Our religion communities are accountable for lots of land. The Episcopal Church holds titles and stewards numerous acres of land the place now we have congregations, camps, convention facilities, colleges, farms, universities, seminaries, monasteries, cemeteries, diocesan places of work, and extra. If we had an correct depend of our acreage, we in all probability have extra land per church member than any religion group in america.
We now have a number of church gardens, and there may be room for extra. We are able to additionally steward our land in methods which can be regenerative by pollinating our neighbors’ yards, supporting the broader group, defending our watersheds, composting our meals waste, mitigating local weather change, and offering habitat for wildlife. It’s an countless checklist!
How Good Information Gardens Started
In the course of the very early days of COVID in 2020, Jerusalem Greer, then the Workers Officer for Evangelism within the Workplace of the Presiding Bishop, got here up with the concept of Good News Gardens (GNG). She reached out to Nurya Love Parish at Plainsong Farm and to me about bringing her imaginative and prescient to actuality.
In her faculty years, Jerusalem studied victory gardens throughout World Warfare I and II and introduced that information to the founding of Good Information Gardens. As Madeleine Compagnon says in “The Surprising Backstory of Victory Gardens,” “cultivating the earth as a response to moments of disaster dates again over a century, however not simply as a soothing exercise. Throughout World Warfare I, writes Rose Hayden-Smith, a major Victory Garden movement promoted the idea of gardening as a civic duty” (JSTOR Every day [May 15, 2020]).
Initially of COVID, we witnessed information reviews of meals financial institution shortages, naked grocery store cabinets, and a scarcity of seeds to plant meals gardens. Together with feeding our households and people closest to us, we have been reminded of those that undergo continual starvation and meals insecurity. Our name to feed the hungry turned even louder: “I used to be hungry and also you gave me one thing to eat” (Mt 25:35, NIV).
Now now we have developed ecumenical companions who’re part of rising the Good Information Gardens Motion. GNG has benefited from inspiration, concepts, and partnership with a wide range of associates and companions, together with: Presbyterian Hunger Program, World Renew, ELCA World Hunger, United Methodist Church Food Justice, Gleaning Network of the Society of Saint Andrew, and FaithLands.
Getting Began with a Good Information Backyard
Good Information Gardens is an easy concept for our gardens and lawns at dwelling and at church:
1. Plant
Decide to planting greater than you’d below common circumstances with the intention to share the bounty.
2. Pray
Decide to praying each day for our church and our world to type loving, liberating, life-giving relationships with all of creation by the higher use of our land—personally and communally.
3. Proclaim
Decide to proclaiming the love of God by phrase and instance by sharing your
Good Information Backyard dedication, standing, and story.
What If Your Group Can’t Plant a Backyard?
Don’t let the phrase “backyard” scare you off. Everybody could be part of Good Information Gardens. It simply takes a little bit creativeness.
Listed below are some concepts and examples from communities who’ve discovered inventive methods to get entangled within the motion:
- Host and have a tendency beehives – Put beehives in your church roof or put up mason bee hives in your yard; take a look at the beekeeping ministry at Saint Mark’s Cathedral in Seattle for concepts
- Compost – You are able to do bokashi composting in a tiny residence and donate your compost and tea to a area people backyard; one parish that’s spreading the phrase about this composting technique is Episcopal Church of the Resurrection in Roslyn, WA
- Rooftop gardening – How about your roof? Take a look at the Hell’s Kitchen Farm Project on the Metro Baptist Church roof in NYC
- Plant an orchard or microforest – How a few church orchard or microforest that your grandchildren and future generations can get pleasure from? St. Peter & All Saints Episcopal Church in Kansas Metropolis, MO has created a “giving grove” on its land, and the Communion Forest presents quite a few concepts for getting concerned in defending and restoring forests throughout the Anglican Communion
- Assist Black meals ecosystems – Get entangled with the Black Food Security Network, an ecumenical and nationwide initiative that gives alternatives for collaboration and inspiration
- Take part in land restoration – Small-scale prairie restoration is an effective way for communities situated on grasslands, like All Saints Episcopal Church in Northfield, MN, to take care of creation; you’ll be able to be taught extra about this course of on the Episcopal Grasslands Network Gathering in April 2025
- Work for justice and restore with Indigenous neighbors – Good Courage Farm in Hutchinson, MN, for instance, has created a land acknowledgement and “pay[s] a land tribute (equal to the present property tax) to the Indian Land Tenure Foundation“; St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in White, Protect, ND is enterprise “environmental reparations” by constructing a prayer path and backyard that inform the story of the displacement of Arikara communities from that space, in keeping with Melodie Woerman’s article “North Dakota church plans prayer path, traditional garden as environmental reparations for Native Americans displaced 70 years ago by river dam project” (Episcopal Information Service [Apr. 13, 2023])
- Plant native vegetation – When you have a turf grass yard, transition the panorama to native vegetation; take a look at “Kill Your Lawn (or Churchyard),” an episode from the SpadeSpoonSoul podcast that options the story of how St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Previous Ellicott Metropolis, MD reworked their panorama
- Study extra about agrarian ministry – The Stevenson School for Ministry is providing an Agrarian Ministry class and certificate that begins on-line in January 2025
Connecting and Sharing with Others
Being part of Good Information Gardens is as simple as planting, praying, and proclaiming. You may be a part of as a person or along with your group. As soon as you’re on board, it is best to register at the Good News Gardens website. You’ll obtain a daily publication, notices for month-to-month Zoom gatherings, and invites to in-person gatherings. You may as well order a GNG signal or obtain graphics to make your personal signal or banner.
Together with the GNG web site and archives, there are a variety of storytelling platforms for concepts and inspiration. Listed below are just a few:
I additionally invite you to share your concepts and examples with me. You may join with me at my web site: “The Faithful Agrarian.”
“Might your toes tread calmly
inside this treasured backyard,
and imprints left behind
be merely the place you paused
to sow a seed of affection,
the place now a flower blooms.”
Celtic Backyard Prayer
Header picture is from All Souls Episcopal Church in North Fort Myers, FL; first extra picture is from Good Braveness Farm in Hutchinson, MN and brought by the article writer, Brian Sellers-Petersen; second extra picture exhibits Brian Cleary and Bob Burns within the Good Information Backyard at All Souls Episcopal Church in North Fort Myers, FL; and the third extra picture is from the Group of St. John Baptist in Mendham, NJ and brought by Julie Crawford
