Progressive churches are singing rewritten Christmas carols to fight climate change

Some progressive churches in Australia are teaming up to fight climate change this Christmas season — and are singing rewritten Christmas carols to get the job done.

Check out the Pitt Street Uniting Church Singers croon new versions of "Joy to the World," "Hark! The Herald Angels Sing," "Silent Night," and others:

The rewritten version of "Joy to the World" they sing in the clip goes like so:

Cool down the world / the time has come / for targets tight and fair
Let petrol, oil, and coal / prepare to go
Let's fund renewables
Let's fund renewables
Let's fund, let's fund renewables

The Pitt Street Uniting Church's website describes the congregation as a "progressive faith community of justice-seeking friends in the heart of Sydney."

"We still sing traditional carols and celebrate Christmas!" says the video description of church singers belting out the new carols. "We also believe that God wants us to care for the earth. 97% of climatologists believe that climate change is real, and that it is in part caused by human activity."

It adds, "Many of the carol tunes have survived for centuries, and they'll survive this playful engagement with them."

Who's behind the rewritten Christmas carols?

The Australian Religious Response to Climate Change put together a songbook called "Carols against Coal" and noted it's "looking for groups of people around the country to sing these well-known tunes and post a video of it online."

Another video featured "people of faith" singing the carols in Brisbane "to remind ourselves, the public and elected leaders of our responsibility to look after our common home, planet Earth. The Very Rev. Dr. Peter Catt, Dean of Brisbane's St. John's Cathedral said that in this climate emergency we must stand up for urgent action against coal and support renewable energy projects especially in Queensland."

The group offered new takes on non-religious Christmas ditties but also chimed in with a rewritten "O Come All Ye Faithful" called "O Come All Ye Miners":

O come all ye miners
Come and dig up Queensland
The Galilee's waiting for your heavy machines ...
We will support the
Front Line demonstration
blocking the building of a railway line

Other notable rewritten Christmas carols in the songbook include "Away in a Coal Mine," "O Come, O Come Renewables," and another version of "Hark! the Herald Angels Sing" called "Hush! Our Solar Panels Sit."