On Sunday, September 21, two days before world leaders met for an emergency UN Climate Summit, 400,000 people took part in the People’s Climate March in Manhattan. After lining up from Columbus Circle on 59th Street North beyond 86th Street, and on countless side streets, legions of people marched peacefully for action on climate change. Calling the March special sells it short. It was a miracle, a concentrated expression of concern for people and the planet and the largest climate march in history, four times larger than expected. “Jesus,” said one police officer when he saw the crowds. “Most groups say they’ll get 50,000 and 5,000 show up. You all delivered.”
Why was it special?
First, participants’ diversity. A flier for the March stated, “To change everything, it takes everyone.” Almost everyone was there. Scientists in lab coats. Educators. Families. Transit workers. Environmentalists. People from heavily polluted communities – many of them persons of color and poor. People in wheelchairs. Investors and green business leaders. Construction workers, whose green jobs float sported a sign saying “Labor is ready and able.” Mental health workers who counseled those rendered homeless by Superstorm Sandy. Students pushing for fossil fuel divestment. And many more.
Four hundred thousand people is an ocean of humanity. Seeing 400,000 people marching peacefully is a revelation, a collective reverence with an impact past words. It had to be experienced to be believed.
The faiths, and beyond …
Amid this wider diversity, the variety of religious and spiritual communities that were present was enough to bend your mind. Each different tradition, denomination or sect carried its own eight-foot-tall sign. There were 39 signs in all. Catholics. Jews. Episcopalians. Protestants of all stripes – from UCC to Baptist and beyond. Hindus. Buddhists. Muslims – with an inflatable mosque. Unitarian Universalists. A range of interfaith groups such as GreenFaith and Interfaith Power and Light.
But the March’s spiritual diversity didn’t stop there. There were Agnostics. Pagans. Humanists. Spiritual seekers. There was even a sign for Atheists. Some of these groups were initially uncomfortable about marching with the multi-faith contingent, and some of the faiths shared this sentiment. But our big tent got bigger and we marched as one, unified by our belief that climate change means we’ve got to stand up and be counted.
If this represented a new rainbow coalition for the Earth, it also pushed the boundaries of what makes for comfortable multi-faith engagement for many people. Jews and Christians, Muslims and Hindus may be one thing. Even though most of us have never engaged at this level of religious diversity, these are, for most people, respectable religious options. But, truth be told, many conventionally religious people consider Humanists and Pagans to be modern day heathen, or find these beliefs so foreign and threatening as to be off limits. Yet there was an unmistakable strength in the range of our expressions of ethics and belief, a comprehensiveness that was an undeniable reflection of modern day life.
Pray with your feet
Before the March, the multi-faith and spiritual groups gathered on 58th Street between 8th and 9th Avenues, a wide, long street with room for 10,000 people. By 10:30 a.m., the street was packed. For almost three hours, we held a prayer and invocation service. Talented musicians and vocalists provided a flowing accompaniment and backdrop, reminding us that music is a universal language. A range of moral and spiritual leaders offered invocations and prayers. The result was a surreal spiritual stew, an eye-popping range of expressions of concern for our precious planet filtered through the lens of the world’s great systems of spiritual meaning.
We heard the sweet peal of a Buddhist meditation bell, struck by a Zen priest, slicing through the air and bringing silence in its wake. Three Hindus ranging in age from seven to 70 recited a Sanskrit prayer said by millions of Hindus each morning, apologizing to Mother Earth for treading on her in the day ahead. A Catholic nun offered a forceful call to corporations and to industry to repent. A rabbi and an African-American pastor read the Creation story from Genesis. A Unitarian leader prayed in English and Spanish for those displaced by climate change, followed by a Metropolitan Community Church leader, from the denomination founded to provide a church home for gays and lesbians, who offered thanks for the diversity of life. A Pagan leader called on the forces of the natural world to bless our efforts, and a Humanist reminded us that to solve the climate crisis, we need people to do the right thing, to act morally. Throughout it all, a cellist, drummer, and keyboard added resonance and depth to the prayers, and Jewish and African-American vocalists were joined by folk legend Peter Yarrow. It’s hard to capture the full panoply of the event – music and belief joined in expressing gratitude for life, imploring leaders to act. When it was time to march, we stepped out of 58th Street singing “We are marching in the light of God.”
What’s next?
As expected, the UN Summit produced no binding agreements. However, some hopeful initial commitments were announced publicly, including the decision of the trustees of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, heirs of the Exxon oil fortune, to divest the foundation of its fossil fuel holdings, and the release by GreenFaith of a statement, signed by over 80 respected theologians and religious leaders including Desmond Tutu, calling for religious groups to divest. GreenFaith’s new international, multi-faith campaign in support of a strong climate treaty – Our Voices – was also announced, with the goal of becoming the largest ever digital engagement campaign for faith communities.
Only time will tell how world leaders decide to meet the unavoidable challenge that climate change represents. But for one day, an unparalleled range of people and beliefs came together as one. It made for an incredible religious experience and an important act of public witness. One rabbi marched with his seven-year-old granddaughter. During the March, he leaned down and whispered to her, “Remember this all your life.” He couldn’t be more right.
