I58-Network

After much planning and preparing, a few setbacks from the police and with the wrong tent, the cafe ran throughout Climate Camp and was generally perceived to be a resounding success. Here's some of what happened and what we achieved during the week.

5 of us arrived on Sunday 3rd at Strood Station to be met with Stop and Searches all round, during which time we lost several key tools for making stoves, and a seriously long wait for the shuttle buses. We made it to site about 3pm, with little time to prepare the cafe, meaning we didn't get serving until part way through Monday.

On Tuesday, we got the Rocket Stove going, though at this stage, we still needed gas to finish it boiling. That night we had a vicar around, who celebrated communion in a service using liturgy written in Australia. We more or less repeated this the next night.

By Friday we were coming up with our plans for the day of action, and on Friday night our time of prayer hit its numerical peak with 21 people sitting down to pray and prepare for the day ahead.

On Saturday, 12 of us headed out with the Orange Group march to the gates. Once there, we took some time to pray for forgiveness, a sort of "last rites" for Kingsnorth, which even got a mention in the Guardian.

After not quite an hour, the police ordered everyone to move back towards camp, where-upon 4 of our group decided to stay put and risk arrest along with about 15 other people. They were all arrested and taken to a police station for the night, then released with Cautions for failure to comply with an order given under s14 of the Public Order Act 1986. That night, minus some of our friends, we had a time of prayer and of course, began to think about our journeys home.

During Sunday, several people left site to attend the local Church of England church. Just 6 of us were left to celebrate an Agape, a simple sharing of bread and wine, under the stars (or rather clouds) on the spot where the cafe had stood until the tent was taken down a few hours before. On Monday, the last of us headed back towards London and the "real world".

During the week we:
- Mastered the art of rocket stoves
- Made well over a thousand drinks
- Survived despite not having half the equipment we should have had
- Provided a nice chilled space for people to hang out in
- Held 8 prayer and worship times, including 2 communions, an agape, the litany of resistance and more...
- Had over 40 people attending those events (2% camp attendance)
- Held several other prayer times
- Made a visible contribution to one of the three main actions
- Got a mention in the Guardian
- Saw 4 of our number getting arrested (5.7% of arrests)
- Made the biggest identifiably Christian contribution to a UK mobilisation since before the G8 in Scotland.
- Made a lot of friends, almost no enemies, silenced a few critics, learnt loads about ourselves, each other, Climate Change, rocket stoves, battery power, political power and systemic economic injustice.