The Sacred Life of Trees - an article by Martin Palmer

If one day you are planting a tree and someone comes running to tell you the Messiah has come, you should finish planting your tree before going to see if this is true.

So goes this traditional story in Judaism, and both Christianity and Islam have similar stories.

Indeed, every major faith has its stories about the central role of trees, says ARC Secretary General Martin Palmer, from Yggdrasil, the Norse Tree at the Centre of the Universe, through the trees in the Garden of Eden, and the tree of the Cross to the Bodhi tree under which Prince Siddhartha achieved enlightenment and became the Buddha.

He explores the importance of trees to the great faiths in an article for the interfaith magazine Faith Initiative. The article is featured in issue 25 - Faith Initiative: Embracing Diversity. Please see the website www.faithinitiative.co.uk for further information on the magazine or contact the Editor: Heather Wells at: hf_wells@yahoo.co.uk.

Link here for a PDF of the article.