Are you keen to join in fellow Christians in praying for the environmental crisis?

Do you desire to encourage others and be encouraged on this journey?

If you answered yes to the above, let us introduce the Oikos Network!

The Oikos Network is a collaboration with Tearfund, A Rocha, Renew Our World, the Anglican Alliance, and the Lausanne/World Evangelical Alliance Creation Care Network. Oikos seeks to connect people from around the world who are involved in mobilising their churches and communities to take action on environmental care.

Dave Bookless has this to commend:

‘I’ve been a leader/catalyst for one of the Oikos groups, with participants from UK, Canada, Pakistan, Switzerland, Uganda and Kenya, and it has been a rich and deep time of sharing. I’d recommend it to anyone involved in creation care.’

Would you like to participate in Oikos? Each year, they hold a series of six meetings for a ‘cohort’ over the course of one month along with joint events for all those involved. For more details see the poster below, or sign up for a small group here: www.oikos-network.org/joinagroup

We have reported periodically on the Oikos Network – a partnership initiative to provide creation care leaders around the world with mentor- and peer-support.

We are told that after a small pilot project last year, the 2022 cohorts have launched with 45 participants in 9 groups. Twenty-three countries are represented: Nigeria, Sri Lanka, Canada, US, Australia, Pakistan, Kenya, Uganda, Switzerland, Laos, Zambia, Egypt, India, Thailand, Nepal, Argentina, Malawi, Germany, and Nederland.

Oikos is the result of a partnership between A Rocha, the Anglican Alliance, LWCCN, the Renew Our World Campaign and is hosted by Tearfund.

Here is a description of the program:

The Oikos Network is a space to build friendships with like-minded people from across the globe through online peer-support groups and events.

Together, you can voice your frustrations, celebrate your successes and learn how to effectively influence the church and your wider community in the vital area of whole creation care.

How it works

Once you sign up to join an online group, you’ll be matched with four other people from different countries. The Oikos Network will provide a facilitator for the group and resources to guide your discussions.

You’ll need to commit to meeting once a month for six months for one and a half hours each time. It’s completely free to take part, but you will need to have a good internet connection.

At the end of the six months, you can choose to continue meeting with your group or leave at that point.

The groups are run twice a year from September and May.

Registration is now open for groups starting in May 2023.

For more information, check this page. (Note that the registration form does not appear to be working, but we’re sure they’ll get that fixed soon enough!)

Last month we announced the launch of Oikos, a program designed to provide facilitated peer-group learning, support and encouragement for creation care leaders around the world. Here at The Pollinator we’re encouraged (dare we say proud?) that more than 40 of our readers responded to that announcement. Good to know you guys read the newsletter!

Today we’re letting you know that the Oikos website is live. Click here to check it out, and to put your own name in if you haven’t done so already. The program will launch in just a few weeks with a plenary session for those who have been accepted.

We are very excited about this program, and as it has come from the ever-creative Ruth Valerio, we asked her to send us a few words about The Oikos Network*. Here’s Ruth:

I’m delighted to let you know about a new initiative with A Rocha International, Tearfund and the Lausanne Creation Care Network. The Oikos Network is being set up to provide facilitated peer-group learning, support and encouragement for key individuals who are engaging churches in the crucial area of environmental care.

There are Christians around the world (including you reading this!) who are passionate about environmental care and active in engaging their churches, denominations and networks. But it can be a lonely and hard calling. So the Oikos Network will be a space to find support and build relationships with like-minded individuals from across the globe through online peer-support groups and events. It will be a place for you to voice your frustrations, celebrate your successes and learn together how to reach effectively into the Church in this area of whole creation care.

We have started with a six-month pilot to test and learn before launching it fully next year. That pilot has just started – three groups with ten people participating and three facilitators, with people from the Philippines, Ukraine, US, Malawi, UK, DRC, Thailand and elsewhere. The feedback from the groups so far has been so encouraging, with people expressing what a blessing it is for them to be on this journey together.

If you would like to know more – either you’d be interested in participating yourself or you would like to let others know about it – please do email oikos-network@tearfund.org and we will be in touch. Thank you.

Here’s to serving the church in our calling to be taking care of the whole creation!

Ruth
Global Advocacy and Influencing Director, Tearfund

*Here’s a tidbit Ruth doesn’t mention: Did you know that the word oikos (NT Greek οίκος) means home, household, or family and is the root behind words like ecology and economy? Look it up!