Got to take Religion of Trees on the road again - this time to St. Peter's, an old Episcopal church in Chelsea, recently revived by a brilliant group of young clergy people. Led a wonderful discussion with twenty-odd parishioners in the little garden next to the church, but the highlight came before that, when I headed off to the same garden with the kids during the sermon and announcements. I don't get to spend much time with little people so this was a big treat! And I started the adult forum with a report on the kid's, complete with movements.
We started by being trees, stretching our arms out and up, or downward like a Christmas tree, or up and waving about like palm trees, or out and down like willows...
Then I told them someone (it was Thomas Merton) said that A tree gives glory to God by being a tree. Could we try to do that, too?
Then I told them that there's a place in the Bible (Isa 55:12) where we read that the hills before you shall burst into song, and all the trees in the fields shall clap their hands. How do trees clap? We agreed that they needed the help of the wind, so we took turns being trees and the wind pushing their boughs together. Turns out, I said, that trees are interacting with everything around them all the time - including us!
Then we went around and looked at the trees in the little garden, noticing branches and suckers and healed wounds and which were easiest to climb. I taught them they could go up to trees and, after asking permission, greet them with touch. Hugging not always possible or advisable! Street trees especially appreciate such greetings, I said, because they're often all on their own. And, while they're much bigger than you or me, most of them are actually quite young, like you!
The adults got a little more, Merton and Isaiah supplemented by Mary Oliver, Mircea Eliade and Robin Wall Kimmerer, along with all manner of tangents inspired by their questions and observations. But the stars of the show were the trees we carry - as when I led a similar forum at Church of the Ascension last year, everyone had tender stories about relationships with trees - and the trees around us as we gathered.
I can't show you pictures of the kids, but here are some of the trees who attended our discussions.
Then we pondered the painful spectacle of this tree holding its own against scaffolding, the bane of many a New Yorker's experience! But we also appreciated the care with which the scaffolding constructors had opened gaps for the tree. A slightly sobering image of our future together, tree people and human people...
I'm hoping people left with some new ideas but also new eyes for the trees at St. Peter's and beyond.
