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The original forests of the central and northern highlands of Ethiopia are almost entirely confined to the "sacred groves" surrounding the churches and monasteries of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church. In Ethiopian tradition sanctity starts from the Tabot on the altar of the church and extends to the outer periphery of the compound. Church forests serve as shade and shelter for the sacred, and are seen as integral parts of the churchyard.The Act of Gebre Menfes Qiddus (GGMQ) is an original Ethiopic hagiographic text. It depicts the life and struggle of the saint in the wilderness of forests and mountains. Hagiographic texts like GGMQ are in Ethiopia not mere historical records, but texts linked to the daily liturgical services that shape and mould the perceptions and actions of their readers and listeners. The aim of the thesis is to analyse how GGMQ presents the relation between the saint and the natural environment in order to see if there is a correlation with how the Ethiopian tradition has preserved the church forests and has considered these to be sacred spaces representing the wilderness. The aim is achieved through a close reading of the text and its intertexts using four selected themes as analytical instruments: ascetic estrangement, coexistence with non-human creation, identification with the angels and reconciliation of opposites. The analysis, and the fact that the GGMQ is one of the most venerated texts, read and heard with great liturgical solemnity, show that there are good reasons to believe that the constant reading of GGMQ has made and makes a significant impact upon the readers' views on the mutual co-habitation of human and non-human creation and the development of an awareness of the need to preserve the wilderness and non-human creation.

The purposes of this article-based thesis are to explore and understand preaching as a practice in general, and the practice of preaching in digital culture and spaces in particular. Informed by the practice theory of Theodore Schatzki, it presents the results of a cross-case analysis of four different case studies of the practice of preaching in digital culture and spaces in Swedish protestant churches. Based on the analysis, Frida Mannerfelt argues that the deep relationality of the practice of preaching involves not just humans and texts but also material arrangements and that this feature often is amplified in digital culture and spaces. While there were examples of a decrease, overall, there was an increase in interaction, negotiation, and interdependency. In light of this, Manner-felt contends that the practice of preaching in digital culture and spaces is characterized by co-preaching. Moreover, Mannerfelt argues that some of the implications of co-preaching are the enabling and encouragement of dialogue, imagination, and the priestly function of the priesthood of all believers, but also an increased vulnerability for the co-preachers involved.