Dear friends,
Living in the city, ways to connect with nature can sometimes feel harder to come by. As I walk the short but very dense journey through the financial district to St Ethelburga’s in the morning, I often try to keep my eyes and heart on anything that is living. People are rushing and distracted, so I focus on the natural world. Often there is a tree; if not, a patch of grass, and when there is nothing at all alive within my view, I look to the small rectangle of sky.
Opposite St Ethelburga’s there is a beautiful Ginkgo tree. Dwarfed by high-rise office blocks she’s somehow survived for decades where many others have not. Next year, just two metres away, a massive construction project will begin with demolitions, deep excavations, and the construction of a 58-storey office block. Though the aim is to ‘retain’ the Ginkgo, I’m not optimistic about her chances of survival.
Even here in the densest parts of London, we are rarely far from trees–these precious, quiet presences that accompany us through our lives. At night in the city, when the people go home, their aliveness can be almost startling.
On 6th June we’ll be launching the Spiritual Ecology Festival with an Overnight Planting Pilgrimage. Walking through the night, we’ll have the opportunity to honour some of these great trees. The journey will take us through Bethnal Green, King’s Cross, Soho, Waterloo, and crossing the Millennium Bridge at sunrise to end at St Paul’s Cathedral, where we will plant a Dove Tree outside St Ethelburga’s, the sacred Tulsi on the roof of a temple in Soho, and the city’s most ancient tree–the Great Plane at Cheapside and Wood Street near St Paul’s. We’ll journey a 12-hour circle of the city hosted along the way by hidden community gardens and diverse places of worship and will plant a ring of sacred trees by moonlight, sharing food, song, prayer and ceremony.
The Spiritual Ecology Festival will continue on the 14th and 15th of June. Please join us in welcoming an incredible line-up of diverse speakers and workshop practitioners from around the world in an inspiring, nourishing and thought-provoking weekend. We hope to see you there!
Scroll down to explore more of our upcoming events, including the Embodied Peace Workshop, Facilitation Training, and our monthly Contemplative Practice. Don’t miss the captivating Flamenco-funk fusion performance by Jonjan at ‘Listen to the World’.
Tarot Couzyn and the St Ethelburga’s team