Communion Forest newsletter August 2023

Published: Tue, 08/15/23

WELCOME!

The launch of the Communion Forest. Image:

Welcome to the Communion Forest’s first anniversary newsletter! It is packed with information:

A reflection on the first year of the Communion Forest
Dates for your diary
New Communion Forest resources
Partnerships with Restor and Climate Stewards

Thank you so much for your support and interest over the last twelve months. Please continue to pray for the initiative, visit the website, follow us on social media and read on….

How’s it growing? The Communion Forest, one year on

The Communion Forest was launched a year ago at the Lambeth Conference – an international gathering of Anglican bishops, which meets once a decade. Meeting at Lambeth Palace for a day focused on the environment, bishops pledged their support for the Communion Forest through a tree planting and service of commitment on the palace lawns. The bishops also launched the Lambeth Call on the Environment and Sustainable Development, which shares ways in which Anglicans worldwide can work for the well-being of humanity and all creation.

Since its launch, the Communion Forest team, with its two excellent facilitators, Irene Sebastian-Waweru and Nicholas Pande (left), has focused on connecting, equipping and inspiring church involvement across the Communion. The facilitators have been reaching out to provinces and dioceses, finding out what churches are already doing and what they would like to do. The tremendous interest has been incredibly uplifting.

Read about how the Communion Forest is growing here.

Dates for your diary

September 7th: Trees in the Spiritual Life of the Church

8AM UTC(GMT) option:

https://bit.ly/Treesandspirituality0800

4PM UTC(GMT) option:

https://bit.ly/Treesandspirituality1600

20^th and / or 21^st September: Lambeth Call on the Environment and Sustainable Development

From September to December, the Lambeth Call on the Environment and Sustainable Development will be the focus of Phase 3 of the Lambeth Conference. The webinar on this call will be held on 20^th and 21^st September. Nicholas Pande, Global Facilitator for the Communion Forest will be one of the contributors to the webinar and the Communion Forest will be a focus of the three-month exploration of the call. Register for the webinar here: https://www.lambethconference.org/phase-3/register-for-phase-3/.

12 October: Connecting Across the Communion - Partners in Carbon Sequestration

See below for more information and/or click here.

New resources

We have been carefully adding to our treasure trove of resources on the Communion Forest website. Newly added items include:

“How to Get Started on a New Communion Forest Activity Guide” – also available as a downloadable pdf.
“Tree Planting Liturgy and Prayers”, based on the liturgy used for the launch of the Communion Forest - also available as a downloadable pdf.
We also have a recording of our Connect, Share, Pray session: Trees for Special Occasions. You can see the whole recording here and the individual presentations here:
See also the Visual Guide to Biodiversity

Partnerships

During the last year, we have been developing partnerships with organisations with relevant expertise. Two that are well-advanced are with Restor and Climate Stewards.

Restor is a powerful online tool anyone can use to map their tree growing and ecosystem conservation and restoration activities (see an example here). It provides users with information about the biodiversity and species in their mapped area and provides a way of connecting with others for advice and funding.

We currently have a small pilot underway and plan to roll out use of Restor more widely in the coming year as a way of making the Communion Forest visible. Introductory sessions will be advertised on our social media platforms and in newsletters – please look out for them!

Climate Stewards is a UK-based charity which is passionate about helping people measure and reduce their carbon footprint and offset what they can’t reduce. We are working with Climate Stewards on a pilot project to establish up to five new small-scale, high-quality tree-growing projects in Anglican communities in the Global South, which will be funded by Anglicans wanting to support such initiatives and offset their carbon emissions.

We are currently looking for individuals, churches or dioceses who would like to help fund the start-up costs of these pilot projects. Please join the webinar on 12 October to find out more (see advert above) and/or read about what’s involved here.

Please share your stories with us, so we can highlight them on the Communion Forest Facebook page, Twitter and Instagram accounts.

Get in touch with us at:

[email protected]

Anglican Communion Office,
16 Tavistock Crescent
London London W11 1AP
UNITED KINGDOM

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