Saying Yes to Life with Ruth Valerio

Ruth Valerio 

Environmentalist and theologian, social activist and author.

I am Global Advocacy and Influencing Director for Tearfund and carry a vision to inspire and equip Christians to a whole-life response to poverty, helping build a movement that brings about lasting change on the issues that impact the poorest and most vulnerable.

I have a particular interest in environmental issues and long to see the culture of the Church change so that caring for God’s earth becomes an integral part of church life, rather than an optional extra. To that end, before Tearfund, I was Churches and Theology Director for A Rocha UK, a Christian charity that works for the protection and restoration of the natural world, and I spearheaded Eco Church, which helps churches do just that. I am the co-founder of the Oikos Network: a global network of peer mentoring groups for Christian environmental leaders from countries across the world.

Academically, I have a theology degree from Cambridge and a doctorate from Kings College London, in which I looked at simplicity and consumerism and particularly at the relationship between Thomas Aquinas’ virtues of temperance and justice. I also hold honorary doctorates from the Universities of Winchester and Chichester and am Canon Theologian at Rochester Cathedral.

I have written extensively on justice, environment and lifestyle issues, particularly from a Christian perspective. See the Publications pages for more information. I enjoy public speaking and am a regular media contributor.

I live in the south of England with my family. We live on a social housing estate and a lot of my adult life has been spent investing into that community, chairing the Community Association and being part of a group of residents who together have transformed the area into a lovely place in which to live.

My Christian faith and spirituality are central to my life, and from this bedrock comes a deep desire to work for social justice, equality and ecological flourishing. My home church is part of the 24/7 Prayer network of churches, but I feel comfortable worshiping and connecting across denominations and church networks.

I do my best to practice what I preach, and over the years we have had a lot of fun as a family experimenting with ways of living as lightly as possible: producing our own meat through a pig cooperative (though not any longer since we have now stopped eating meat at home); growing our own veg and supporting a local organic veg grower; installing solar panels; thinking through how we holiday, switching to an electric car, and moving away from single-use plastic, to name just some of the things we have done. The Green Living pages come out of what we have learnt and I hope you will enjoy exploring those.

We are excited to invite you to our upcoming event, to discuss how we can make a difference in 2024, we want to add our thoughts and actions to the ever change climate debate.