Coptic Church tree planting competition climate effort

During his weekly prayer meeting last Wednesday, Pope Tawadros announced that the Coptic Orthodox Church was launching a nationwide tree-planting initiative, in an effort to confront climate change.

The Pope said that, since Egypt will be hosting COP26 next November, the Church is holding a tree planting competition among its churches and parishes in Egypt, which will run till November 2022. He stressed the beneficial climate effect of trees, quoting the Bible verse from Psalm 1:3 “… like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season,and whose leaf does not wither”.

Pope Tawadros said that once the tree planting effort concludes, a report will be written by the Church and presented to COP26.

The details of the competition were posted in a statement on the Facebook page of the Coptic Church Spokesperson. It said that the trees planted should suit the environment of the locality, especially recommending olive trees, pomegranates, and berries—long living fruitful trees. It also stressed that the aesthetic factor should be respected, and said the trees may be planted inside and around churches, and in the surrounding neighbourhood.

The statement said that in a single diocese, no less than a 1000 trees should be planted. The various dioceses should hand in the final report, including photographs before and after the trees are planted, to the papal headquarters in Anba Rweiss, Abassiya, Cairo, by end of October 2022.

Contestant dioceses will be assessed according to the number of trees planted, their growth, and their aesthetic value.

The first three prizes will be EGP100,000 each, the second three EGP75,000 each, the third three EGP50,000 each, and the fourth three 25,000 each.