Dr Christina Nellist has a PhD in Eastern Orthodox Theology and specializes in animal suffering and human soteriology. She is a Fellow of the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics; President and Treasurer of Pan Orthodox Concern for Animals Charity; Board member of the Animal Interfaith Alliance UK; Board member of The Orthodox Fellowship of the Transfiguration in the USA, and Honorary Associate Life Member of the Progressive Veterinary Association.
She wrote the first Orthodox theological work on animal suffering – Eastern Orthodoxy and Animal Suffering Eastern Orthodox Christianity and Animal Suffering: Ancient Voices in Modern Theology. She organized the first session relating to the animal kingdom at the first international conference of the International Orthodox Theological Association and was invited to speak on behalf of the animal kingdom at the Halki 111 Summit in 2019, and to the Ecumenical Patriarch’s residence on Halki in 2022, where she argued the case for including creation care into Orthodox seminaries and academic education programmes.
She was a consultant on the recent Face of Godfilm – an Orthodox film on the climate crisis and has edited two volumes entitled Climate Crisis and Creation Care: Historical Perspectives, Ecological Integrity and Justice; Climate Crisis and Sustainable Creaturely Care: Integrated Theology, Governance and Justice, both published just before COP 26, 2021. She is a former teacher and coordinator for Science for L.B. of Havering, and the London Examination Board and has worked with the governments of Chile, and the Seychelles on animal protection and public health education. She was the British government’s Warden for the islands of the Seychelles where she established the Orthodox Christian Community and the SPCA; wrote the first special education programme for children with learning difficulties and trained/sponsored government/NGO officials on the link between animal abuse and interpersonal violence.