Peter and Miranda moved to Portugal in 1983 to establish and run A Rocha’s first field study centre. Together with their four children they lived at the centre for twelve years until 1995 when the work was given over to national leadership. They then moved to establish A Rocha France’s first centre near Arles, and lived there until 2010, providing coordination and giving leadership to the rapidly growing global movement. They are now back in the UK from where they work to support the A Rocha family around the world while being closer to their own, and not least their grandchildren. Their story is told in Under the Bright Wings (1993) and Kingfisher’s Fire (2008).
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.
‘Christmas for animals’ may invite thoughts of unwanted puppies. Or unhappy Turkeys, or whatever animal your national Christmas dinner incorporates. But there are much more ancient traditions at work too.
When Moses stood at the burning bush God told him to take off his shoes because the place where he was standing was holy ground. What made it holy was the presence of God. But what if God, being everywhere, makes every place holy?
Once upon a time we believed ‘the sky’s the limit’. Then we discovered ‘space, the final frontier’. Now we reach out ‘to infinity and beyond’. Is there no limit to our ambition? The idea of boundaries has become counter-cultural. It’s why tackling humanity’s footprint never gets to the top of the agendas. We simply don’t want to be told ‘Enough!’
Perhaps you are like the rest of us who find it easier to count our irritations, challenges, annoyances, etc., etc., than count our blessings. Our gratitude muscles have grown flabby through lack of use. What we flabby would-be appreciators need is something to make us truly thankful. What better place to start than where we are and what we are standing upon. Dirt.
Through 2013, we’ve been celebrating A Rocha’s 30th birthday. But, in a world of disappearing habitats and species, just how long-lasting is our conservation work? If we believe God’s New Creation to be a renewal rather than a replacement of this world, will the best of our work remain into eternity?
My mother-in law wears a bikini. She is seventy years old and decades of gravity have done their work. But she wears a bikini nonetheless, with a devil-may-care nonchalance to what others her age are more inclined to cover in sarongs, ruffles and cruise-wear. She’s my hero.
Population, Consumption, Economics: three words that are desperately important for our future on planet Earth. They are linked by one problematic word, ‘Growth’: exploding global population, increasing per capita consumption, and political obsession with economic growth. How much is enough?
The first step toward living lighter—toward really rolling up one’s sleeves and caring for creation—is to get to know one’s own place. Here’s a little quiz to get you started.
A friend was recently on holiday in France and found a local Catholic newspaper with the headline, ‘Is ecology a luxury in this time of crisis?’ At first sight the […]
