I first got involved with a local Eco Church project in 2019, joining the steering group and leading on the communications side of the work. Getting involved with that, in addition to my job with a local countryside charity, led me to sign up for the Christian Rural and Environmental Studies Course (CRES) which is a two year Certificate course covering rural and environmental issues from a Christian viewpoint. The course gave real depth to my understanding of environmental theology as well as guiding me through some of the science. The essays allowed me to explore some of my own interests and subjects I wrote about included how local churches can help reconnect people to where their food comes from and how it is produced, the role for the church in the local planning system, and theology’s role in recovering our relationship with nature. My dissertation tackled the right to roam debate, asking what a Christian perspective might look like.
Ways I can help you
Alongside the course I developed a real interest in how churches were communicating their journeys with A Rocha UK’s Eco Church scheme or with denominational initiatives on net zero, as well as wider faith based campaigning and education on environmental issues. This has become one of my communication specialisms and my work helps churches build confidence in sharing what they are doing and why they are doing it, both within and beyond the walls of the church. This can range from advice on practical projects like developing a newsletter or integrating the environment into social media content, to help with an overarching environmental communications content strategy or local environmental campaigning.
A selection of my writing on churches and environmental communication
- My most recent article is Telling a better climate story. It unpacks the excellent research in the Britain Talks Climate and Nature 2025 report from Climate Outreach and explores how it might be used by churches and other Christian groups.
- There’s an Eco Church related case study in my blog post Which communications statistics should I be measuring?
- In my post Sharing your church’s environmental story, I help answer the how and why of sharing an environmental journey with church members and the local community.
- Anyone wishing to explore this subject from a more mission planning focused perspective might find my JRI briefing paper Mission planning in post-Covid urban communities useful. One of the areas it covers is understanding the priorities of the community when it comes to the environment, including access to green space and care for local surroundings, and how this can feed into mission planning.
Please get in touch if you would like to discuss a church or faith based environmental communication project.
Shelly Dennison 
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