An interview with Rachel Calvert, Chair of the Board of A Rocha France
How do you see A Rocha’s role in France in the coming months?
A Rocha’s mission is two-fold:
1. Helping Christians to develop a gospel-centred approach to the ecological crisis. Through work with local churches, theological students and denominational leaders; through writing and speaking; and through collaboration with other Christian organisations. We seek to give Christians the tools we’ll need to live faithfully and to witness winsomely in a context of climate instability, severe biodiversity loss and over-exploitation of the earth’s resources.
2. Practical care for God’s Creation through science and conservation. This happens at our two field centres (in the Vallée des Baux, near Arles, and at Les Courmettes, close to Nice). Our network of ambassadors and local groups also have a role to play in the practical outworking of our theology.
What are your preoccupations and priorities at the moment?
As Chair of the Trustees for A Rocha France, my main job is to ensure that we stay on track in terms of our vision and strategy. I support the National Director in making sure that the staff team has the resources they need. I’m often responsible for representing A Rocha, both within Protestant circles (the National Council of French Evangelicals and the French Protestant Federation) and more widely. It’s also my job to ensure that we honour God in the way we manage our finances and legal responsibilities.
With the general political instability here in France these past few months, climate change and ecological degradation have been less in the headlines. But that doesn’t mean the issues have gone away. In fact, the impact of human sin on the natural world is becoming ever more obvious, threatening human wellbeing and disproportionately affecting the poor and marginalised.
The gospel enables us to reframe the challenges we’re living through. Who are we? What is our place in the universe? Why have things gone wrong? Where are we headed? What is our hope? What should we expect God to do? What is He asking us to do?
How can we pray?
Please pray for ongoing fruit from the 4th Lausanne Congress that took place in Seoul (South Korea) in September 2024. The CNEF (French Evangelical Alliance) has taken inspiration from the vision for mission expressed by the Cape Town Commitment (CTC), a comprehensive document that reflects the proceedings of The Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization in 2010. This is what was stated in the CTC:
“We love the world of God’s creation. This love is not mere sentimental affection for nature (which the Bible nowhere commands), still less is it pantheistic worship of nature (which the Bible expressly forbids). Rather it is the logical outworking of our love for God by caring for what belongs to him [Psalm24.1; Deuteronomy 10.14]. […]
The earth is created, sustained and redeemed by Christ [Colossians1.15-20; Hebrews 1.2-3]. We cannot claim to love God while abusing what belongs to Christ by right of creation, redemption and inheritance. […] For to proclaim the gospel that says ‘Jesus is Lord’ is to proclaim the gospel that includes the earth, since Christ’s Lordship is over all creation. Creation care is thus a gospel issue within the Lordship of Christ.
Such love for God’s creation demands that we repent of our part in the destruction, waste and pollution of the earth’s resources and our collusion in the toxic idolatry of consumerism. Instead, we commit ourselves to urgent and prophetic ecological responsibility.”
