Green Christian member stands for parliament
Reverend Mark Coleman, a long-time Green Christian and Christian Climate Action member and Just Stop Oil supporter, is standing in the Rochdale by-election created by the death of the well respected MP Sir Tony Lloyd.
Mark (64) worked as a vicar in Rochdale town centre until his retirement, due to Parkinson’s disease, in 2020. He continues to serve as a Church of England priest and lives with his wife, Wendy, a former Labour councillor and Assistant Portfolio Holder for Climate Change. They have two grown up sons.
Mark said:
“The people of Rochdale deserve the truth – and that is we need radical action on climate right now to stand any chance of a safe and stable future. Government policies have put us well on the way to climate hell, and the Labour Party is willing to let that happen. I’m horrified that the Labour Party will not revoke the Tory new oil and gas licences given out by this corrupt government. Rosebank is the UK’s largest undeveloped field and the emissions will cause massive suffering and death. I want the people of Rochdale to be able to ‘Vote change’ in this election to show they want failing Westminster politicians to step up and defend our future.
“We need politicians who will act to stop global energy companies burning our future to make eye watering profits. We need MPs who put the defence of ordinary people ahead of big business. MPs who understand that the climate and cost of living crises are part of the same thing – a system which benefits the rich elites at the expense of the rest of us. MPs who do what is right rather than what is easy. MPs prepared to say what is happening in Gaza is Genocide. If elected I will be such an MP.
“We have one of the highest rates of child poverty in the UK. Our food banks are at their limit. Our mortgages, rent and energy bills are sky high. These problems can be addressed through taxing the super-rich, removing the billions paid to big oil companies each year in tax breaks and subsidies, and a rapid switch to cheap renewable energy.
“I am not prepared to watch while the government plans for millions of people to die and Labour goes along with it. 2023 was the hottest year on record- soon we’ll be having food shortages. What does that mean for Rochdale families? Both Labour and Tory politicians are not being honest about the scale of the crisis and the speed of change we need to avoid disaster. We need to come together and choose life.“
Mark is supported by Rochdale Labour Party’s current joint environment officers, Jane Touil and Pat Sanchez, and his wife Wendy, herself a former Rochdale Labour Party environment officer.
Mark has a long history of making change happen. When a vicar in Liverpool he helped set up a community garden and cafe, and stood for the Green Party in Council elections. In 2019 he joined Christian Climate Action and had his first climate protest arrest. In 2020 he helped set up Extinction Rebellion Rochdale. In 2021, recognising the urgent need for home insulation to reduce dangerous emissions and prevent deaths in cold and damp homes in Rochdale, he took action with Insulate Britain. He was arrested 9 times for sitting on London roads, including the M25.
In 2022, when Just Stop Oil was established, he was arrested for holding a sign that said “Jesus Wept” outside the Kingsbury Oil Terminal in the midlands. He has broken high court injunctions and spent time in prison in Birmingham and London because of what he describes as “putting my body on the line” so that the government “acts to protect the people who elected them instead of increasing the profits of friends in the big oil companies”.
Mark is a member of Green Christian’s Way of Life community.
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Comments on "Green Christian member stands for parliament"
Linda Wickham:
Thank you, Mark, for speaking Truth to Power and for putting yourself on the line. Will be holding you in the Light as you campaign.
Jill:
Thank you Mark For all you have done and continue to do. May the wind be always at your back . . .
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