Christian climate protesters including retired vicar convicted for Bath Abbey protest

A retired Church of England vicar and three Christian climate activists have been convicted of aggravated trespass. This is after they dropped a huge banner saying “Don’t Crucify Creation” from the tower of Bath Abbey. They’ve accused church officials of prioritising tourism over planetary breakdown and billions of deaths.

They were part of a national day of action on September 13, 2025, by Christian Climate Action (CCA). The group called on the Church of England to speak out more clearly and persistently about the Climate and Nature Emergency and the existential threat to people and all life on Earth.

The activists are:

• Rev Bill White, 71, a retired vicar from Macclesfield, Cheshire.
• Emma Ireland, 41, a mental health worker from Bristol.
• Stephen Pritchard, 66, a former parish councillor from Radstock, Somerset.
• Kate Chesterman, 60, a retired university worker from Hythe, Kent.

They said they acted out of necessity as experts predict two billion deaths due to climate change by 2050.

The four occupied the tower for the launch of CCA’s Stop Crucifying Creation vision booklet. It urges the Church to speak out, take radical nonviolent action like Jesus, cease harming the planet, and support people through the realities of climate breakdown.

The group hung a huge banner from the top, sat down and asked to speak to the Bishop of Bath and Wells, Michael Beasley, to seek his support for the campaign.

But Bath Abbey officials called police who threatened to carry the activists down a narrow spiral staircase to evict them. The four walked down the steps to prevent injury to either the police, or themselves.

They were arrested and charged with aggravated trespass and obstruction. Bath Abbey tour guide Beth Carter said the action disrupted public tower tours for the rest of the day.

Christian supporters at court

Scores of supporters were outside court and in the public gallery during the two-day trial at Bristol Magistrates on 16-17 July.

After the verdict, three members of CCA, James Grote, Deborah Wilde and Sue Hampton, stood and unfurled a ‘Don’t Crucify Creation’ banner in the public gallery. The judge left but Hampton spoke in prayer, saying:

Justice is love in action and that’s what these four people have shown.

The three protesters were not detained but allowed to leave court with the banner.

A report by the Institute and Faculty of Actuaries and climate scientists from the University of Exeter, Planetary Solvency: Finding Our Balance with Nature, predicts more than two billion people will die as a result of global trajectories of 2°C of global warming by 2050.

The defendants said the response from church leaders in calling the police showed they cared more about making money from tower tours than the impending deaths of billions due to climate breakdown.

Chesterman told the court:

If the best the church can do is prioritise tourism over its own followers attempting to bring the seriousness of the situation to their attention, then there’s something wrong with their religion.

Stephen Pritchard said:

If Jesus were alive today he would turn over the tables in the gift shop at Bath Abbey and be charged with aggravated trespass.

Chesterman, giving her defence, said:

The church has the sacred obligation to sound the alarm and they are absolutely not doing that. That’s why we went up the tower – because we couldn’t get the church to listen.

We didn’t just do this out of the blue. We did this after many, many attempts to engage with the Church, and churches up and down the country.

What would the effect be if the church made more actions on climate change? With the resources the church has available, the influence it has, it could affect large numbers of people – and changing public opinion is key to influencing Government policy.

It could rewild a third of its land, which it has been asked to do. It has a platform where it could speak and speak and speak again. It could highlight the plight of the dying people all around the world, so people here would take it [the Climate Emergency] more seriously.

District judge Nicholas Wattam did not accept their defence of necessity. He fined each of the defendants £200 and ordered them to pay £700 in court costs and victim surcharge.

Outside court, White said:

Early in 2025, a reliable source concluded that between one billion and four billion people will die as a direct result of climate change – the actual numbers depending on what we do and how quickly we do it.

The Church of England has a five-fold mission to tell, teach, tend, transform and treasure. How can we claim to tend to the needs of the disadvantaged if we’re silent about the Climate Emergency?

How can we claim to transform unjust structures if we don’t use our position to speak the truth about the multi-national fossil fuel companies, and about their supporting financial institutions?

During CCA’s day of action, similar protests took place at Canterbury, York, Winchester, Westminster Abbey, Durham and Southwark cathedrals. But there were no other arrests and protesters were welcome at Canterbury and able to speak at a service in Winchester.

The Archbishops of Canterbury and York have just published a new teaching document, Hope for All Creation: A theological response to the environmental crisis, which presents action on climate change as a key part of Christianity. The Archbishops say:

To be prophetic in speech and action on these issues — locally, nationally, and globally — is to live out this faith and hope. It is an essential part of following Jesus and sharing the Gospel today.

You can find Christian Climate Action’s vision document Stop Crucifying Creation here.

Featured image via Christian Climate Action