If wildness can exist even when there is a degree of human intervention, then gardens too can, to some degree, be wild. ie gardens can be cultivated in such as way as to create or support areas of wildness. These could be corners that are left to run wild, or lawns managed as meadows (although they are likely to be cut by hand rather than by grazing animals). But even when gardens are more formally cultivated they can still support wildlife with flowering plants that benefit pollinators, log piles that benefit insects and beetles, ponds that benefit frogs and dragonflies, and in the absence of pesticides, aphids and caterpillars that benefit birds.
Author: Judith Russenberger
Environmentalist and theologian, with husband and three grown up children plus one cat, living in London SW14.
I enjoy running and drinking coffee - ideally with a friend or a book.
31 Days Wild: 20th May 2025
Wild is a word that can mean natural, untamed, or uncultivated. It can also mean free. Most of fauna in Richmond Park is wild with the exception of the deer. They were artificially introduced and their health and numbers are artificially maintained but with quite a low key touch (ie providing some winter feed and culling weaker animals to maintain herds appropriate to the size of the Park). The flora too is largely wild with the exception of the areas of p planted flower gardens and the Isabella Planation where the plants are purposefully cultivated. Equally there is a degree to which the trees are cultivated in so far as dangerous branches are removed and new trees are planted to create new areas of woodland. Nevertheless these interventions do enable wildlife to thrive. Richmond Park is London’s largest designated Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI). According to Natural England “Richmond Park has been managed as a royal deer park since the seventeenth century, producing a range of habitats of value to wildlife. In particular, Richmond Park is of importance for its diverse deadwood beetle fauna associated with the ancient trees found throughout the parkland. In addition the park supports the most extensive area of dry acid grassland in Greater London.”
Counting on … day 67
21st May 2025
Food security even in the UK is tenuous. The action group Sustain observes that “the 2023 National Risk Register only conceives of one direct food impact, that of food supply contamination. In terms of other potential disruption, the current advice to the public is to store 3 days’ worth of food at home. While there are already 7.2 million people experiencing food insecurity in the UK, with people unable to afford to feed themselves for one day let alone to stockpile, we need to be leaning toward community-scale food storage and systems over a “preppers” mentality.”
In the UK most of our food comes via supermarket chains and their large scale distribution networks which makes us all vulnerable if just one part of that system fails – flood, fire, illness etc. We don’t have a local network of food supplies that could provide us with emergency food. More locally based – and therefore likely smaller – farms, and community gardens, allotments and orchards etc would help improve local resilience. Do read this item from Sustain detailing how local authorities etc could achieve this.
Counting on … day 66
20th May 2025
Community gardens both foster communities and increase community resilience.
The Community Gardens website lists the following benefits as a starting point:
- Community gardens reduce carbon emissions by promoting local food production and minimising transportation needs.
- They improve air quality and support biodiversity, creating habitats for various species.
- These gardens enhance soil health, which is crucial for carbon sequestration and water filtration.
- Community engagement in gardening fosters social connections and builds sustainable communities.
- Urban heat islands are mitigated through the cooling effects of greenery, improving city liveability.
31 Days Wild: 19th May 2025
I like to think of Richmond Park as a place for wildlife, be that ancient oak trees, sky larks, or deer. But is it really a ‘wild place’? It was originally created from farmland as an exclusive park where Charles I could hunt deer – a managed environment. Even today its biodiversity is shaped by a high degree of human impact – both the work of the Park’s management team who weed out invasive species, manage deer numbers, and plant new trees, and the large numbers of people (and their dogs)who use the space for recreation, commuting and for mental wellbeing.
What makes somewhere a wild space?
Counting on … day 65
19th May 2025
Food banks make good commmunity hubs and increase resilience. Tottenham food bank has the strap line “Tottenham Foodbank: empowering community resilience, one parcel at a time”.
While sadly necessary, food banks ensure people who need it receive food and other essentials. Those who come and those who run the food banks also become means by which information is shared and by which community resilience is increased. In the event of a crisis, having a community already in place will help the people in that locality better cope with the crisis. Knowing whose who, knowing who is more vulnerable, knowing who has particular skills or knowledge can really make a difference.
31 Days Wild: 18th May 2025
Today’s Richmond Park sighting was of a kestrel. It’s screechy call first caught my attention and looking round it was perched high on an old oak tree. Another kestrel flew in and I suspect entered a hole in the tree where likely they had made a nest.
I see kestrels fairly often in the Park – often because of the distinctive way that they can hover in the air.
31 Days Wild: 17th May 2025
In Richmond Park this morning I saw a tawny owl perched on a fence. Apparently they are the UK’s most common owl but this was the first time I have seen one. Previously I have seen little owls in the Park.
5th Sunday of Easter
18th May 2025
Reflection with readings following after
The first reading today is an arresting story in which Peter is challenged by God for choosing to treat some people differently. For his whole life time, Peter had been taught to understand that the world was divided into the circumcised and the un-circumcised, and that it was the former -and not the latter – who were God’s chosen people. His, and his community’s, reading of the scriptures explained this. His, and his community’s, daily pattern of life reinforced this division. And in the temple a wall physically marked this division.
It wasn’t just a division that had come into being recently, but one which Peter’s ancestors had practiced over at least a millennia. This was a deeply entrenched, deeply significant understanding of the world and its people which defined what it was to be one of God’s people.
I’m sure that for us, there are habits or practices or beliefs that seem set in stone, time honoured, unchangeable and un-refutable. And that if we were asked to set them aside or even turn them upside down, we would be aghast at the idea. Or angered. Or terrified at what the ramifications would be. It is to Peter’s great credit that he is willing to accept and take on board this complete turnaround that is being suggested by God.
In today’s gospel reading we are back at the last supper and Jesus is sharing last words with his disciples to prepare them for the new age that is to come – the resurrection age. Jesus says he is giving them – and us – a new commandment that they – and we – should love one another. This is not a command to love our neighbour as ourself – a reciprocal love. This is a command to love as Jesus loves us – a love that no knows no limits, a love that is altruistic, a love that is absolute.
When we hear that, then perhaps we are not surprised that Peter is being asked to love everyone with the same love, whether Jew or gentile. What God is challenging Peter to do is to follow through with Jesus’s command to simply love.
How then does living true to that command look today? Does it once again ask us to set aside a lifetimes engrained habits – and prejudices? Does it ask us to love without question or discrimination those who seek asylum? Those with refugee status? Those with disabilities? Those with neurodiverse minds? Those with different experiences of gender? Those without jobs? Those without a fixed address? Those with less money? Those of different faiths? So often these are differences that mean people are treated differently by their neighbours. Or by shopkeepers and service providers. Or by government policies. Or by churches.
Do we have the integrity to act like Peter and challenge these examples where we see God’s will being opposed? Are we willing to speak out? Are we willing to lead by example and love all whom we meet without prejudice? Are we willing to write our MP and ask them to speak against unjust policies? Are we willing to stand up as a church community and be open in telling God’s truth?
Are we willing to let go of prejudices we have held onto for far too long? Easter is the season of radical change, of new life and new beginnings.
Acts 11:1-18
Now the apostles and the believers who were in Judea heard that the Gentiles had also accepted the word of God. So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticised him, saying, “Why did you go to uncircumcised men and eat with them?” Then Peter began to explain it to them, step by step, saying, “I was in the city of Joppa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision. There was something like a large sheet coming down from heaven, being lowered by its four corners; and it came close to me. As I looked at it closely I saw four-footed animals, beasts of prey, reptiles, and birds of the air. I also heard a voice saying to me, `Get up, Peter; kill and eat.’ But I replied, `By no means, Lord; for nothing profane or unclean has ever entered my mouth.’ But a second time the voice answered from heaven, `What God has made clean, you must not call profane.’ This happened three times; then everything was pulled up again to heaven. At that very moment three men, sent to me from Caesarea, arrived at the house where we were. The Spirit told me to go with them and not to make a distinction between them and us. These six brothers also accompanied me, and we entered the man’s house. He told us how he had seen the angel standing in his house and saying, `Send to Joppa and bring Simon, who is called Peter; he will give you a message by which you and your entire household will be saved.’ And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them just as it had upon us at the beginning. And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said, `John baptised with water, but you will be baptised with the Holy Spirit.’ If then God gave them the same gift that he gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could hinder God?” When they heard this, they were silenced. And they praised God, saying, “Then God has given even to the Gentiles the repentance that leads to life.”
Psalm 148
1 Hallelujah!
Praise the Lord from the heavens; *
praise him in the heights.
2 Praise him, all you angels of his; *
praise him, all his host.
3 Praise him, sun and moon; *
praise him, all you shining stars.
4 Praise him, heaven of heavens, *
and you waters above the heavens.
5 Let them praise the Name of the Lord; *
for he commanded, and they were created.
6 He made them stand fast for ever and ever; *
he gave them a law which shall not pass away.
7 Praise the Lord from the earth, *
you sea-monsters and all deeps;
8 Fire and hail, snow and fog, *
tempestuous wind, doing his will;
9 Mountains and all hills, *
fruit trees and all cedars;
10 Wild beasts and all cattle, *
creeping things and winged birds;
11 Kings of the earth and all peoples, *
princes and all rulers of the world;
12 Young men and maidens, *
old and young together.
13 Let them praise the Name of the Lord, *
for his Name only is exalted,
his splendour is over earth and heaven.
14 He has raised up strength for his people
and praise for all his loyal servants, *
the children of Israel, a people who are near him.
Hallelujah!
Revelation 21:1-6
I saw a new heaven and a new earth; for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying,
“See, the home of God is among mortals.
He will dwell with them as their God;
they will be his peoples,
and God himself will be with them;
he will wipe every tear from their eyes.
Death will be no more;
mourning and crying and pain will be no more,
for the first things have passed away.”
And the one who was seated on the throne said, “See, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this, for these words are trustworthy and true.” Then he said to me, “It is done! I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. To the thirsty I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life.”
John 13:31-35
At the last supper, when Judas had gone out, Jesus said, “Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once. Little children, I am with you only a little longer. You will look for me; and as I said to the Jews so now I say to you, ‘Where I am going, you cannot come.’ I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
Listening to the sounds of the world
17th May 2025
I will listen to you, LORD God, because you promise peace to those who are faithful and no longer foolish. Psalm 85:8
You Lord, are the source of all good things:
We praise you.
You call us to tend and care for your creation:
May we strive to do your will.
You have made us as brothers and sisters with all that lives:
May we live together in peace.
Reading from 1 Kings 19: 11b – 13a
Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence. When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave.
The day is quiet.
It catches my attention.
No murmur of cars, nor drone of airplanes.
No crash or thump of builders.
Silence –
Silence? Are you sure?
I can hear a bird –
no not one but two, maybe three –
singing.
The buzz of a passing insect.
The wind rustling a leaf.
The slight crunch of my shoes on the ground.
The soprano voice of a child –
Mummy, why do ….?
God, creator and companion,
Stay my attention on the sounds of ‘silence’,
on the sounds of life.
Attune my heart to hear
the unabated sound of creation,
to sift out the raucous noise
of the unimportant sounds.
Open my ears just enough to know your presence.
Ever mindful God, be present
with those surrounded with the noise
of guns and bombs.
Bring compassion
into the hearts of those who wage war.
Remove greed and pride from those
who might then make peace.
Ever mindful God, be present
with those surrounded with the noise
of traffic and engines.
Bless the work of those who create green spaces,
those who bring calm to frenzied lives.
Lend strength to those who protect the environment
and those who seek a quieter way of life.
Ever mindful God, be present
with those who seek to tell the truth –
however inconvenient.
Open hearts and minds to hear your word,
to discern your wisdom.
Give grace to all who question,
to all who seek to understand
and to all who are willing to learn –
for you the way, the truth and the life.
Amen.
The Green Tau 