The Sem 3A theme for 2022 is Faith and Religion relating to the present age. In the October series of seminars, we examine The Relationship between Faith and Global Concerns. Tonight’s guest speaker, Rev Dr Brian Phillips, discusses Hope in a time of impending catastrophe.

How to talk about ‘hope’ when things seem to be collapsing all around us: floods, fires, drought, the retreat of glaciers, of sea ice and land-based ice caps all on unprecedented scales? Then add to that: species are disappearing every day – for ever.  Despite International agreements and conferences, we still continue to fail to bend the carbon dioxide emissions curve downwards. There is nothing here to give us hope.

It has been said that without hope we will whither and die. But is that really so? Through an exploration of literature, religious tradition and contemporary experiences, I conclude there is something more fundamental than hope: a foundation from which a hope may arise. What engenders hope and what it is to experience it I will explore in this presentation.

After Brian first graduated in Science from Adelaide University in 1961 he taught science and maths at two Secondary Schools; he then studied theology and was ordained in 1971. He served churches in Adelaide, Derbyshire, Somerset and London in the UK; he was also an Ecumenical Chaplain for the Australian National University, Canberra. His background in Science, prompted him to take an interest from the late 80s in the physical impacts on the climate of the steadily increasing emissions into the atmosphere of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. After retirement he was awarded an MSc in ‘Climate Change and Sustainable Development’ by the De Montfort University, Leicester in the UK in 2010.

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