Pan-Orthodox Concern for Animals

20/08/2026

POCA is committed to ecumenical engagement and as a board member of AIA, this is one of our recent comments-

“With immediate effect, France has stopped processing import permits for hunting trophies of threatened species and committed to a total ban on those imports. The decision comes from the French Prime Minister, Sébastien Lecornu, dated 28 July 2026. On 31 July, Mathieu Lefèvre, the Minister Delegate for Ecological Transition, instructed France’s nature and CITES authorities to apply it at once, across the whole country, without waiting for every last regulation to be rewritten.
The official letter is short and clear. It covers hunting trophies of species listed under EU wildlife trade rules in Annex A, and further threatened species in Annex B (XIII) for which an import permit is already required. Competent services are told not to process those permit applications any longer. Until the full legal text is finished, the orientation is to be applied without delay and uniformly.
That is how serious policy looks when a government means it: one decision, one signature, and the permits stop.”

Why can’t we mean it and do it in the UK?

17/08/2026

Our new website will be up on 1st September - the day the Orthodox have as the Day of Creation, and the first day of the Ecclesial year. Mitch, our wonderfully talented website creator has done a magnificent job. Please share widely as it will have the usual great information and articles, together with a new alliance with David's team at ALaw, where you can listen to podcasts on various aspects of Animal Law. We will also soon include articles/books from scholars on our subject from other faiths, keeping with our ethos of ecumenical engagement - so something for all.

15/08/2026

Google plans to concrete over a 52-hectare wildlife haven in Thurrock to build a hyperscale data centre. The land it wants to destroy hosts roughly 530 invertebrate species and has Local Wildlife Site status.

Arena Essex Raceway is wedged between Lakeside Retail Park and Mar D**e, and is home to hundreds of species of invertebrates, including Brown-banded Carder Bee, Five-banded Weevil-wasp and the Dingy Skipper butterfly.

The data centre is expected to emit more than half a million tonnes of carbon dioxide a year.

Conservation organisation Buglife is central to the campaign against the data centre. It says:

“If it gets the green light, the Google data campus plans would lead to over 80% of this precious Open Mosaic Habitat on Previously Developed Land being lost, including areas of irreplaceable Thames Terrace Grasslands – a unique habitat that Natural England say is now limited to just tens of hectares.”

Buglife points out that Google has received national criticism about its carbon calculations, which have been underestimated fivefold and will be comparable with the emissions of an international airport.

Buglife has been ignored by Google, so it is urging all people who care about wildlife to sign its petition. Tell Google to search for somewhere else for its development!

Sign the petition

  Wedged between the Mar D**e Valley and Lakeside Retail Park, the former Arena Essex Raceway is not your usual wildlife haven. Where once stock cars and speedway bikes lined up to cross the finish line first, the dust has now settled and nature thrives on the former Arena Essex Raceway site. I...

11/08/2026

Russian Church, Fourth Street, Juneau, Alaska.

10/08/2026

Merton College Oxford, especially for our American friends, and some good dear friends at Champers reception before Gala dinner - Leticia from Brazil; Miriam and Philip from UK; Sidney then Susan from USA; Danny and Pastor Sarah from Australia and USA.

09/08/2026

It was wonderful to finally meet Mitch in Vancouver and go through the new website he has created for us. We will launch this on the 1st September, which seemed a fitting date for a site caring for all of God's creation. More news soon. And look who i found on my search for Orthodox Churches and clergy in Alaska - Monks Michael and Herman!

04/08/2026

10/07/2026

An absolute tragedy - another great politician murdered. Ann Widdecombe supported a lot of animal protection measures and we sat and discussed the merits of petitions, in London, not so long ago. One may not have always agreed with her, but she was always to be respected, for she had something to say and she said it, regardless. We do not know who, but we know it was violent. May God have mercy on her soul.

07/07/2026

https://www.rspca.org.uk/summer-appeal/donate?utm_source=Summer_appeal_EM1_30062026&utm_medium=email&utm_content=button1&utm_campaign=Summer_appeal_EM1_30062026&campaigncode=26OGDDDICAIA1

I was a Rehoming Officer for the RSPCA for a few years alongside my day job, and I have sat in the kennels of dogs like this, just holding them gently, and in time, sometimes months, most of them are able to lead a normal life and can be safely rehomed. This is the summer appeal of the RSPCA - so if you can donate, that would be great.
Turn love into rescue
Right now, animal cruelty is at its highest level in five years.* Animals are being beaten and abused in staggering numbers. But cruelty is not the strongest force at work this summer. Love is.
Donate now to turn your love for animals into a life-saving rescue for the next cruelly treated animal.
Donate now
Save animals like Nelson
A black and brown Doberman is being stroked by a person wearing an RSPCA branded top.
Nelson was found in a terrible state. He had suffered multiple fractures and was so frightened he cowered from human contact.
Thanks to kind supporters like you, Nelson received the urgent treatment, expert care and kindness he needed to begin to heal and feel safe again.
Read Nelson's story
How your gift can transform lives:
A woman with brown hair wearing a blue RSPCA-branded jacket is driving in her van in the rain
Rescue now
A gift of just £26 could help RSPCA Animal Rescue Teams reach an animal like Nelson who has suffered unthinkable cruelty and bring them to safety.
Donate £26
A black doberman dog named Nelson looks into the camera. There is discharge around his eyes showing infection
Ease pain
A gift of £42 could help cover the cost of life-saving surgery for an animal like Nelson who has been badly beaten and broken by neglect and abuse this summer.
Donate £42
A black and brown doberman dog lies on the grass wearing a pink collar, resting his front paws over a yellow and black ball toy.
Give hope
Every animal deserves love and kindness. £62 could help give a cruelly treated animal like Nelson the long-term care they need to heal and feel safe again.
Donate £62
*The RSPCA's Wilberforce database. Based on deliberate cruelty incidents reported to the RSPCA, between Jan 2021 and Dec 2025.

Your support makes everything we do possible. From urgent rescues and vital veterinary care to specialist behavioural training, your support helps us reach animals who have been beaten and abused.

03/07/2026

I don't normally post on the animal-based diet per se as i know many of you eat this type of diet, and that is for you to judge, but nowadays I do lecture on its inherent inefficiency/ harm because at this point in our planet's life, it is critical for us to consider the facts, the harms and the teachings on our choices of food and the amount that we eat. I have just returned from the European Academy of Religion conference in Rome where i outlined the various environmental, health, injustice and animal suffering inherent in the animal-based diet and I posed for discussion the question - once we know of the considerable and significant harm that this type of diet does to our air, water, soil, the animals, deforestation, biodiversity loss and even human ill-health, can we really justifiably say today, that it is not a sin to choose this diet? I gave both early and contemporary Orthodox teachings on the subject, starting with the teaching that it is a dispensation on the ideal diet chosen for us in Gen 1:29 - still valid today, and I've taken this quote from my book by H. A. H. Bartholomew as it sets it within the wider environmental discussion:
"Wealthy, industrialized countries have unquestionably contributed most to atmospheric pollution. In our effort, then, to contain and reverse global warming, we must honestly ask ourselves, will we in the West, in more affluent countries, sacrifice our self-indulgence and consumerism? Will we direct our focus away from what we want to what the rest of the world needs? Will we recognize and assume our responsibility to leave a lighter footprint on this planet for them and for the sake of future generations? We must choose to care; otherwise, we do not really care at all."
Here is one of the slides I use which highlights its inherent inefficiency and subsequent contribution to food insecurity. Most of us cannot build wind turbines and the like, but today millions/billions could choose a non-violent plant-based diet, and that would have an equally significant and immediate positive impact on our environment and animal suffering.