Ecotones
Borderlands of Wonder
At the 2025 Contemplative Fire Community weekend, our theme was ‘Balancing at the Edge’. Contemplative Fire is known as a Community of Christ at the Edge.
During our Agape Gathering at the end of the weekend, we reflected on the Edge as a place of Transformation, by exploring the concept of ‘ecotones’.
The word ecotone comes from a combination of two Greek words, oikos for house and tonos meaning tension. Ecotones are places where two different ecological systems meet. They are zones of transition in nature, characterised by the ‘tension’ of species mingling from different environments.
Ecotones act as ecological thresholds. Their boundaries mark the change from one environment to another while allowing interaction between them. They have unique conditions rich in biodiversity, enabling them to become vibrant meeting grounds between distinct ecosystems.
They often host unique ‘edge’ species, creating the phenomenon known as the Edge Effect. Thriving edges house the greatest variety and populations of wildlife than their bordering habitats.
But ecotones are not merely boundaries or edges. An ecotone is the area where two distinct ecosystems meet, integrate, and transform one another. They are dynamic sites of active transformation, allowing for the integration of species and characteristics from both ecosystems.
Ecotones have been called ‘Borderlands of Wonder.’ They are thresholds. They are Edge places. They are places of transition, of integration and of transformation.
These words describing ecotones – threshold, edge, transition, integration, and transformation – have all been part of the vocabulary that describes the environment of Contemplative Fire.
So, what do ecotones have to do with the edges of my landscape?
What if our Edge places, whatever they may be, at a personal level or in Community, have the potential to become ‘Borderlands of Wonder’?
What if our Edge places are poised on the boundary, in the words of our founder, ‘between certainty and uncertainty, the continuum that bridges the both/and of contemplation and action’?
What if the Edge, with all its creative tension, is the place of transformation, enabling the contemplative paradox of ‘not two, but one… desert and garden, silence and sound, withdrawal and engagement….’?
The accompanying seven images are all examples of ecotones here in the UK. Our Invitation is to spend some time with them and contemplate the gift of our Edge as our spiritual ‘ecotone’ or ‘home’ of diversity and the place of creative ‘tension’ and transformation.
The short poem below, shared at the Gathering, might also help with our reflections.
Christ our Edge
Christ our Edge, Ecotone Spirit
Where Creator God continues to speak
Birthing new moments of Being and Life
Christ of challenge and change
Christ our Edge, our meeting and mingling
Where Heaven and Earth become one through One
Evolving, transforming, the mix of Creation
Borderland Wonder
Our being made new
ECW 2025
‘Borderlands of Wonder’ is a term used by Earth.Org, a global environmental network
Click each link below to contemplate the different ecotones we spent time with in our agape meal during the Balancing at the Edge Community Weekend, October 2025:
Charlotte Wright, Contemplative Fire Companion
October 2025