Plant, Pray, and Proclaim

 

A  group of gardeners from St. Luke’s in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. From left to right, the Rev. David Morris, Donna Drake, Roberto Morales and Jimmie Reed. Photo: Donna Drake

We have plenty of flower beds in our large suburban backyard here in Belleville, but we also have three raised vegetable beds which have been the source of food for our table and delight for our grandchildren -- who knew that pulling a carrot could bring so much joy? 

Last year we also applied for and planted a raised bed in a community garden  not far from our home. There are about a dozen of these Community Development Council beds on the property of the St. Columba Presbyterian  congregation and the water supply is from their building. Many churches have land which has been transformed into gardens such as these and it's a wonderful initiative. Whether they produce veggies for the less fortunate, or give opportunities to garden for those who don't have property, or just provide the pleasure of getting dirt under fingernails, these projects are good news. 

I read recently about an initiative in Philadelphia called Good New Gardens, which sounds wonderful:

Good News Gardens, an initiative of the [Episcopal] church’s Evangelism and Creation Care offices, launched last spring. It blends faith and agriculture and asks participants to plant, pray and proclaim, with the hope of feeding those in need while stewarding land and fostering community. Good News Gardens has gained enough traction that the church recently hired its first coordinator/agrarian evangelist to support a widening vision of how Episcopalians can connect and care for each other while tending the earth.

           Beekeeping at St. Mark’s Cathedral, Seattle, Washington. Photo courtesy of Brian Sellers-Petersen

The expressions of this project are varied in different locations, including beekeeping on the roof of a cathedral. As a one-time hobby beekeeper I'm impressed. 

There is a photo in the piece I read which shows a statue of St. Fiacre, the patron saint of gardeners in the midst of a ploughed field. We have our own St. Fiacre who is complaining about being cooped up in the garage all Winter and is impatient about resuming his spot in a flower bed. 

In scripture, abundant spiritual life is often right alongside the abundance of gardens and fields. When our flower and vegetable gardens come to life there is always a sense of creation and recreation, which is profoundly spiritual and a reflection of our Christian hope. And we are the Groundlings of the Creation story in Genesis, "adamah" -- dirt people, and proud of it.

Read more and be inspired. I love that a bed or two was planted between gravestones in one location. 

It won't be long now!

https://www.episcopalnewsservice.org/2021/03/03/good-news-gardens-begins-its-second-year-of-praying-planting-and-proclaiming/ 

St. Fiacre watching over Jerusalem Greer’s garden in Arkansas. Greer is The Episcopal Church’s staff officer for evangelism and the creator of the Good News Gardens program. Photo courtesy of Jerusalem Greer