Finding Hope in Faith-Driven Climate Action

After returning from my summer holiday, I found a thoughtful reflection on our Spring General Assembly in my inbox, sent by one of our members. While the assembly was informative, challenging, and focused on solutions, they felt we had missed something essential.

They felt that, as a Christian network, we should have made hope more visible in our reflections on faith responses to the climate crisis.

This morning, when hope feels even more challenging, I was invited to speak (remotely) at the International Symposium on Innovative Masjid in Solo, Indonesia. The invitation came through EU-CORD involvement in PaRD - International Partnership on Religion and Sustainable Development (partner-religion-development.org), where I co-lead the Water, Climate, and Environment workstream.

It was a chance to highlight the climate journey within the Anglican Church, particularly the commitment to reaching Net Zero by 2030. I shared the great work of A Rocha and their Eco Church Programme, an accessible framework designed to help Christian communities become more eco-friendly—from worship practices to energy use.

My friend, Dinesh Suna, also a PaRD WECARE co-lead, recommended the Walk the Talk Toolkit, a resource to help congregations, communities, and churches walk the talk on ecological justice.  

Listening to reflections from the conference, it was inspiring to hear how the Islamic community is developing eco plans for their places of worship: we have much to learn from each other.

For more on interfaith approaches to climate and environmental justice, this report from the UNEP Faith for Earth Coalition is an excellent place to start: Faith for Earth Coalition | UNEP - UN Environment Programme.

So, on this day, when there is so much tension in the world, I offer this a little glimmer of hope.