On the weekend of September 16-17, 2006, the A Rocha Aotearoa New Zealand initiative committee met for the first time to pray, brainstorm and seek a vision for an A Rocha Aotearoa New Zealand project. A Rocha is a Christian nature conservation organisation that is working to show God’s love for all creation, and now operates projects in 16 countries across 5 continents (see www.arocha.org for details).

The NZ initiative committee, a group of 12 scientists, theologians, business people and educators, is working to adapt the A Rocha vision to our own local context. During the weekend we discussed the needs and opportunities for an A Rocha project in NZ, and identified several goals that will provide the focus for our activities. Among them were:

1) to encourage and resource the Church in NZ to adopt creation-care and ecological thinking as a biblical, essential and integral part of the Christian message.

2) to become actively engaged in one or more environmental restoration projects based on sound scientific research.

3) to help a wide range of people re-connect with God’s creation.

4) To establish (an) A Rocha NZ field centre(s) as a place where people from all walks of life can contribute to relevant research, education, and conservation projects, while living in a Christian community where sustainable living is fundamental.

5) to develop our vision, guiding kaupapa and all activities in true partnership with Tangata Whenua.

6) to develop co-operative networks with a range of educational institutions and conservation organisations.

We also planned our first activity to raise awareness of A Rocha and the need to care for God’s creation at Parachute, the big summer Christian music festival. If you would like to make a donation to cover the cost of our display, please This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it to send an email to Richard Storey

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