Operation Noah’s Ash Wednesday Declaration

A call to the Church

Operation Noah’s Ash Wednesday Declaration is being launched at the start of Lent.

Read the Declaration - Then - Sign the declaration

A short public service of prayer and dedication to launch the Declaration was at St Mary-Le-Bow, Cheapside, London (5pm 22 Feb 2012), and at churches around the country.

The Declaration challenges the Church to realise that care for God’s creation and concern about climate change are foundational to the Christian gospel and central to the church’s mission.

Operation Noah sees this Declaration as a call of considerable significance. The Declaration is framed around seven biblical themes and argues that, to be a Christian is to accept the call to radical discipleship and to work through the implications for church life of a real change in lifestyle. It marks a definitive line for the church: if we are Christians these are key issues which we need to respond to – as individuals, as local churches and as national Churches.

In 1934 the Church took a stand with the Barmen Declaration which rejected Nazism. The authors believed that the subordination of the church to the Nazi state was a confessional issue, an issue that touched the very heart of faith, not something that they could politely disagree about. Operation Noah believes climate change to be a confessional issue of similar magnitude.

Leaders representing all the main UK denominations have signed this Declaration and a number of Christian organisations working on similar issues have endorsed it including Tearfund, Progressio, Micah Challenge, Eco Congregations, A Rocha and ECEN.

Operation Noah is encouraging individuals and church fellowships to read through the Ash Wednesday Declaration carefully

Ash Wednesday Declaration