Dear friends,
As many of you will know, over the last two weekends we hosted our first Spiritual Ecology Festival and Planting Pilgrimage.
We launched the festival the Friday before, with 40 brave participants walking their way towards the festival with an Overnight Planting Pilgrimage. Through a long and magical night, we wove together a circle of diverse faith sites and hidden community gardens in central London. At each stop, we planted a tree or bush and had prayer, ceremony, song, food, and fire. We planted hawthorn, hebe, cherry, rose, mulberry, spindle, and a large dove tree. We experienced an interfaith ceremony at St Ethelburga's, singing at St Matthew's, meditation at the London Buddhist Centre, prayer at the rooftop garden of the Aga Khan Centre, fire at the Calthorpe Community Garden in Holborn, a dawn blessing from a blackbird at the Phoenix Garden, breakfast and meditation at the Brahma Kumaris Centre in Soho, and poetry in the early morning drizzle on the Millennium Bridge. We walked in empty streets, through parks, in silence along a long stretch of canal, and for the very tired hours, we had 14 rickshaws to help us along! We ended in the early hours alone in St Paul's - with song from the cool floor of the cathedral, lying back to look at the creation mosaics on the domed ceiling above. Here's a short clip from one of our pilgrims.
The following weekend was a deep dive into spiritual ecology as expressed in diverse faiths, cultures, and viewpoints, and a nourishing gathering of community. Speakers, workshop leaders, artists, musicians, writers, activists, visionaries, and spiritual leaders gathered from around the world for two immersive days, in a moment of community in dark times.
You'll be able to see much of the programme content on our YouTube Channel in the coming weeks, so do keep an eye on upcoming videos. In the meantime, you can get a glimpse of the festival here.
Scroll down to explore more of our upcoming events, including the Embodied Peace Workshop, our monthly Contemplative Practice. Don’t miss Mahakaal: A Celebration of Shiva and Shakti, and Germa Adan at Listen to the World. Join us for Bringing Ocean Voices into the Heart of London with Eleanor O’Hanlon, and Memory, Consciousness & Faith, exploring the links between science, faith, and memory with Rupert Sheldrake and Rowan Williams.
With warmest wishes,
Tarot Couzyn and the St Ethelburga's team