Christian-Muslim Dialogues on Ecology
Cambridge Muslim College with Oxford's Laudato Si' Research Institute
A formation course bringing the two traditions' ecotheologies into one room, hosted at Cambridge Muslim College.
Christian-Muslim Dialogues on Ecology is a formation course run by the Laudato Si' Research Institute at Campion Hall, University of Oxford, and hosted in person at Cambridge Muslim College. It grew out of the Institute's research project on Christian-Muslim dialogue on integral ecology, which began from a plain observation: care for the poor and care for the earth are central to both traditions, each has been developing its own ecotheology from its own sources, and yet dialogue between them remains scarce.
The course ran twice in May 2026: four evening sessions online, then a two-day residential at the College on 30 and 31 May, with an interfaith prayer service on the Sunday. It is dialogical by design, short inputs followed by seminar discussion, in four parts: theological foundations; breaking and reconciling; educating for ecological justice; and witnessing in the public sphere. The set texts pair the Islamic covenant Al-Mizan with the encyclical Laudato Si', alongside the open-access volume On the Care and Balance of Our Common Home.
- In-person course at Cambridge Muslim College, Saturday 30 to Sunday 31 May 2026, with an interfaith prayer service on the Sunday; fee £75 including meals. source
- Online course of four evening sessions, 11 to 14 May 2026, for those training for or in ministry, civil-society workers and students. source
- Led by Farhana Mayer, Research Affiliate of the Laudato Si' Research Institute and a scholar of Qur'anic hermeneutics, author of An Introduction to Qur'anic Ecology and Resonances with Laudato Si'. source
- Four parts: Theological Foundations; Breaking and Reconciling; Educating for Ecological Justice; Witnessing in the Public Sphere. Set texts include Al-Mizan, Laudato Si' and On the Care and Balance of Our Common Home. source
- Part of the Institute's project Christian-Muslim Dialogue on Integral Ecology, funded by the MB Reckitt Trust and run with Humboldt University of Berlin's Religious Communities and Sustainable Development programme. source
- The dialogue's book, On the Care and Balance of Our Common Home: Christian-Muslim Dialogues, is published open access, its chapters released as working papers through Georgetown's Berkley Center in 2026. source
“This two-day formation course aims at equipping Muslim and Christian communities with the intellectual and theological resources to learn from each other and respond together to today's ecological and political challenges.”
“Organised in collaboration with the Laudato Si' Research Institute at Campion Hall, University of Oxford, the course examines how shared commitments within Islam and Christianity can inform meaningful responses to the ecological crisis.”
Farhana Mayer, who leads this course, teaches on Canopy's GreenDeen imam training, as does Abdal Hakim Murad, the founder of Cambridge Muslim College. Its method, scholarship first and then a room where people from different traditions plan together, is the one GreenDeen's imam training follows, and its reading list is the one GreenDeen draws on.
See GreenDeen
Farhana MayerCourse leader; Research Affiliate, Laudato Si' Research Institute
- The course at Cambridge Muslim College
- The project at the Laudato Si' Research Institute
- Session recordings, part 1 (YouTube)
- An Introduction to Qur'anic Ecology (PDF)
Photographs: Cambridge Muslim College and the Laudato Si' Research Institute, Campion Hall, University of Oxford.