This quarterly webinar is part of a series exploring theological and practical aspects of creation care.

Time: 13.00 UTC (14.00 BST) | Date: 23 April 2024

Sign up here!

Maria Ale Andrade V and Clark Buys began by presenting Tearfund’s Abundant Community Theology (ACT). They talked about cultivating an abundant community mindset over that of a scarcity mindset: this prioritizes relationship over individual identity, a shared home over competitive market, generosity over greed, and better distribution over more production solutions.

Prof. Must Dube followed this presentation with a critical reflection on ACT. She highlighted the importance of contextual theology with concern for the communities included and excluded within our conversation. She raised the need for decolonized theology and mentioned that ‘…a spirit of inclusion does not mean a spirit of equality’. She also emphasised the importance of lament with God and God’s creation for ‘…naming oppression, calling for change and justice for earth’. She ended by reminding us that the good news extends to all creation and underscored the transformative nature of salvation.

Dave Bookless offered an overview of creation care theology trends. He first began by highlighting how early creation care theology existed among Desert Fathers, Coptic Christians, Celtic Christians, and even early evangelicals. He discussed how a great reversal took place when a fear of science, liberal theology and ‘social gospel’ concerns emerged. Integral Mission was rediscovered through the aid of theologians such as René Padilla, Samuel Escobar, and John Stott. Currently, we are witnessing a rise of eco-theologies, including liberation theologies, interfaith theologies and post-colonial and indigenous theologies. Finally, he named a few future trends including:

a) rethinking ‘stewardship’
b) questioning ‘anthropocentrism’
c) cultivating theologies of lament, loss and hope
d) exploring intersectionality of ecotheology among other issues like gender, decolonization, and so on.

A link to the recording of this webinar will be shared in the next Pollinator.

Paper: Abundant Community Theology – Buys & Andrade V. (2023). Abundant Community Theology: A Case Study in Decolonial Theological Research. Christian Relief, Development, and Advocacy 5(1), Summer2023.

Video: Tearfund – Enough for All

You are welcome to the launch of Tearfund’s Abundant Community Theology! Celebrate the culmination of an extensive global theology research project on environmental and economic sustainability, explore transformative ideas proposed in Abundant Community Theology, and hear from global thought leaders about the future of creation care theology in this 90-minute Zoom webinar. You might well spot a familiar face in the speaker line-up!

Date: Wednesday, 27 March 2024

Time: 12:30 – 2:00pm UTC

Are you interested and available? Don’t forget to sign up here.

• A Rocha International
• Micah Global
• Renew Our World
• OIKOS
• Lausanne / MACC
• WEA
• Tearfund
• Anglican Alliance / ACEN
• EFICOR

Join us as we prayerfully learn from and look at the year ahead from a Christian ecological perspective.

Are you interested and available? Don’t forget to sign up here .

We welcome you to an upcoming LWCCN webinar to address these questions and more on February 6^th, 2024 at 14.00pm GMT!

In this webinar, we will hear brief reports from major creation care partners around the world and a keynote presentation from Tearfund on the UN Plastics Treaty that is currently being drawn up. Organisations include:

• A Rocha International
• Micah Global
• Renew Our World
• OIKOS
• Lausanne / MACC
• WEA
• Tearfund
• Anglican Alliance / ACEN
• EFICOR

Join us as we prayerfully learn from and look at the year ahead from a Christian ecological perspective. This virtual discussion is open to all!

To register, please sign up here.

We share with you a helpful resource—of bible studies, thoughtful reflections, and a recorded webinar—from our friends at the Anglican Alliance and Green Anglicans. This is part of the Lambeth Call for the Environment and Sustainable Development, published by the Anglican Communion, following 2022’s Lambeth Conference. The call offers a theological basis for why caring for creation is a global mission imperative.

You can find these resources, and more details on this, here. Do check it out, and share it widely!

Are you curious and concerned about the global issue of plastic?

Join the Lausanne / WEA Creation Care network (LWCCN) for a public webinar on this! The webinar is part of a series exploring theological and practical aspects of creation care.

Join the conversation on “Plastics: Blessings or Curse?”

Time: 14.00 UTC | Date: 21 November 2023

Watch this space: https://lausanne.org/gatherings/plastics-blessings-or-curse for more details and registration—which is opening soon!

At this event, we will explore how we can think biblically and hopefully about the future of the earth, with Professor Steven Bouma-Prediger, one of the foremost writers and speakers on creation care theology.

Steven Bouma-Prediger is Professor of Religion and Director of Environmental Studies at Hope College, Michigan. He has written extensively on creation care, including ‘For the Beauty of the Earth’ (2001), ‘Earthkeeping and Character’ (2021) as well as three forthcoming books: ‘Creation Care Discipleship: Why earthkeeping is an essential Christian practice’ (Baker Academic, Oct. 2023), ‘Beyond Homelessness: Christian Faith in a Culture of Displacement’ (with Brian Walsh; Eerdmans, Sept. 2023) and ‘Ecoflourishing and Virtue: Christian Perspectives Across the Disciplines’ (co-edited with Dr. Nathan Carson, Routledge, Dec. 2023).

Professor Bouma-Prediger will speak for 30 minutes on

• how end times theology has been a problem for creation care
• what the Bible teaches about the future of the earth
• how we should respond

Following that, Professor Bouma-Prediger will be joined by several other creation care practitioners and advocates from around the world on panel, addressing questions, and considering ways by which we can change our thinking and practice within our different contexts.

Please register to join us at https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZArdu-tqDooH9f1lzLhqtmE0jA8EMJuel45

The war between Russia and Ukraine has been raging on, and the devastation it has wrought is beyond our imagination. We bring an update and an invitation to hear more on the situation from our friend Steve Michmerhuizen:

“Ukraine has been under invasion since February 2022 and this war has brought a terrible loss of life for many people.  God’s people do not suffer alone when war ravages the land; it is also God’s creation that is destroyed through the devastation.

“On April 25 (Tuesday) you are invited to join a one-hour discussion with Alexander Malov, a Ukrainian living in Kyiv and researcher at the Hodos Institute, to learn from him as he shares about this situation. Alexander is an advocate of Creation Care (also a LWCCNN friend and partner) and has dedicated many hours to this concern in Ukraine and elsewhere. Alexander’s presentation will follow a short introduction and we will finish with time for questions and answers.

“Please share this invitation with your colleagues, friends, and students who would like to join the meeting.”

Use the link below to join the call on April 25, 16:00-17:00 Ukrainian time (3 pm CET, 2 pm UK, 9 am US Eastern Time):

https://crcna.zoom.us/j/81389119246?pwd=M3pjREhKbjlERFhSNzlsd3lHTy9GQT09

Let us join in to hear from our brother.

Photo: Bucha, Ukraine by Mikhail Volkov on Unsplash

Nearly 100 participants from 39 countries attended the global virtual forum “Looking Ahead: Creation Care 2023”which took place on Tuesday, January 24, 2023 on Zoom. The forum was jointly organized by the World Evangelical Alliance Sustainability Center and the Lausanne WEA Creation Care Network and featured 10 speakers from various

countries, representing a rich variety of partners and actors from the global Evangelical Creation Care family. A special surprise was a spontaneous intervention by Vanessa Nakate, the world-famous Ugandan youth climate activist, who shared a scripture-based reflection on climate activism and creation care. (see photo)

The recording of the virtual forum and the slides (in English, French & Spanish) are now available below and on the World Evangelical Alliance Sustainability Center’s website. On the same page, a beautiful shareable compilation of the responses of participants of the pre-event survey to the question: “Many people feel a bit low about the progress on Creation Care. What is one thing that gives you hope?” can be found. (see photos above and below).

Furthermore, over the course of the next weeks, the page will be filled with all mentioned resources, webpages and other information as a service to all participants and as a blessing for the global creation care community.