Dear Friends,
As the calendar year comes to a close and winter starts to settle in, our spiritual ecology programme Lifelines, which brings people together across differences to plant hedgerows on UK farmland, is just getting going for the season. In the two years since Lifelines started, winter has become different for me. Instead of a time to get cosy inside, now it is the season of treeplanting. My weekends are spent outdoors, days of cold blue skies and white-tipped fields, of bracing wind and laughter, of soft drizzle and foggy mornings, with the intricate lines of winter branches etched across the landscape. They’re filled with night walks, quiet lines of people out in the dark listening to the sound of a screech owl and the rustle of dark trees. Groups of people gathering together in wellies and waterproofs, forming bonds over the unifying intention of giving to the earth. And the company of young trees—thousands upon thousands of hawthorn, hazel, blackthorn, wild rose, dogwood, guelder rose, spindle, field maple, oak, willow, and rowan—all now familiar friends, as they are pressed into the soil with hundreds of devoted hands, prayer, and song.
It has changed me, this act of planting trees in community. A hope for the future has crept in, unnoticed at first—through the repetitive digging of holes, planting of trees in the soil, tucking them into their protective wraps. In the first season, I was panicked that they wouldn’t live, and even after two years of seeing our hedgerows flourish, it’s still a miracle to me that they will reach out their roots and find what they need in the sticky clay, or the hard icy earth, or the sodden waterlogged mud, or even in the flinty holes where it seems that nothing could grow. They grow. This weekend we planted our 30,000th tree. We were an all-women group of diverse faiths, with many mother and daughter pairs. There was a palpable sense of deepening relationships as we worked together in this act of profound creativity with the Earth. And a feeling that however this uncertain future may unfold, one more small community of trees will be growing into it.
So in our last mailing of the year, I’d like to warmly thank you for all that you’ve given as a part of the St Ethelburga’s community. It’s been a busy year, and many of you have joined us, online, in person, or in a winter field somewhere around the country. We’ve been honoured to host speakers and workshop leaders including Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee, René August, Dekila Chungyalpa, Justine Huxley, Paul Kingsnorth, Angharad Wynne, Martin Shaw, Paul Salopek, and Satish Kumar among others. You’ve joined us for training in conflict coaching, facilitation, de-polarisation, and in monthly online and in-person spaces for prayer and contemplation. And as part of our Listen to the World music series you’ve joined us in community with musicians from across the globe, including from Kurdistan, Iraq, Eastern Europe, Senegal, Burundi, Afghanistan, Iran, Israel, Cuba, Zimbabwe and Moldova. Do let us know your highlights and what you’ve enjoyed, and a reminder that you can watch many of the talks on our YouTube channel here.
This coming Tuesday, 10th December, we invite you to come and celebrate with us for our Festive Open Day. Come and share some mince pies, have a chat with staff and community. And please feel free to stay afterward for our monthly Contemplative Practice in the Bedouin Tent from 6:30pm.
You can book now for Conflict Coaching, Facilitation, and Dialogue for Peaceful Change trainings in the new year.
On 13th - 15th June, we’ll be launching our new Spiritual Ecology Festival. Save the date! More details coming soon!
And finally, if you’re looking for interesting gifts this Christmas, please do consider a gift of trees for your friends or family. You can donate a Lifelines hedgerow of your chosen length and location, and we’ll send you a personalised gift certificate. As inspiration, you can watch some of our volunteers planting in action here.
Wishing you the very best for the festive season and the New Year!
With warmest wishes,
Tarot Couzyn and the St Ethelburga’s team