moving from intention to action
Hope4Creation (‘H4C’) exists to enable faith communities to move from environmental intention to sustained action. We know the environmental crisis can feel overwhelming and detached from our own places and practices of worship. We know it can be difficult to find the hope and motivation needed to turn concern into real-life practices.
Hope4Creation designs and delivers conferences, workshops and retreats related to sustainability and creation care for faith communities. We help groups work together to find ways to integrate their values and beliefs into the collective life of their faith communities. We want to make meaningful action, which is authentic to every tradition and context, accessible to all people of faith.
Inspiring eco-actions in faith communities
H4C’s unique approach is to combine Celtic Spirituality with the neuroscience of behavioural change. Based on Eco-theology research by the Founder, Rev’d Bannister-Parker, for her doctorate at Boston University School of Theology, and the work and insights of the Climate Action Unit of University College London, H4C’s courses help to unlock fear and inertia to help individuals, congregations and faith groups to embrace eco-action and embed it in their worship. H4C will also have both an inter-faith and international platform. It will conduct workshops for Christian groups as well as the other Abrahamic faiths and will have a board of international advisors with representatives from India, South Africa and Peru.
Why we are hopeful?
Hope is an important word. H4C’s work focuses on identifying and mobilising action, and on connecting people to what they already know and love in their own community contexts. We use academic research into behavioural change from a variety of university departments that shows how taking action generates a sense of hope, which in turn leads to further action. We are clear that hope is not a level of optimism or an emotion, but a choice we make in how we live and what we do, rooted in our faith.
What’s happening at Hope4Creation now?
Hope4Creation is still at the beginning of its journey, but it has been a busy few months with several successful courses and workshops run. Here are some of the latest updates:
H4C is on its way to becoming a charity! We are in the process of formally registering with the Charities Commission, and hope to be able to launch officially in the autumn.
We have already developed and delivered several workshops and courses, including the Inspire Hope4Creation workshop in September 2021 with University College London, a four-day interfaith workshop (God, Creation and Us) in Oxford in March 2022, and a day-long workshop in May. The workshops were extremely well-received, and participants testified to the encouragement and inspiration they had gained from them.
We are delighted that Mpho Tutu Van Furth and Esther de Waal have agreed to become H4C patrons. Mpho is a renowned priest, activist and author of several books, including Made for Goodness (2012), co-authored with her father, Desmond Tutu. Esther is well-known as a spiritual guide rooted in the Benedictine and Celtic traditions; her many books include Seeking God (1999) and The White Stone: The Art of Letting Go (2021).
In the next year, we aim to:
Run a series of pilot workshops for churches and other faith communities in 2022.
Develop an action platform to disseminate hopeful solution stories about the climate change – both local, national and international.
Create a facilitator course to support those who have attended a H4C workshops and wish to host one themselves.
Network with other organisations linking with our work and promoting theirs: e.g. the Diocese of Oxford, the John Ray Institute, EarthWatch, Climate Outreach, the Children’s Radio Foundation, the Laudato Si’ Institute and the A Rocha Eco-Award Scheme.
Produce a monthly podcast of good news stories related to positive and effective eco-actions.
Create an app to help individuals and organisations to identify eco-mentors to help them on their transformational change.
“The way of sorrow and repentance and reparation is not to be undertaken alone. Here is support so that this journey back to God, this metanoia of turning and retuning, becomes the way to freedom and fullness of life.”