Green Spaces
Living Chapel Programme
The Living Chapel is a work of ecological art in Italy, at the Botanical Garden of Rome. It is a green structure created from recycled materials and covered with living plants, including sapling trees. The Living Chapel wishes to promote the principles of the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and Pope Francis’s Laudato Si’ environmental encyclical. With its inspiring green structure, the Living Chapel wishes to motivate and educate all people to actively care for the earth, our common home. The Living Chapel is a concept, a set of ideas and principles that can be applied anywhere, by anyone. The website provides inspiration, guidance and support for creating Laudato Si’ Gardens, Living Chapels, Living Sacred Spaces, and planting initiatives of all types.
Laudato Si’ Gardens
Laudato Si’ gardens, an initiative of the Live Chapel programme, are green spaces of meditation and environmental education. People involved in the establishment of Laudato Si’ gardens can sign up to become part of an international community that contribute to raising public awareness on ecology and brotherhood, to encourage collaboration, with and within countries, to rehabilitate care and protect the natural environment and contribute to the wellbeing of future generations. Guidelines to establish a Laudato Si’ garden is available for download here.
Church forests of Ethiopia
For some inspiration, check out the church forests of Ethiopia where priests, scientists, and local communities are partnering to save the less than five percent of forests that remain in northern Ethiopia. For pictures and the story, please check out the links below:
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