The 2020 Micah Lecture is now available to watch online by following this link.
Presented by Dr. Ruth Valerio, this year’s Micah lecture was titled ‘Saying Yes to Life’ and followed the themes of Dr. Ruth’s book Saying Yes to Life which was commissioned as the Archbishop of Canterbury’s Lent book for 2020.
In an earlier interview, Dr. Ruth said of the lecture: “I’m wanting to inspire in people a fresh understanding of God... We tend to focus on God as Saviour and miss the enormity of what it means for God to be Creator, and we lose something without the other.”
You can read the full interview here.
Copies of Dr. Ruth Valerio’s book are available for a discounted price of £7.99 and can be ordered from Liverpool Cathedral bookshop. linkneeded but error on page
Dr. Ruth’s lecture focused on issues of environment, social justice and social poverty. She explored three main themes: God, the world, and us; the significance of God as both Creator and Saviour and the Genesis account of Creation in its Mesopotamian context.
“We live in a wonderful world but we also live in a wounded world...”
In her lecture, Dr. Ruth reflected on a “wonderful but wounded world” that has seen damage inflicted through climate change, plastic pollution, deforestation, the extinction of species and many other issues. Many of which have been highlighted to us through the COVID-19 pandemic such as the benefits of a reduction in air and noise pollution.
Dr. Ruth spoke of the significance both of our intimate relationship with God and Creation, and our role as human beings to be image-bearers and ambassadors of God for our neighbours and the wider natural world.
Dr. Ruth explained the value and importance of living in ways that don’t damage the natural wider world. Instead, living in ways that value other people and that take care of them; and of looking after the needs of our neighbours.
As churches, and as a Diocese, Dr. Ruth encouraged us to respond as Christians by speaking out about our broken relationship with the wider natural world, and spoke about the huge benefits of signing up to the Eco-Church scheme.
You can read about the current work of Eco-Church and find out how to get involved by reading their latest update here.