First principle: The entire earth, including all life thereon, belongs to God.

The Creator has entrusted the earth’s resources and all forms of life to our care, but He retains full ownership. He said, “I, the Lord, stretched out the heavens, and built the earth, my very handiwork; and all things therein are mine.” All that is on the earth belongs to God, including our families, our physical bodies, and even our very lives.

The UK group of Latter-day Saint Earth Stewardship was recently invited to attend the “Light The North” Young Adult Convention in Aviemore, Scotland, an event for young single and married adults from all over the world including Australia, the United States, South Africa, and, of course, England.

Graham Winkle, leader of the UK Group, led a workshop about earth stewardship! He taught about the fascinating doctrines that relate to our connection to the earth and all its creatures, as well as the mental and spiritual healing qualities working in nature can bring.

Graham explained, “I came from a stressful customer service and teaching background to becoming self-sufficient and growing a forest garden, but that may not be your journey. We all start from where we are and do a little more each day.

“I love the book The Man Who Planted Trees by the French author Jean Giono—so to help the young adults achieve 'a little more' we decided as part of the workshop to ask each person to write their name on a lollipop stick that we would take back home to label a tree we would plant for them [on our small farm].

“Everyone should have the chance to plant a tree and to have one planted beside one of your friend’s trees seems even better.”

The tree-planting was part of a two-way promise: workshop participants agreed to plant something themselves, however small, and to let LDS Earth Stewardship UK know. The Winkle family has started planting the Young Adult’s trees in earnest! To see their hard work, take a look at their Facebook page. The newly planted trees are also part of the late Queen's Green Canopy initiative to plant a tree for the Jubilee 2022 (which has now been extended to 2023).

Graham also discussed some of the sustainability efforts from the Church in his workshop. Many of the group were pleasantly surprised at some of the work the church is already doing but agreed they would like to see more done.

To quote Graham again, "This was a great experience and I hope this is the first of many conventions we cover in the future!”

For more information about the UK chapter of LDSES, contact Graham at .