As a Christian charity working to inspire the Church – and also wider society – to take action on the climate crisis, we are motivated by our faith. This faith is public and fuels our campaigning. As one of our trustees, Revd Dr Hannah Malcolm writes, ‘Climate change matters to Christians because we have an answer to offer a world whose greed is spiralling out of control: if your actions cause death, it is because you act in opposition to the author of life, the one through whom all things are made, the one in whom all things hold together.’ 

We are able to safely live out our faith in the public square due to the civil liberties we are guaranteed in the UK. And yet these liberties are increasingly under threat, with successive UK governments demonstrating a growing intolerance for peaceful protest. Recent events, particularly the arrest of peaceful activists gathered in a Quaker Meeting House earlier this year, have led us to feel the need to release the following statement: 

‘Civil liberties are foundational to democracy, which is why we feel it necessary to express our concern at the growing intolerance successive UK governments have shown towards peaceful protesters campaigning for a better world. The arrest of peaceful activists gathered in a Quaker Meeting House in London earlier this year was especially troubling. While people should be held fully accountable before the law for any damage caused to public or private property, criminal damage and terrorism must not be equated. We also note that non-violent protest is essential to a healthy democracy, and at a time when democracy is in retreat around the world, attempts by the UK government to curtail non-violent protest – however well intentioned – should be met with deep suspicion and concern.’

–Operation Noah
August 2025