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Did you see a single file of people walking slowly through Horsham Town Centre last Saturday morning (February 24)? If you did – that was the Horsham Climate Pilgrimage making its way around five locations in the town.

The Horsham Climate Pilgrimage – subtitled 'Living in a Climate Emergency' was organised by Sussex Green Living (which organises the Sussex Green Hub on the last Saturday of every month), and Horsham Eco Churches.

At the start - the Pilgrimage was introduced as part Lament, part Protest and part “I don’t know what I can do, but I can do this”. Quotes were used from the UN Secretary General – “Humanity is on this ice, and that ice is melting fast”, and Greta Thunberg – “It’s never too late to do as much as we can”.

The Pilgrimage of 30 people stopped at various locations including Barclays Bank, the Peace Tree near the Bandstand (planted in 1986), and Jeremy Quin’s Constituency Office. At Barclays the pilgrimage was reminded that the bank is the biggest provider of money to Fossil Fuel projects in Europe.

Listening to how Barclays is the biggest European provider of fossil fuel finance.

Richard Jackson - who was part of the Pilgrimage, commented - 'The climate emergency is here, and the Horsham Climate Pilgrimage was an urgent call for action. Members of local Churches, alongside the wider community of Horsham, are committed to raising the demand for a coordinated local and global response to meet the existential challenges which face us all and are already creating life changing impacts across our world.'

The Pilgrimage ended with a poem from the Australian poet Joel Mckerrow which included the line – “Where, my friends, have the wild ones gone? – the ones not turned to stone by the far-reaching programme of consumer sedation, and the killing of our imaginations”.

Climate pilgrimage in Horsham