If you would like to learn more about our work, you\u2019re welcome to take a copy of our most recent newsletter or visit our website (mainecouncilofchurches.org). You can sign up to receive our newsletters and emails\u2014either via our website, our Facebook page, or by phone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You could say that we at the Maine Council of Churches are all about making connections<\/u><\/em>\u2014and this morning I\u2019d like us to spend some time thinking about how and why God\u2019s dream is for us to be \u2026 connected<\/u><\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n We\u2019re going to do that by looking at the hidden life of trees<\/u><\/strong>. That\u2019s the title of a wonderful book by Peter Wohlleben, a forester who works deep in the forests of Germany, and who has learned astonishing things about trees\u2014trees just like the ones outside this building, just like the ones in your own backyards. As I describe his extraordinary findings, I invite you to think about a favorite tree of yours (we all have one, don\u2019t we?\u00a0Mine is a Japanese pine that stands at the water\u2019s edge near my family\u2019s camp; my whole life it has been framed perfectly in the camp\u2019s picture window that looks out on the lake).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Picture your tree\u2019s trunk. Did your mind\u2019s eye automatically look up? Now look down to where your tree\u2019s trunk meets the earth, and let your imagination envision the intricate root systems that are lying underground below your tree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In his book, Wohlleben describes something miraculous going on in those roots that we humans can neither see nor hear: trees are communicating<\/u><\/em> with one another. He has discovered they depend on a complicated web of cooperative, interdependent relationships, alliances and kinship networks. Wise old mother trees feed their saplings and warn neighbor trees when danger is approaching. Reckless teenagers take foolhardy risks chasing the light and drinking excessively, and usually pay with their lives. Crown princes wait for old monarchs to fall, so they can take their place in the full glory of sunlight. It\u2019s all happening in the ultra-slow motion that is tree time. [Smithsonian<\/em>, \u201cDo Trees Talk to Each Other?\u201d by Richard Grant, March 2018]<\/p>\n\n\n\n A revolution has been taking place in the scientific understanding of trees, and the latest studies confirm what Wohlleben and his colleague Suzanne Simard of British Columbia have long suspected: Trees are far more alert, social, sophisticated\u2014and even intelligent\u2014than we thought. There is now scientific evidence showing that trees of the same species are communal, and often form alliances with trees of other species, too, living in cooperative, interdependent relationships, maintained by communication and a collective intelligence similar to an insect colony. <\/p>\n\n\n\n These soaring columns of living wood draw our eyes upward, but the real action is taking place underground, just a few inches below our feet. Wohlleben jokes that we could call this underground communication network \u201cthe \u2018wood-wide web.\u201d It connects trees to each other through a web of roots and fungus. Trees share water and nutrients through the network, and also use it to communicate. They send distress signals about drought, disease, or insect attacks, and other trees alter their behavior when they receive these messages. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Scientists call these \u201cmycorrhizal\u201d (my-core-eyes-all<\/em>) networks. The fine, hairlike root tips of trees join together with microscopic fungal filaments to form the basic links of the network. Trees pay a kind of fee for network services (like a cable or cell phone bill!) by allowing the fungi to consume about 30 percent of the sugar that the trees photosynthesize from sunlight. The sugar is what fuels the fungi, as they scavenge the soil for mineral nutrients, which are then absorbed and consumed by the trees. One teaspoon [hold up a teaspoon] of forest soil contains several MILES<\/u><\/em> of these fungal filaments!<\/p>\n\n\n\n For young saplings in a deeply shaded part of the forest, the network is a lifeline. Lacking the sunlight to photosynthesize, they survive because big trees, including their parents, pump sugar into their roots through the network. For elderly trees, it serves as nursing care. Once, Wohlleben came across a gigantic beech stump, four or five feet across. The tree was felled 400 or 500 years ago, but scraping away the surface with his penknife, he found something astonishing: the stump was still green with chlorophyll. There was only one explanation. The surrounding beeches were keeping it alive, by pumping sugar to it through the network. \u201cWhen beeches do this, they remind me of elephants,\u201d he says. \u201cThey are reluctant to abandon their dead, especially when it\u2019s a big, old, revered matriarch.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n To communicate through the network, trees send chemical, hormonal and slow-pulsing electrical signals, which scientists are just beginning to decipher. Some trees may also emit and detect sounds, a crackling noise in the roots at a frequency inaudible to humans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trees also communicate through the air, using pheromones and other scent signals. In Africa, when a giraffe starts chewing acacia leaves, the tree notices the injury and emits a distress signal in the form of ethylene gas. Upon detecting this gas, neighboring acacias start pumping tannins into their leaves. In large enough quantities these compounds can sicken or even kill large herbivores\u2014like giraffes. (Giraffes are aware of this, however, having evolved with acacias, and this is why they browse into the wind, so the warning gas doesn\u2019t reach the trees ahead of them. Giraffes seem to know<\/u><\/em> that the trees are talking to one another!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Trees can detect scent and taste through their leaves. When elms and pines come under attack by leaf-eating caterpillars, they detect the caterpillar saliva, and release pheromones that attract wasps who lay their eggs inside the caterpillars. The wasp larvae eat the caterpillars from the inside out. \u201cVery unpleasant for the caterpillars,\u201d says Wohlleben. \u201cVery clever of the trees.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n A recent study shows that trees recognize the taste of deer saliva. When a deer is biting a branch, the tree brings defending chemicals to make the leaves taste bad so the deer will stop. If, on the other hand, a human breaks the branch, the tree knows the difference, and brings in substances to heal the wound.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Why do trees share resources and form alliances with trees of other species? Doesn\u2019t the law of natural selection\u2014\u201csurvival of the fittest\u201d\u2014suggest that they should be competing<\/u><\/em>? \u201cActually, it doesn\u2019t make evolutionary sense for trees to behave like resource-grabbing individualists,\u201d botanist Simard says. \u201cThey live longest and reproduce most often in a healthy stable forest. That\u2019s why they\u2019ve evolved to help their neighbors.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n But this isn\u2019t a high school biology class\u2014why talk about this in a worship service? I can think of at least two reasons. The first is just the sheer miracle of it all\u2014how amazing<\/u><\/em> is God\u2019s creation?! <\/p>\n\n\n\n The second reason to talk about this in worship is because it is a beautiful metaphor from nature about how we are meant to exist in community, especially within the church, both at the local level, and in the broader, wider church, as we are, you and I, through the Maine Council of Churches. We are meant to be connected<\/u><\/em>, just like trees are. We, too, are meant to love and help our neighbors. As Paul taught the Corinthians, \u201cIf one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n It is our hope and prayer at the Council that we can be a sort of \u201cmycorrhizal network\u201d connecting local congregations like yours here at Durham Meeting with others all around the state. Like trees who are connected through vast root systems, we can share what nourishes us. We can send distress signals when someone among us is in danger or under attack so that all of us can rally around and take action. We can look out for young ones and our elders, and we can learn from each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Because, like trees, it doesn\u2019t make evolutionary sense for us to behave \u201clike resource-grabbing individualists,\u201d either. We, too, live longest and best in a healthy, stable \u201cforest\u201d\u2014a community where we love our neighbors, even as we love ourselves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n So this morning, while I am here as your guest, let us give thanks for the \u201cmycorrhizal\u201d system that connects us to each other, to the wider faith community (including the Maine Council of Churches), and to our neighbors of every faith, a system that connects us to creation, and to God. Let us celebrate how we, like the trees, thrive in a network of trust, shared language, and deeply interdependent relationships that are shaped by faith, hope and love, justice, compassion and peace. May it be so. Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Message given by Jane Field of the Maine Council of Churches at Durham Friends Meeting, May 1, 2022 I bring you greetings from the Maine Council of Churches, where I serve as the Executive Director.\u00a0We are an ecumenical coalition of … Continue reading ![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.durhamfriendsmeeting.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/image-1.png\")
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