[Anglican Communion News Service] Anglican Communion Secretary General Josiah Idowu-Fearon has planted a tree in the garden of the Anglican Communion Office – the London-based secretariat for the worldwide Anglican Communion – as part of the Queen’s Green Canopy. The office is based in a former convent that was home to the Sisters of the Community of Saint Andrew. The site’s enclosed garden is used by staff and visitors to the building in Notting Hill.

The tree planted in the office’s garden is an Acer Palmatum Dissectum Viride – a Japanese Maple shaped as a rounded bush, which has deeply dissected lime green leaves in the spring and summer before turning into a deep golden yellow in the autumn. Staff gathered in the garden for the tree planting ceremony which took the form of a simple liturgical act of worship.

The Rev. Rachel Carnegie, executive director of the Anglican Alliance, one of the bodies based at the Anglican Communion Office, said: “We are so inspired by churches around the communion in South Africa, India, Malaysia and many other places that are planting trees for significant events, whether its baptisms, confirmations, marriages, and so forth, honoring people in those significant moments and honoring God, because tree planting is part of our call.

“In the Fifth Mark of Mission, we talk about ‘safeguarding creation and sustaining and renewing the life of the Earth.’ Protecting forests and restoring forests is one of the very important things that everybody can do towards protecting our environment and trying to deal with climate change,” she said.

The Queen’s Green Canopy is the U.K.’s response to the Queen’s Commonwealth Canopy – a unique network of forest conservation projects in the 45 countries of the commonwealth. The Queen’s Commonwealth Canopy brings collective credibility and integrity to individual commonwealth initiatives. The schemes are part of the celebrations to mark the Platinum Jubilee of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.

A four-day extended weekend has just concluded which marked the key central Jubilee celebration events in the United Kingdom. Events are taking place throughout the year to mark throughout the U.K. and elsewhere in the world to mark the Queen’s 70 years of service as monarch and head of state of the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Belize, Grenada, Jamaica, Papua New Guinea, Saint Lucia, Solomon Islands, St. Kitts and Nevis, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines.