Our Work

Dear Friends,

I am writing with an update on Kew, Theology and Gardening. 

Last year was one where there was a lot of sorting things out behind the scenes. It took rather a long time to get a charity number – which we now have – not least because the Charity Commission didn’t like our old name, Kew Institute for Theology and Gardening for reasons I won’t bore you with. Anyway, we are now Kew, Theology and Gardening, with a charity number and a website. All ready to go. 

Last year we also said goodbye to Nick Jepson-Biddle, who was our first Director and helped guide us into existence. I want to thank him for all his energy and wisdom and a thank you also to Emily Brett for all her support. I am now taking up the reins, for the time being at least. 

The big thing we are sorting out this year is a number of retreats in conjunction with Southwark Cathedral and Kew Gardens. We are currently finalising some dates, but we are hoping to have three days this year when St Anne’s will host a retreat from the Cathedral. The first will be a Clergy Retreat Day on the 4th June led by the Dean of Southwark Cathedral, the Very Rev’d Mark Oakley. The pattern of these days will be something like this:

9.30 Said Eucharist at St Anne’s (for those who can make it)

10.00 Coffee and Registration 

10.20 Welcome, Canon Dr Giles Fraser

10.30 - 12.30 Guided walk around Kew Gardens 

12.30 - 1.30 BYO Lunch at St Anne’s

1.30 – 2.30 Speaker: Gardeners/academics/staff at Kew Gardens in conversation with Giles Fraser about an aspect of their work 

2.45 - 3.45 Speaker: The Very Rev’d Mark Oakley

4.00 - 5.00 Choral Evensong with Southwark Cathedral Choir. Preacher TBC

The first of these on 4th June will be for the clergy – after that they will be open to congregations in the Diocese. The reason we are doing clergy first is that we hope that they will go back to their churches and sell these retreat days to their congregations. The cost of these days will be £10 per person. We are going to limit numbers to 60 people per day.

These retreats will be an opportunity to reach out to people across the Diocese, to have some welcome time to reflect, to spend some time in a beautiful place, to do some thinking together on the relationship between theology and the environment, and to pray together at evensong. We hope these retreats will be opportunities to feel more connected to God’s world. 

We have also been thinking about how we might helpfully curate the time people spend in the Gardens. And whilst some will want to just wander about, some may want some structure. So we have commissioned the writer Rhidian Brook to produce for us a “Station of the Trees” – a kind of prayer walk through the Gardens. This will be ready later in the year. 

As well as these retreat days, we have a couple of talks planned.

Richard Barley, the Head of Gardens will be returning to Australia after over a decade of being in charge of the Gardens. I will be in conversation with him at St Anne’s on the 1st April. Tickets available here.

And later in the year, Lucy Winkett, the Rector of St James Piccadilly, and Broadcaster, has agreed to come and talk about radical theology and the environment. The date has yet to be sorted. 

The KTG website will be updated as we get all these dates properly fixed up. 

I hope this tantalises you and that you will continue to keep us in your prayers. We hugely appreciate your interest. 

Best wishes,

Rev'd Canon Dr Giles Fraser

Vicar of St Anne's, Kew