Members of Christian Climate Action, including two vicars, have been outside Wimbledon tennis tournament over the last couple of weeks. The sponsor for the tournament is Barclays, this biggest funder of fossil fuels in Europe. The Christians have been urging Wimbledon to drop Barclays as a sponsor, sharing a petition that people can sign to make this request.

We have been working alongside other groups, such as Make My Money Matter and Fossil Free London. We have been handing out flyers to individuals in the queue to enter the stadium and have been putting up posters in the surrounding area. We have also been doing creative actions such as wheeling around a huge pink dodo, sitting on a tennis ball, which was created by Money Rebellion. The dodo represented the extinction that human race is heading for if we carry on with business as usual.

Other groups have also been taking action at Wimbledon over the weeks. Members of Just Stop Oil ran onto tennis courts on the 5th July, throwing confetti and jig-saw pieces into the air.

When members of Christian Climate Action were putting up posters in the surrounding area, Police approached them and said that they were not able to put up signs. Holly-Anna Petersen, who was prevented from putting up posters stated: “We’ve been followed by police all day and told that we’re not allowed to put up posters. We only have a few years left until climate collapse is irreversible and Wimbledon has chosen as it’s sponsor the bank which is the biggest fossil fuel bankroller in Europe. If you won’t let people put up simple posters, then you’re forcing them to take more drastic and disruptive action to get the issue heard.”

Rev Helen Burnett helped bring a huge dodo art installation to Wimbledon this week. She stated: “This rather ludicrous giant pink dodo is here to highlight the ludicrous folly of human behaviour! We are hurtling eyes wide open towards a catastrophe. The eradication of the dodo was not a massive global event like the one we face, but it was a human made extinction. Today we are looking into an abyss in which millions of species and millions of people will die.”