forest church last sunday

On Sunday afternoon, we had our first Forest Church. With it, we wanted to connect to nature in a different way, and celebrate creation and remember our own responsibility of stewardship and looking after our beautiful world. 

We had hoped to have a Forest Church for a while, and it was great to be invited to have our first one as part of the celebrations for the fifth anniversary of the Gifford community woodland, alongside other activities like Forest School, volunteering opportunities, and charcoal drawing sessions.

We had a great turnout, from ages 2 to 80+. We started with a walk to our reflection site, using our senses on the way, to see what we could see, feel, smell and hear. We shared prayers and reflected on the beauty and fragility of the world, and what we can do to protect it.

We also were creative in appreciating the beauty of creation, in drawing or writing down reflections, in building mobiles from twigs, leaves, pinecones and ferns, and by creating cyano-print pictures.

​Here are some pictures from the event.