Encountering an Essential Lesson in the Church Forests of Ethiopia – Gaianism
http://gaianism.org/essential-lesson-church-forests-ethiopia/
Somehow, the Ethiopian Church evolved to see forests as sacred and, through the design of their institutions and teachings, embedded this directly into their system code. Church services, weddings, baptisms, community meetings—the church is at the center of all of these, and thus so is the forest. Even one’s final moment differentiated from the Gaian whole takes place here: all Ethiopian Orthodox worshippers are entitled to be buried in the church forest.
As the articles describe, people cross themselves as they enter into the forest, as they cross the inner courtyard wall, as they enter the church and the communion circle, recognizing that with every step toward the center they enter a more holy reality. The forests, where humidity and air temperature change markedly, add to this numinous experience, so it’s not hard to imagine why now, when church forests are literal oases in the midst of a desertified agricultural system, these feel sacred. They are now both Edenic gardens and Noah’s arks.
But 1600 years ago, when far more of Ethiopia was forested, and the forests’ permanence surely seemed unquestioned, why did this unique Christian mutation take root? That is a question I don’t have an answer for, but the more important point is that whatever the reason, it is this religious system that has essentially prevented the entire country from becoming a desert. The church forests are like the country’s appendix, holding a small reserve of healthy organisms, until the infection—in this case modern civilization—ceases and life can once again recolonize the intestines, or in this case, the land. (And if you didn’t know that about the appendix’s role in the human body, now you do!)
This is why cultivating not just personal ecocentric spiritualities or philosophies but actual living religious systems is essential. There is far less power or longevity in a personal spirituality that is not shared, that doesn’t have a community around it, that doesn’t cultivate shared rituals, that doesn’t build institutions.
So what does that mean for us? It means: Gaians need to build a Gaian Mission. A Gaian Church. A Gaian Guild. A religious system that will grow and endure and help get humanity through the dark age that’s most likely just over the horizon. That will preserve and spread again biodiversity and essential human knowledge like permaculture, midwifery, and basic medicine so that Gaians one day can help bring about a new flourishing of culture—but this time in a way that sustains the Earth rather than comes at the cost of the Earth. But that requires a religious system, one that nurtures congregants and nudges them: to be their best and most eco-sacred selves; to share this system with others; and above all to continually recognize our dependence on and our being part of Gaia. If we do that, perhaps one day, a millennium from now, people will write about how Gaians’ sacred preserves and stores of wisdom helped to both rewild and recivilize the world.