Are you passionate about God’s earth, involved with Eco Church, or a landowner concerned about faith and the environment? In an invitation to take the CRES course, this was the question posed by A Rocha. I fitted all three criteria and signed up. I am no academic – it had been fifty years since I sat my last exam – so I was apprehensive. I need not have worried.
I cannot write in theological language but my efforts were not spurned on that account. Nor was my personal experience ruled out of order. My tutor encouraged me hugely, always supportive but offering constructive criticism when needed (often). I even learnt how to reference sources in essays.
I commend the course to anyone who wants to learn more of God’s will in relation to the rural environment and put it into practice; to anyone who wants to stretch themselves enjoyably. The course material and my tutor guided me towards all sorts of reading matter which I would not otherwise have stumbled on. I hope and believe that, as a result of taking the course, I am better able to farm ecologically and to tell others about the reasons for caring for God’s creation. Huge thanks to Martin and Margot Hodson, to my tutor Godfrey Armitage and to the other students I met along the way.