4 WELCOME
From your editor …
Bob
EDITORIAL BOARD
Welcome to the theme of Creation Hope ! It was a pleasure to plan this partnership issue with Jo Swinney of A Rocha International , keeping in mind how we can inform and inspire your preaching and ministry in this area . Your congregations will already be engaging with climate change , sustainable living , biodiversity , conservation , plastic waste , supermarket choices ( Fairtrade ? Organic ? Packaging ?). Christians , with the knowledge of an almighty Creator God , have a greater mandate to respond . Engaging with these issues also has potential for us to work across faith and secular organisations and their supporters – we will find others equally passionate about justice for coffee growers or flooded communities in India . So do dig in here to the theology of God ’ s mission for creation ; ideas for practical action ; the wisdom of lives that have learnt to live in hope for God ’ s promise of healing and renewal .
Louisa Lockwood
Editor editor @ lwpt . org . uk
THE WISDOM OF LIVES THAT HAVE LEARNT TO LIVE IN HOPE FOR GOD ’ S PROMISE OF HEALING AND RENEWAL .
I am delighted to join Louisa in welcoming you to this issue of Preach . Creation care has been close to my heart ever since I was a child growing up as the daughter of A Rocha ’ s founders , Peter and Miranda Harris , in the first ever project in Portugal . In June 2020 , I became Head of Communications for A Rocha International – an experience of homecoming , made all the more poignant following the loss of my mother in a road accident in October 2019 . For me personally and in the world at large , there has been an ever increasing need to find credible reasons for hope , not least for the future of our groaning , distressed planet . We are confident you will find those reasons in these pages , and be inspired to preach of God ’ s faithful commitment to all he has made with confidence and conviction .
Jo Swinney
Head of Communications , A Rocha International
Bartindale Officer for Worship and Local Preachers , The Methodist Church methodist . org . uk
Ian Coffey Vice-Principal , Director of Leadership Training at Moorlands College , and Baptist minister moorlands . ac . uk
Ian Buchanan Chief Executive Officer at Leaders of Worship and Preachers Trust lwpt . org . uk
John Griffiths Lay reader in the Church of England , Trustee of the Leaders of Worship and Preachers Trust lwpt . org . uk
Lucy Lewis Membership and Marketing Officer at Preach / Leaders of Worship and Preachers Trust lwpt . org . uk
Tobi Olujinmi @ Tobispeaksout Founder W TALK Network thewtalk . com , preacher , international speaker and producer , Trustee of Christians in Media
Mark Woods Editor at Bible Society and Baptist minister
Issue 26 , Spring 2021 Creation Hope
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Editor Louisa Lockwood
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