Tearfund's Global Advocacy and Influencing Director, Ruth Valerio, has been awarded an Honorary Doctor of Divinity at The University of Chichester.
Dr Valerio has spent all of her career focusing on social justice, environmental and lifestyle issues and is a sought after speaker and author of the best selling 'L is for Lifestyle: Christian living that doesn't cost the earth', and 'Just Living: Faith and community in an age of consumerism'.
She “is determined to live in such a way that the planet is not further damaged, and poor and vulnerable people are not further punished,” said Professor Graeme Smith, the head of the university’s theology department.
Before joining the international relief and development charity Tearfund Dr Valerio worked as Churches and Theology Director for ‘A Rocha UK’, a Christian charity that works for the protection and restoration of the natural world.
She said: “This is a significant day in my life and I’m delighted to be honoured in this way.”
“We all have a calling to make sure we are part of the solution to climate change and that is about remembering we are not living for ourselves, but are part of a wider body of humanity and the natural world.”
Awarding the doctorate Professor Graeme Smith added: “Ruth is someone who, in our technological and consumerist society, is determined to live in such a way that the planet is not further damaged, and poor and vulnerable people are not further punished.
“And she does this not by extreme measures, but by living an ordinary life, like yours or mine, in an extraordinary manner.”
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Notes to editor
Images are attached.
- Pic 1: Dr Ruth Valerio (Credit: William Northam)
- Pic2: Professor Jane Longmore, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Chichester, Dr Ruth Valerio and Professor Graeme Smith, Head of Department of Theology, Philosophy, and Religious Studies. (Credit: William Northam)
- For more information or to arrange an interview, please contact Tearfund’s media team: Antony Bushfield, 07929335146 / 020 3906 3131 or [email protected] Out of hours, please contact: 07710 573749
- Tearfund is a Christian relief and development agency and a member of the Disasters Emergency Committee www.tearfund.org
