Lausanne 4 will run from 22^nd to 28^th September while GCCF is slated to take place from 28^th September to 2^nd October. Please pray for the safety of all our delegates, especially those from many countries who will be representing creation care, in addition to the necessary finance and visa matters.

Pray for Katharine Hayhoe and Ruth Padilla De Borst who will be speaking at a plenary session on the first night of the Lausanne Congress, that the state of God’s world and our calling to care for it might be at the heart of Lausanne’s deliberations.

Pray too for the afternoon sessions on ‘Creation Care & the Vulnerable’ where Jasmine Kwong and Dave Bookless will be ‘Content Specialists’, and for many good informal interactions throughout.

As for our GCCF, please pray for Jasmine, Dave and Ryoung Kim who are the main organisers, working with others to sort out visas, finances, programme, stories to be shared, online access and much more.

• Learn from the past, sharing how LWCCN has grown from the Jamaica Consultation & Call to Action in 2012, through 12 regional conferences until today
• Assess where we are, sharing experiences, stories and progress from around the world
• Plan for the future: seeking God’s guidance as we seek to integrate Creation Care into the life and mission of God’s Church worldwide

If you’re interested in attending please fill in the form here before 30^th April (this doesn’t commit you to attending or paying, but helps us plan).

The GCCF will cost c.$500 (to be confirmed, including all board, accommodation, and conference costs). The forum will be held at Nine Tree Premier Hotel, Myeongdong II. Seoul, South Korea

We’re planning a LWCCN Global Creation Care Forum for 29^th Sept – 2^nd Oct 2024.

It will be in Seoul, South Korea, immediately following the Lausanne 4 Congress.

Plans and costs are still being finalised, but we’re aiming for less than $100 a day for full board and conference costs.

Who is it for? About 5,000 global Christian leaders will already be in South Korea for Lausanne 4, so we want to take the opportunity to gather, consult, pray and plan together. Even if you’re not attending L4, do consider coming and we aim to enable virtual participation as much as possible.

What are the aims? Having completed a global series of regional consultations on Creation Care (2012-2022) following the Jamaica Consultation and Call to Action, we now want to plan for the next ten years of Creation Care work globally. We aim to collaborate between different organisations, encourage younger, indigenous and women’s voices in creation care, listen to each other and to God, and seek to discern ways forward. If we believe ‘creation is waiting for the children of God to be revealed’ (Romans 8:19) then we, the Church, need to show prophetic leadership in an era of climate breakdown and biodiversity collapse.

Save the date … and express your interest: we’ll share booking details as soon as possible. For now, please simply email creationcare@lausanne.org giving your name, email address and country of residence if you are seriously interested in attending. We will let you know when booking is available.

The Lausanne/WEA Creation Care Network is committed to the idea that healing God’s creation is not going to happen because of governments or huge organizations, but because of many thousands of small efforts by Christians in congregations around the world.

One such report has come to us from Katie Young, an American missionary in Marseille, France:

I am just sending along anyway a few photos from the weekend for the creation that we had here in Marseille, France, 8-9 October 2022. I am an American missionary here for the last 30+ years. I am also an ambassador with A Rocha and Eglise verte (Green church). This is the first time we had a weekend like this. Our church just joined the Green church program three years ago. 

Jean-François Mouhot, directeur A Rocha France, spoke to a small group of people on Friday afternoon, then at ‘la Pastorale’ (pastors in our area of the city) Friday night, then on Saturday we heard from our young people’s groupe, Pollen, then planted at our “terrain visa vert”, then came back for a finger food apéro, the conference was after that and our chorus opened it up with 3 songs. Sunday, JF spoke again at Bible classe, had a creation themed worship time, then we even had a vegan pot luck meal. In the afternoon we had ateliers zéro waste toothpaste, face lotions and laundry soap. A lot of people came, and it was awesome to meet other christians from other churches who are interested in caring for the creation. I announced the start of a ‘groupe local A Rocha Marseille’ in January, meaning getting together among Christians concerned for the environment and learning and planning things together. Many were interested. It was a great weekend and we thank the Lord!

Thank you so much for what you do !

Blessings-

Katie Young

Katie sent us a lot of pictures. Here are just a few:

Tell us about your local activities, too!

It’s a question that church and ministry leaders have been asking for years: Is Creation Care important or essential? Is this something all of us need to be involved in, or just a few specialists, with the rest of us cheering them on?

Our friends at Global Connections (UK), Climate Stewards, A Rocha, and All Nations College are providing a day-long online conference to explore this issue. (One of the unexpected benefits of the pandemic – any of us can participate from anywhere!) This event is intended primarily for mission agencies and churches who are supporting missions, but anyone is welcome.

So warm up your computer and prepare to join an amazing line up of speakers (Chris Wright and Rosalee Ewell lead the cast) on 4 February from 10 am to 4 pm UK time (that would be UTC time as well)

Below is the program. More here, along with registration information. (Registration and a modest fee is required to participate.)

Morning speakers (10-12am)

• Rev. Dr. Chris Wright, International Director, Langham Partnership International
• Dr. Rosalee V Ewell, Director of Church Relations for the United Bible Societies
• Seth Appiah-Kubi, Director, A Rocha Ghana
• Sumayya Sajjad, Project Director for Tearfund, Pakistan

Afternoon (2-4pm): case studies, workshops & discussions on topics including

• An in-depth look at eco-theology
• Practical advice on greening your mission agency
• Embedding creation care in policy and practice
• Carbon footprints and what to do about them
• Engaging with the next generation
• Creation care IS mission!
• The EcoChurch toolkit around the world
• Supporting environmental missions – a UK church perspective

Hope to see you there!

From the UK comes this booklet by several friends of LWCCN, COVID-19: Environment, Justice, and the Future. Written by Ruth Valerio (when does she sleep?!?), Martin Hodson, Margo Hodson (yes, they are related), and Timothy Howles. The book covers the origins of the pandemic, environmental impacts of the lockdowns, and how we might begin to build a better, more just and sustainable future. Click here to order (it is available in digital format), or here or here for descriptive commentary.

Dr. Bob Sluka, A Rocha International’s esteemed ocean guy, has a chapter in Undivided Witness on Creation Care. Here’s the blurb:

Undivided Witness presents ten key principles linking community development and the emergence of vibrant communities of Jesus followers among the ‘least reached’. Twelve practitioners explore this uncharted missiological space, drawing on decades of serving and learning among communities in Africa, the Middle East, Europe, and South, Central and Southeast Asia.

Available in Kindle format from Amazon.

Frederic Baudin is a respected pastor, church leader and prolific author in France. This is a translation of one of his recent works, and appears to be a good overview of the topic of creation care. Originally published in 2013, it won’t address Covid-19, but looks to be a solid introduction from an author with extensive experience in Africa, India and Haiti.

Also available in Kindle format.

By now you will have read Ruth Valerio’s superb Saying Yes to Life, which was featured in this year’s Lenten program by the Archbishop of Canterbury. (No, Ruth definitely doesn’t sleep much…) We now find that YouVersion, a popular and easy to use Bible app, has a devotional guide to go along with that book:

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Here’s a link to the Saying Yes to Life devotional guide. Click here to learn more about YouVersion or look for it in your phone’s app store.