I’m a leadership coach and spiritual retreat facilitator. My background is in Catholic mysticism and psychology. I have run retreats on a range of themes, from finding the divine in the margins of life, masculine spirituality, spirituality and personality difference, to the ineffable nature of the divine. Inspired by my liberal Catholic faith I have a deep interest in interfaith dialogue. I believe that no one faith has a monopoly on truth. We can all learn from each other if we meet in a spirit of humble enquiry, hunger for truth and compassion for all life. As Meister Eckhart said:

“Theologians may quarrel but the mystics of the world speak the same language”.

I grew up in a village in rural Wiltshire in the 1960s. Over the course of my life, I have witnessed the tragic destruction of much wild nature across these isles to the point where we have become one of the most nature depleted countries on earth. Living in London now, everywhere I look I see people yearning for that lost connection with nature.

Loss of biodiversity and the existential threat of climate change led me to get involved in climate change activism, Christian Climate Action, XR, Just Stop Oil and the rewilding movement. Both responses, whilst important, I felt weren’t enough. There was a deeper malaise causing humanity’s exploitative and destructive relationship with nature.

The issue was spiritual. The enlightenment, the industrial revolution, our modern way of living has disconnected us from our true place in wild nature. We no longer know, understand nature, or see ourselves as part of mother earth. Nature is an object to be used, exploited, or removed if it gets in the way of what we deem as “progress”.

The key to rewilding the earth, to reversing biodiversity loss and the effects of climate change, is a spiritual challenge. How do we understand, love and treat all nature as sacred, as an expression of the divine. Faith can play a role in this radical change. We need to draw on the depths of our faith traditions: Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism and Judaism to help us learn to re-sacralise the earth. To rejuvenate mother earth, “Gaia”, with a super abundance of life. Soul Rewilding is a small humble first step in that calling.