Bishop of London plants yew tree at Lambeth Palace
July 2010
On Sunday, 11 July, the Bishop of London, the Rt Revd Richard Chartres, planted a yew tree in the gardens of Lambeth Palace, the London residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury.
Bishop Richard chairs Shrinking the Footprint, the Church of England’s national environment campaign. The campaign will be piloted in the Canterbury, Rochester and Southwark dioceses which together have 118 veteran and ancient churchyard yews between them.
The planting was witnessed by environment officers and other diocesan representatives, and was also an expression to celebrate the UN International Year of Biodiversity. The tree was donated by the Conservation Foundation, which had conducted a campaign to plant 7,000 Millennium Yew cuttings ten years previous. The Conservation Foundation and the Ancient Yew Group are pressing for yew trees over 500 years old to be given formal protection.
‘Every diocese in the Church of England now has environmental issues on its agenda and today has been a real encouragement to hear about the considerable amount going on throughout the Church here and elsewhere proving that the Church has a very real role to play not just in saving energy, but biodiversity and other environmental issues,’ said Bishop Richard.
‘Planting a Millennium Yew tree in Lambeth Palace Garden is a reminder of the Church’s long heritage of caring for God’s creation and its commitment through Shrinking the Footprint to the International Year of Biodiversity.’
source: London SE1 community website: Bishop of London plants yew tree at Lambeth Palace
