I believe in trees, says Lumley the pagan as she speaks openly about her religious beliefs for first time



Absolutely Fabulous actress Joanna Lumley spoke about her spirituality in an interview for an ITV documentary about the story of Noah's Ark

The investigation into the origins of the flood story forced Lumley to confront her own beliefs

Joanna: Religion is so important for the pagan star

Joanna Lumley has revealed that she is a pagan and a believer ‘in the trees’.

It is the first time the Absolutely Fabulous actress, who was raised a Christian, has spoken openly about her religious beliefs and spirituality.



The 66-year-old made the admission in an interview about The Quest for the Ark, a documentary examining the story of Noah and the flood which she will present for ITV1 this month.

The investigation into the origins of the flood story, which features in the three world faiths – Christianity, Islam and Judaism – forced Lumley to confront her own beliefs.

‘I think I’m a pagan, but a believer in all. I kind of believe in the trees. Do you know?’ she said in the interview with Radio Times magazine.

‘I think most of us are curious. Which is why religion is so important to people. We all want to find out “What’s it all about, Alfie?” before we book out completely.

‘I was brought up as a Christian – first in India, in a house which had all these masses of Buddhist images, in a country where Hinduism reigned – and then in the Far East where the call of the muezzin [the Islamic call to prayer] was heard every morning.

‘I’m a fellow traveller with all these faiths, but I haven’t got a personal tradition.

‘The message I would take from the story of the flood as God’s punishment is that we are all responsible for behaving properly on the planet. Look after it, because it could go badly wrong.’

Lumley, who described herself as a Darwinist and ‘not a Creationist’, revealed that she has had a lifelong fascination with the story of Noah and his Ark.

‘I have an idea that when a notion persists throughout the ages and across the globe, it probably contains some fundamental truth. It’s not as simple as “no smoke without fire”. But on the other hand there’s something about the timing of this,’ she said.

‘There have been horrifying floods, some extraordinary climate changes, so now seemed as good a time as any to address the notion of a cataclysmic event.

Everything points to the fact that there was a flood alarming enough to be recorded in Sumerian history, which predates the main world religions.

‘So I think that human beings – who are responsible for pretty much everything we know in the way of alteration to the earth – probably made some sense, to their own ends, of a flood that really happened.’

Ab Fab: What would Patsy, played by Lumley (pictured), make of the actresses pagan views?



