The Ethiopian Forest Churches are exactly what the Benedict Option should look like on a conceptual scale: it is not a fleeing from the world but a conserving of the good, true, and beautiful — the ...

In Northern Ethiopia, the natural environment and the spiritual environment are entwined. There are just 1,022 forests that remain in the region known as South Gondar, each of which surrounds an ...

If you see a forest in Ethiopia, you know there is very likely to be a church in the middle, says Alemayehu Wassie. Wassie, a forest ecologist, has spent the past decade on a mission: preserving, ...

Presenting a workshop on ecosystem services to a roomful of priests in Ethiopia may seem like an unlikely scenario for a conservation biologist to end up in, but for Meg Lowman, it’s an essential part ...

How Tewahedo Orthodox theology led congregations to become an oasis of forest conservation. In church, Getnet Alemayehu’s father liked to sit beneath a tree, one he had planted himself. In its shade ...

In the midst of northern Ethiopia's deforested landscapes stand churches: not just buildings belonging to the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, but also the sacred forests surrounding them. Protected for ...

SCRIPT - CHURCH FORESTS OPENING CREDITS Dr. Alemayehu Wassie (VO) In Ethiopian Orthodox teaching, a church–to be a church–should be enveloped by a forest. It should resemble the garden of Eden. Dr.