St. Elizabeth’s Centre is a 100-year-old care facility for people with epilepsy. The Centre also comprises a special school for young people with epilepsy. That year, the Centre was planning events in which the Centre, the school and local residents could join together to celebrate its 100th anniversary. The project leader of the 100th anniversary events was Mr. Ray Rolfe, an artist.. He also participated in and helped run the tree planting ceremony at the Finsbury Park, London in 2001. At that time, he felt that “a positive consciousness was developed among the participants” and that’s why he applied for the tree planting at the St. Elizabeth’s Centre.
On the day of the tree planting ceremony, patients and their families got together at the Centre’s chapel and put the persimmon leaves with wishes for peace on the tree of shimmering rainbow colors. The ceremony was attended by patients and their families, the local high school students and the director of the Henry Moore Foundation. After they listened to the introduction of the project, they all marched down to the planting site carrying flags of peace and keeping rhythm with flags, drums, maraca, etc. They planted two seedlings and at the same time buried a box contained persimmon leaves on which wishes for peace were written at the foot of the trees.
A lot of patients who were staying at the Centre participated in the ceremony and especially the older generation who had experienced war made warm remarks. They are the ones who lost their friends and town in the war, and they are the living witness to the war, yearning for peace. They were truly happy to meet with the seedlings. Sister Annette, the representative of the Centre, told us that “We are not just going to nurture the seedlings alone but we will invite and encourage exchange of various types of people and trees there, and will definitely make it “a forest of peace’. It’s not going to be a woodland where the same kind of trees grow but by making it a forest, we will nurture and protect everything – we want to make it such a place.” “Persimmon tree of peace” and “Peace tapestry”, which were on display on the day and “Persimmon tree mosaic”, the work in progress, will be displayed at the additional facility that will be opened sometime in the near future.
