The Church Forests of Ethiopia Preserving Faith in the Environment

For our second edition of ‘Free of the Week’ we travel to the highlands of Northern Ethiopia to discover the uniquely symbiotic relationship between religion and the natural world.

“A church, to be a church, must be enveloped by a forest.” This is the concept that underpins Jeremy Seifert’s short film, available to watch free on the New York Times website. This centuries-old commitment of the church is now plainly obvious in the region’s landscape. Where it was once covered in forest, the highlands are now a vast plain only occasionally interrupted by the lush oases of forest that come within a church’s stone walls.

Of course, two messages are being delivered here. The first is one that we hear on a near-daily basis already, namely that mankind’s exploitation of the environment and its broader relationship with it has led to disastrous levels of destruction. In this case, the once extensive forest is almost completely gone. But its the second message that pushed Jeremy Seifert to explore this subject, that these foret represent hope. According to him, “they are a powerful intersection of faith and science doing some good in the world.”

At a time when Australia is battling catastrophic forest fires and governments the world over are failing to act, “The Church Fires of Ethiopia” is a welcome example for them to follow.