Jo Swinney is a writer, speaker and editor. She joined A Rocha International as Head of Communications on June 1st, 2020.
This is the first in a new series of blog posts from around the A Rocha family exploring how someone first found a home with A Rocha, their memories of hospitality here, and how this changed how they know God. Jo Swinney is Director of Communications and has co written a book with her mother, […]
What do you think are the top environmental problems? Biodiversity loss? Pollution? Land use changes? It’s likely you could write a long list, but I don’t know how many items would make it to your list before you wrote down ‘pride’, ‘injustice’ and ‘greed’ – all of which appear to feature as environmental problems in […]
Is a despairing Christian an oxymoron? I’ve been thinking about this question a lot of late. It presented itself to me – not for the first time, but certainly with renewed urgency – in the wake of COP26 in November 2021. I had spent much of the year campaigning with Young Christian Climate Network around […]
Two weeks ago, tropical storm Megi hit the Philippines, killing 42 people, and causing 17,000 people to flee. As Rodel Lasco says, ‘climate risks and climate hazards are an everyday part of daily life’. Rodel has lived in the Philippines, south of Manila, all his life, and has spent the last 40 years as […]
Since becoming ordained in the Church of England, I have become acutely aware of the need to offer a theologically robust and uniquely Christian approach to tackle the climate crisis. It concerns me, therefore, how much emphasis has been placed on the concept of ’stewardship’ to construct a biblical environmental ethic. According to R.J. Berry, […]
Have you ever wondered what wonder is? In the wake of much that is going on in the world, here is an invitation to pause and consider the created order through the eyes of the Psalmist in Psalm 104. Now this very rich and lush psalm is oozing with themes and elements that can be […]
Those of us with inquisitive children in our lives face a bombardment of tricky questions around Christmas time, from ‘Is Santa Claus real?’ to how exactly God and Mary made a baby together, and did the baby Jesus actually “no crying make” (as the carol Away in a Manger says)? Some of these questions make us pause as we navigate exactly what answer we wish to give our inquisitor.
It is sobering to read in the IPCC report that we may reach 1.5°C temperature rise in ten years and, however fast we move to Net Zero carbon emissions, some changes, including melting ice caps and rising sea levels, will continue for thousands of years. So, how do we react, as Christians who believe God cares about creation?
As a child growing up in church, I heard and read these words by Jesus countless times. God’s kingdom is ‘here’, it’s ‘close’, it’s ‘coming’. Yet, little did I know just how close that kingdom of God really is! Or that I would discover it in truly unexpected ways …
In this instance of the Jerdon’s Courser, what should we prioritize? Saving this endangered species? Or prioritizing human lives? It isn’t unusual in conservation to face difficult choices and it isn’t always possible to find win-win solutions.
