All images are public domain and/or used with permission. Clockwise from top left: Mumbi Nkonde, Nelson Mandela, Dionne Gravesande, Martin Luther King Jr., rehena Harilall, Audre Lorde. Centre: Jesse Jackson
Dear Faith for the Climate network,
And just like that, we are more than halfway through October, which is Black History Month in the UK. In honour of this year’s Black History Month theme, ‘Standing Firm in Power and Pride’, we decided to feature an in-depth series of interviews with friends and allies within our network all month long. Through these rich conversations, we learn about their journeys into climate justice and their joys and challenges as racialised people within the wider climate and nature movement.
In case you haven’t been checking our website regularly, I wanted to give you the opportunity to enjoy these wonderful conversations. Last week, we launched the series with our movement builder Rosh Lal’s interview with rehena Harilall, the founder of Buddhists Across Traditions which unites diverse Buddhist paths to promote racial, social, and climate justice. We learn how rehena’s climate justice activism is shaped by her African and Asian heritages, and her journey of healing and peace, shaped by growing up in apartheid South Africa. Read Part One here and Part Two here.
Today, we published Part One of our interview with Dionne Gravesande, who has decades of experience working with churches and national and international non-governmental organisations. She plays a leading role in Christian Aid’s work on global partnerships and ecumenical collaborations in the areas of inequalities, peacebuilding, gender and climate. Dionne sat down with our director Shanon Shah on 3 September to reflect on on how her multifaceted work, personal experiences and faith inform her approach to climate and racial justice. Watch out for Part Two on Thursday 23 October.
Next week we’ll feature Rosh’s interview with Mumbi Nkonde.
While the views shared in these interviews are all the interviewees’ own, these conversations provide invaluable glimpses into the multiple pathways and experiences of climate justice from global majority perspectives. They are a taster of the breadth of faith-inspired wisdom within and beyond our network, which we invite you to dive into and savour.
Watch the recording of our special interfaith Diwali webinar, 15 Oct 2025
Also, happy Diwali and Bandi Chor Divas to all who are celebrating. As part of our celebration of global majority experiences and insights on the intersections of faith and climate justice, we were thrilled to host our special interfaith webinar on Diwali last week. Here’s the recording in case you missed or want to revisit it. We heard from:
- Amandeep Kaur Mann, co-founder of EcoSikh UK
- Sister Maureen Goodman, programme director at the Brahma Kumaris UK
- Natasha Chawla, researcher at the University of Oxford, currently focusing on the ecological philosophy of Rabindranath Tagore
- Dr Sachi Patel, Multifaith Coordinator and Advisor at SOAS and Hindu chaplain at King’s College London
Our speakers also shared brief written reflections about how their faiths inform their understandings of environmental justice, which you can read here.
You’ll hear from me again soon with our November e-news. Thank you for all that you do for people and planet. I’ll leave you with a prayer from the African American abolitionist, activist and mystic, Harriet Tubman: ‘I’m gonna hold steady on You, an’ You’ve gotta see me through.’
Shanon Shah
Director at Faith for the Climate
About Faith for the Climate's monthly e-news
Faith for the Climate exists to encourage, inspire and equip faith communities in their work on climate change. If you have any items you would like to be included in upcoming editions of our newsletter, contact us, find us on Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Subscribe to our e-news here.