ARRCC is a multi-faith, member-based organisation of people from around Australia who are committed to taking action on climate change. Our members represent a variety of religious traditions. We believe that as people dedicated to the common good, inspired by our beliefs and energized by our spirituality, people of all faiths can and should be at the forefront of creating a safe climate. While celebrating the uniqueness of our different traditions, we stand together in working for an ecologically and socially sustainable future.

ARRCC acknowledges the special place that Aboriginal culture and spirituality have in upholding care for the Earth. We have much to learn from the intimate connection our Aboriginal brothers and sisters have to country.

Organisational structure

ARRCC has both individual and organisational members from across Australia. A list of our organisational members is available on our Members and Supporters page. It is guided by a management committee that is responsible for ARRCC's broad strategic direction and for driving key programs and initiatives (see below). In the second half of 2013, GreenFaith Australia joined ARRCC, as a Victorian-based chapter now known as GreenFaith/ARRCC.

View our Constitution

ARRCC is an association incorporated in NSW, under the Associations Incorporation Act, and an Australian Registered Body, under the Corporations Act. View our Constitution and Statement of Objects (on the right).

Management committee

The Management Committee comprises individual ARRCC members from a range of traditions, to reflect with integrity the multi-faith nature of the organisation. It has had members from the Anglican, Baha’i, Baptist, Buddhist, Catholic, Hindu, Islamic, Jewish, Uniting Church and other traditions, each with a history of active engagement with environmental and/or justice issues. The committee may also include nominated representatives of organisational members, and has a place for one member of GreenFaith Australia's management committee. The Committee may have up to 10 members in total. It meets monthly and is elected at an Annual General Meeting held at the beginning of each year.

The management committee currently includes:

Thea Ormerod

President

Thea is a social worker and a parishioner at Our Lady of Fatima Church, Kingsgrove, and has eleven grandchildren. Prior to starting with ARRCC in 2009, she was actively involved in peace, justice and ecology for over 20 years, with organisations such as AFTINET, Jubilee Australia and Micah Challenge.

Gillian Reffell

Secretary

Gillian Reffell - Gillian is a Buddhist practising with the Triratna Buddhist Community in Sydney and also a grass roots climate change activist. During a career in town planning and environment protection she developed skills primarily in strategic policy and land use planning.

Barbara Kinnane

Dr Barbara Kinnane was elected the ARRCC Treasurer at the AGM held in 2023. Barbara's teaching career in Catholic schools incorporated a study of interfaith dialogue, ecotheology and Pope Francis' encyclical 'Laudato Si'. This inspired her involvement in climate activism (ARRCC) and her doctorate, which is an analysis of Maori spirituality and its intersection with Christianity in the writings of Patricia Grace.

Peter Moore

Fr Peter Moore is an Anglican priest in the Brisbane Diocese. Previously he served in North Queensland, South America and Bathurst. He is on the Anglican Social Responsibilities Committee, Chair of Angligreen, Deputy Chair of Queensland Churches Environment Network (QCEN).

Gawaine Powell Davies

Gawaine Powell Davies is a member of Kookaburra Sangha, President of the NSW Buddhist Council and a teacher in the Insight tradition. His former life as primary health care researcher is gradually fading, and he is now more focused on what we will be bequeathing to future generations.

Meredith Williams

Meredith Williams is an ordained minister in the Uniting Church in Australia, currently serving in a congregation in western Sydney. Meredith is a grass roots environmental activist, and is also trained as a disaster recovery chaplain. Climate justice is her way of life, its message pervades her ministry, and it is never far from her preaching and teaching.

Gerry Fahey

Gerry is a member of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) in Victoria. He is currently a member of the Quakers Australia Earth Witness and Action Network. For the past four years he has been a part of the ARRCC Victoria planning group. He comes to this work via an earth spirituality and the writings of Thomas Berry and others. He lives near Creswick in Victoria, on Dja Dja Wurrung country. Now retired, his working life was mostly in the Education and Community sectors.

A MULTI-FAITH NETWORK
COMMITTED TO ACTION
ON CLIMATE CHANGE

Who We Are

Organisational structure