If 2020 was the Year of Covid, 2021 looks set to be the ‘Year of the COP*’. It may sound like a bad Police Academy remake, but our planetary health depends on three international gatherings convening over the next six months, two of them here in Britain. The lesser touted Biodiversity COP was scheduled for this week, but has been pushed back to October in China, achingly close to November’s Climate COP, where all eyes will be on Glasgow as the world holds it breath to see what agreements are made.

The COP agenda will be decided at the G7 Summit in Cornwall next month, and the race for a platform to engage world leaders has begun, with this fabulous Sir Tim Rice song of 10,000 children’s voices, led by Truro Cathedral choir, in the lead. Any children’s choir can record the song and be part of the message. Young Christians Climate Network (YCCN) are walking a relay from Cornwall to Glasgow to highlight the devastation climate is having on vulnerable world communities and the Winchester to Reading leg will be close enough for many of us to join in.

There is a real momentum to show ‘The Earth is the Lord’s, and all that’s in it’. Just as the writer of Psalm 24 knew, a simple truth well told can resonate down the centuries, and a commitment from a congregation in their Climate Sunday service could be as powerful as 10,000 voices. God is calling to us through all these myriad endeavours to respond to the heartache of vulnerable communities suffering climate injustice, and to make that response in whatever way we can. How beautiful, after the ravages of COVID, if we made 2021 a year of heartfelt responses.

*COP refers to the decision-making body of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC)