets --> Copenhagen
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