Church Forests of Ethiopia

[halbhh]

This totally surprising and amazing video from the New York Times is quite unlike anything I've seen before on their site (from many years and many thousands of articles), and a real jewel.

It's such a wonder filled and delightful video, and will transport most people who see it I expect.

NYTimes.com is a paid site, but gives a certain number of free articles a month, if a person hasn't yet used up their free articles.

The wonderful and surprising video is at the top of the article, and played automatically:

(you'll want your volume turned on, and the video has it's own volume control also)
Opinion | What Makes a Church? A Tiny, Leafy Forest

 

[sun rise]

I had no idea Church forests existed and the role that the forest plays in Ethiopian Christianity. That was also a beautiful video.

 

[Terese]

Amazing! Thank you for sharing!

 

[Vouthon]

I saw this the other night and found it very moving, actually.

They regard the outer limit of the "church" itself as being the forest (at the periphery of which lies a sacred spring and a wall around the forest demarcating the entire enclaved holy space) - the church is the forest, described as akin to the outer garments, or clothing, covering the body (the circular 'shrine' where the Ark of the Covenant,a the Eucharistic altar, is symbolically located, and which most people would assume to be the church - when it is in fact the whole sacred space including the forest that is the church!)

It was beautiful: a Christian tradition that places ecology, the environment, at the centre of its liturgical and spiritual life. Had it not been for these "church forests" - oases of biodiversity, time-capsules of the great forests that once spanned the Ethiopian highlands - the entire north of Ethiopia would have been deforested for agricultural land by the government.

Ethiopian Christianity has always amazed me, partly because it is the authentic African church - untouched by Western influence - and the largest of the Oriental Orthodox communion.

For nearly two thousand years it has developed its own unique traditions and theology - including its scriptural canon, which is larger than any other apostolic church, with such books in its Old Testament as 1 Enoch.

Surely that's what we need more of today, with the grave climate crisis we find ourselves in: forests serving as churches, with worshippers giving the leafy canopies of trees the same godly respect we render to "sacred spaces" under roofs with steeples here in the West?

What a fantastic religious tradition.

 

[Vouthon]

"...At the beginning of the creation history, the earth was without form and was void. Then it was made into a habitable place and nature was adorned, i.e. populated with flourishing and pleasant trees. It was not an ivory house or a place overlaid with gold and silver, but a garden. The heaven was the roof of Adam’s house, and never was any roof so curiously painted. The earth was his floor, and never was any floor so richly inlaid. The shadow of the trees was his retirement, under them was his dining room."

(Melakeselam Dagnachew Kassahun, Addis-Ababa Ethiopian Orthodox priest (2001), describing 'church forests')

​

Another video on these fascinating church forests:

And a BBC documentary by the same team that filmed the shorter video for the New York Times:

BBC World Service - Heart and Soul, Saving Ethiopia’s church forests, Ethiopia's church forests

 

[halbhh]

"...At the beginning of the creation history, the earth was without form and was void. Then it was made into a habitable place and nature was adorned, i.e. populated with flourishing and pleasant trees. It was not an ivory house or a place overlaid with gold and silver, but a garden. The heaven was the roof of Adam’s house, and never was any roof so curiously painted. The earth was his floor, and never was any floor so richly inlaid. The shadow of the trees was his retirement, under them was his dining room."

(Melakeselam Dagnachew Kassahun, Addis-Ababa Ethiopian Orthodox priest (2001), describing 'church forests')

...​

​

What an interesting and wonderful quote. I had no idea about this beautiful church (in Ethiopia and elsewhere I suppose) until yesterday, and now you've helped fill in some more of the mystery. You know, one of the most beautiful moments (of many) in the NYTimes version of this is when the priest is swinging in slow motion an incense thing on that chain with bells (I'm sure it has some good name). Another moment that struck me last night (again, of many) was where several were standing in white among the trees, perhaps praying or meditating, it seemed, in the almost still shot of them there.

 

[Vouthon]

What an interesting and wonderful quote. I had no idea about this beautiful church (in Ethiopia and elsewhere I suppose) until yesterday, and now you've helped fill in some more of the mystery. You know, one of the most beautiful moments (of many) in the NYTimes version of this is when the priest is swinging in slow motion an incense thing on that chain with bells (I'm sure it has some good name). Another moment that struck me last night (again, of many) was where several were standing in white among the trees, perhaps praying or meditating, it seemed, in the almost still shot of them there.

In the western Catholic Church, we call them "thuribles"

Thurible - Wikipedia

A thurible (via Old French from Medieval Latin turibulum) is a metal censer suspended from chains, in which incense is burned during worship services. It is used in Christian churches including the Roman Catholic, Maronite Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Armenian Apostolic and Oriental Orthodox...​

 

[halbhh]

In the western Catholic Church, we call them "thuribles"

Thurible - Wikipedia

A thurible (via Old French from Medieval Latin turibulum) is a metal censer suspended from chains, in which incense is burned during worship services. It is used in Christian churches including the Roman Catholic, Maronite Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Armenian Apostolic and Oriental Orthodox...​

I've seen those. I remember seeing the wonderful one carried near midnight on Christmas Eve in a mass I think from Rome.

The one of the priest in the Ethiopian video is so....good, somehow. Maybe it's partly the framing in the video, and the slow motion.