Faith in 'all things beautiful' at Chelsea

My favourite event at this time of year is usually not religious at all. It is the Chelsea Flower Show. This year, even Chelsea, like every other event, seems to have succumbed to religion fervour, presenting me with the perfect excuse to spend a heaven-scent day out of the office.

These two videos show faith leaders talking about Capel Manor's garden, Growing Together in Faith. This is the first interfaith garden at Chelsea, but three years ago I was lucky enough to be able to go down and report on a Christian garden set up by the Salvation Army, From Darkness to Light.

The video at the top shows Muslim leader Dr Amineh Ahmed Hoti, director of the newly-established Centre for the Study of Muslim-Jewish relations, reading a poem by the 12th century mystic Ibn 'Arabi. Below that is Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg of the New North London Masorti Synagogue, talking about the symbolism of having the cross as a path at the centre of the garden, with all the other faiths, literally flowering outwards from it.

With dozens of roses, lillies, fuscia and other colourful and scented flowers packed tightly fig and olive trees, one of the few plants missing, and one that has figured strongly in the literature of all religions, was the vine. One feature I had hoped to see in a 'faith garden' were the famous '72 raisins', which is how some interpret the heavenly promise of 72 virgins in the Koran. But there was not even a single grape.

The garden, dreamed up by BBC presenter Susan Bowden-Pickstock and producer Canon Chris Bard, is intended to show how faiths use plants and flowers as symbols and how they are linked through horticulture.

Plants representing Christiniaty included Rosa x beanii, a white rose without thorns representing the Virgin Mary, Angelical archangelica offering protective powers against evil, Hedera colchica, an ivy representing fidelity in marriage and Alchemilla mollis, our Our Lady's Mantle.

For Hinduism were Rosa Prosperity, representing the deity Lakshmi, goddess of wealth and fortune, Calendula officinalis, used for garlands in festivals and Jasminum officinalis, a symbol of love.
Islam was represented by Rosa Macar, representing the story of the Prophet Mohammed, where red roses turned to yellow when dropped into water and Rosa Omar Khayyam, after the Muslim poet who wrote the Rubaiyat.

For Judaism were yet more roses, as well as Convallaria majalis, from the Song of Songs and Polemonium caeruleum, Jacob's ladder.

So numerous were the roses that gardens and stands officially dedicated to roses found themselves out-flowered. Opposite the faith garden, Peter Scott, of the noticeably less florid Historic Roses Group, said it was ironic because Christianity in particular had been hostile in its early years to roses, seeing them as symbols of impure passions as in classical mythologies. "But slowly, a rose became the symbol of the Mother of Christ," he said.

Finally, this seems an appropriate place to make mention of a blog by George, which discusses the nature of God. George is a cat, and his 'owner', Celia Haddon, is a friend who tends a wildflower garden and used to write about gardening for a national newspaper. Her garden was designed with the help of Brian MacDonald, who trained at Kew, my own 'front garden' so to speak. And for another Telegraph writer's blog, see Lila das Gupta bringing the ethic of recycling to Chelsea.

Comments

[Emanuel Appel]

a letter from America

Dear Ruth,

For Israel, the Rose of Sharon, the lily, the cedar.

What do the pagans, atheists, and freethinkers like?

[mizmaze]

I would just like to add this Christian poem by Joseph Mary Plunket:

I see His blood upon the rose
And in the stars the glory of his eyes,
His body gleams amid eternal snows,
His tears fall from the skies.

I see His face in every flower;
The thunder and the singing of the birds
Are but His voice - and carven by His power
Rocks are His written words.

All pathways by His feet are worn,
His strong heart stirs the ever-beating sea,
His crown of thorns is twined with every thorn,
his cross is every tree.

[Hermann Burchard]

Ruth,
the SUBMIT button doesn't seem to work on the article by Prof VERMES on POPE BENEDICT (CARDINAL RATZINGER's) book JESUS CHRIST OF NAZARETH. I get no acknowledgement and instead hear an audio clip on Sigmund Freud etc. Perhaps someone can fix that. HERE IS WHAT I WANTED TO SEND to that spot as a COMMENT:
God can change his mind, as recorded many times in the OT. Then, it was Him who repented! It was a young Jesus who declared he and his disciples were sent only to the “lost sheep of Israel.” In Mat X, the "Little Commission" always seemed to me a temporary expedience, truly and faithfully recorded by St Matthew, along with the Great Commission, to go to all nations and preach the Gospel, Mat XXVIII, 19-20. Both records are in the same Gospel, seemingly not having fazed St Mattew the least little bit.. Then, Professor Vermes also may be misreading the story of the Canaanite woman. Here, we are told in detail how Jesus changed his mind, Mat XV, 28: He repents and heals her daughter!! -- By the time Jesus confronted St Paul on the road to Damascus he clearly had thought better of it and, thanks be to God, sends him to all of us to tell us about Love coming down from the Heavens above to this Earth that is thirsting for it.

[Poetry]

12 JUne 2007

A silver sky

ripe for the mirror.

you can not see yourself in this mirror

you can only see others

moreover, you can only see what others choose to expose.

Their houses, their boats, their sea-doos.

Birds skimming low over the water could

like as not

see them selves if they were to look down

as they skim low over the water

but they never do.

Rather they allow their reflections to chase them

quick and sharp over the still, glistening waters

while the bird's mind remains ever fixed on

food, or other birds, or escaping those damn noisy humans.

A dense forest impenetrable as a gaze.

[David Hill]

Re todays article-Dr Akinola. I am a practising Christian but The Church is losing me for the reasons set out so clearly by the Dr. The fact is that any natural homosexual community would die out in 100 years and the aging would not enjoy any of the personal or fiscal support that future generations give. Our Society currently allows them the fiscal care without any future generation provision.

Tolerance and acceptance is one thing but encouragement and sanctity is another level and I cannot accomodate it withing the mores I was born to and accept. God bless the Dr..ENDS