Walk Church a week ago Sunday, Stowting, 26th May 2024
The scyamore is a much magligned tree. It has a prodigious abiltiy to
sow itself widely, and we often find it exploiting small cracks in
paving or annoyingly growing just in front of a wall. It is one of
nature’s great colonising species, a pioneer plant that appears wherever
space allows.
But it’s a non-native tree, thought to have arrived in England as late
as the 15th century. Its recent arrival means that plants insects and
birds are less well adapted to make use of what the tree offers than
more established tree species. However the sycamore is now believed to
be much more valuable than was at first appreciated, and in many woods
where ash is dying, sycamore is moving into replace it.
On our walk we came across several large, previously coppiced clumps of
sycamore (see photo above). Not only were the stems sizable, but each
coppice stool (the base from which the stems sprang) was about 2m in
diameter, indicating that these were very ancient specimens. Might they
have been among the first arrivals?
Just as diversity fosters resilience in nature, we celebrated how we
have different ways in which we can relate to and think about God: God
as Creator, as Jesus, and as the Holy Spirit – the Trinity. God ancient
and yet fresh, diverse and yet linked like the joined stems of our
coppiced sycamores.
Our next Walk Church will be Sunday 23rd June