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Chris has a BSc and PhD in geology and has worked as a consultant geologist for oil companies and as a university and college lecturer. He has however always been very much involved in environmental issues. He spent a total of eight years in Lebanon (1980–84, 1994–96) and during the second period was in part responsible for founding A Rocha Lebanon. He and his wife Alison now live in southern France midway between the two A Rocha France centres. Chris is on the Board of Trustees of A Rocha France and takes part in teaching weeks at Courmettes and in leading a popular natural history tour of the estate. In such spare time as he has, he likes to write both fiction and popular theology and has written a number of books with J. John, most recently Jesus Christ: The Truth.

5th November 2019 | Chris Walley | 1 comments

A bad week and good memories

It was going to be a good week. But it wasn’t. We were beginning to enjoy our new house and also had our younger son and his family visiting. Then midday Tuesday, the warm Provençal sun spilling over us, we received the appalling news that a terrible car accident in South Africa had taken the lives of our old A Rocha friends Chris and Susanna Naylor and with them Miranda Harris, leaving her husband Peter recovering in hospital.

Categories: Stories
Tags: grief Lebanon loss wetlands
14th September 2017 | Robert Sluka | 4 comments

Waiting for Hurricane Irma

Our family has been living abroad for the past 21 years and relocated to Florida – the week before Hurricane Irma hit. In a way, bad timing. However, it was good to go through this experience living with family.

Categories: Stories
Tags: storms USA
15th November 2015 | Leah Kostamo | 0 comments

The long-haul goodness of community

‘So, how’s the commune?’, the man asks. I answer, ‘It’s great, but it’s not a commune. It’s a community.’ He laughs. ‘Can’t fool me. Lots of people. Organic gardens. Shared living spaces. Sauna. You’re a commune.’ We’re not! I want to protest. And then I wonder, Why am I feeling so defensive?

Categories: Stories
Tags: agriculture Canada community
9th December 2013 | Peter Harris | 3 comments

Slavish arguments

I have just returned from visiting the remarkable A Rocha Ghana team, and they took us to two world-famous and entirely different sites in one afternoon: the Kakum Forest with its canopy walkway, and the slaving fort at nearby Cape Coast.

Categories: Stories
Tags: Ghana mining slavery