WCC FEATURE: Kerala clergyman takes children into Creation to teach biodiversity

On a school morning in Punnakkadu, Kerala, children learned a lesson no textbook could teach. Guided by their local church manager, Rev. Varkey Thomas, students at CMS Punnakkadu walked slowly across their campus—observing, touching, wondering at the mango saplings, jackfruit trees, and tiny pollinators that sustain life around them. Photo: Church of South India 20 January 2026 This biodiversity camp offers something other parishes need: a way to teach children that loving creation and understanding it is the foundation of a sustainable future. Thomas, manager of the Church of South India school at Punnakkadu in Pathanamthitta district, made an unusual choice. He would teach biodiversity not through preaching, but through experience. His initiative comes as the World Council of Churches observes the Ecumenical Decade of Climate Justice Action (2025–2035), with Climate and Biodiversity designated as the theme for 2026. "A child who learns to respect a tree today will not destroy a forest tomorrow," said Thomas. The school campus became a living classroom. Children moved plant to plant, learning to identify mango saplings and jackfruit trees. They discovered the insects essential to pollination. Bees, butterflies, and other pollinators, they learned, are not "small" creatures. They are essential partners in the web of life. "Many students today score high marks in examinations," Thomas said, "but cannot identify a mango leaf or recognize the pollinators that keep farms fruitful. This is not only an environmental concern. It is a spiritual crisis of forgetting." Thomas highlights that for Christians, biodiversity is a deeply spiritual truth. The Bible begins with a God who creates a world full of diversity - different species, ecosystems, colours, sounds, rhythms - each with intrinsic value and purpose. Yet many children grow disconnected from this living world. They cannot recognize the creatures and plants that sustain life around them. The children's response revealed the camp's success. They collected leaves, compared shapes, identified plants, named what they had never noticed before. Many said it was the most enjoyable "class" they had ever attended. "If we truly want to respond to the climate crisis, we must restore love and familiarity with the living world," Thomas said. "Ecological education does not require expensive equipment or complicated projects. What it needs is commitment, creativity, and a pastoral heart that listens to the groaning of creation." In 2026, the Ecumenical Decade of Climate Justice Action’s thematic year on Climate and Biodiversity will call on faith communities to act. This clergy-led initiative offers a practical model for parishes and schools worldwide. Thomas has shown that vicars can teach through creation itself, making faith visible in the living relationships between plants, pollinators, and people. Learn more about the Ecumenical Decade of Climate Justice Action See more

The World Council of Churches promotes Christian unity in faith, witness and service for a just and peaceful world. An ecumenical fellowship of churches founded in 1948, today the WCC brings together 356 Protestant, Orthodox, Anglican and other churches representing more than 580 million Christians in over 120 countries, and works cooperatively with the Roman Catholic Church. The WCC general secretary is Rev. Prof. Dr Jerry Pillay from the Uniting Presbyterian Church in Southern Africa.  Media contact: +41 79 507 6363; www.oikoumene.org/press Our visiting address is: World Council of Churches Chemin du Pommier 42 Kyoto Building Le Grand-Saconnex CH-1218 Switzerland