The Communion Forest had its first ever in–person team meeting in June in Kenya (where Irene Sebastian–Waweru, the facilitator for Africa, and Nicholas Pande, the facilitator for everywhere that isn’t Africa or Latin America, are based). It was wonderful to meet face–to–face for the first time; for some of us, this was the first time we had actually met each other in person.

Together, we were able to reflect back on the first (nearly) three years of the Communion Forest and discern a vision for the next three years. Our vision now is for every diocese in the Anglican Communion to have an expression of the Communion Forest (whether practical, spiritual, advocacy–based or a combination) within three years. With the permission of the Anglican Church of Kenya, we are also adopting their slogan of “One Anglican, One Tree” (or Plant), which they will be using next year, their year of Wholesome Ecology.

We also:

• Met with the General Secretary of the Council of Anglican Provinces in Africa, to talk about further developing the Communion Forest across Africa.

• Planted trees in the small Communion Forest Archbishop Sapit has established in the grounds of his official residence .

• Met with members of Green Anglicans, Kenya and visited Karura Forest Reserve.

• Visited the pilot sites of our Partners in Carbon Sequestration at St Andrew’s Church, Ukia and the Anglican Church of Kenya’s Makueni Complex.Dreamed and conversed with Bishop Francis Matui about phase 2 of our Partners in Carbon Sequestration pilot,which we hope to develop with the Diocese of Makueni.