Reimagining Gardens as Sacred Space

At the Harriet Tubman Regional Ministry Network’s annual Creation Care Evening Prayer service, Canon Wright provided a Rite for Blessing for the “Garden of Hope” Good News Garden. Since the pandemic the Garden of Hope, located at the Community of St John Baptist, has extended opportunities for people to gather in community.

The story behind the Garden of Hope began eight years ago during “Joining Jesus on the Journey” – the 80-mile walk with Bishop Mark Beckwith across the diocese from the Delaware River to the Hudson River. For me, this pilgrimage was a reflective time to plan for retirement years and to discover where the spiritual gift of service and the passion for Creation could be used as God planned. It was an opportunity to discover the needs and diversity of our diocese and congregations and the regions they serve.

As someone with a passion for God’s marvelous creation, I felt a calling to garden, to address food security, and to connect our younger and older generations with opportunities to learn and grow in service. A couple years later Presiding Bishop Michael Curry chose Creation Care as a targeted ministry and the Episcopal Church embarked on the Good News Gardens program.

In retirement, I discovered the gift of listening to God in a powerful way. With patience, biblical reflections, and through prayers, garden restoration and extension project opportunities sprung up all around. I was blessed with the guidance and enthusiasm of the Sisters of the Community of St John Baptist at their Garden of Hope. Cross Roads Camp & Retreat Center was open to the idea of installing an eight-bed garden. I found inspiration and joined The Sharing Project as an advisor to teens who saw a need and mobilized to address food security. Gardeners at the local community garden readily filled a donation box with their excess bounty. Boy Scouts took on service projects for a greenhouse and new raised beds. Grow It Green, an urban community farm in Morristown, offered advice for greenhouse production techniques. Four churches united to support the Garden of Hope. Good News Garden’s monthly webinars and Compline united those on the garden journey with time for reflective prayer and sharing of stories. God’s bounty was and continues to be plentiful.

Good News stories can be found throughout this journey. When the Good News Garden at Cross Roads was installed, it was never envisioned that it would be the site of a learning day for the Prison Ministry’s Kid Outreach program, where Church of the Messiah members offered a barbeque to many of the kids they knew from the VBS program they hosted at House of Prayer, Newark. Gardens are gifts that keep on giving.

This past summer at Cross Roads’, Adventure Campers engaged in service work tending the Good News Garden, planting second round crops, and using thrift shop materials to build scarecrows.

Presiding Bishop Curry’s Agrarian Ministry Team, who has been following the Garden of Hope’s Facebook posts, reached out to ask to see The Garden of Hope in person. They attended a meet and greet and Evening Prayer at the Convent and are helping to share the Garden of Hope’s story.

While the Garden of Hope yielded over 1,000 pounds of fresh produce last year, there is more to its story. In 2021, Bishop Carlye Hughes offered a webinar on experimental church formation featuring Fr. Lorenzo Lebrija, director of TryTank. This webinar gave us the opportunity to reimagine sacred spaces and open the door – or in this case the garden gates – more boldly. Fr. Lorenzo suggested that the Garden of Hope be made accessible to those with mobility issues, and we envisioned a way to draw in community with a year-round series of events focused on social issues and opportunities to celebrate the natural world.

Then we turned to funding our vision. While the garden did not fit the criteria for Alleluia funding, Bishop Hughes and John King, diocesan Director of Administration, embraced the idea, and issued the 4th BCEF Call of 2023 to support the garden’s accessibility renovations. Donations exceeded the cost to make the outdoor worship space and garden accessible, allowing for the purchase of additional raised beds.

Before we enter the Season of Creation, consider challenging yourself and each other to use the upcoming weeks to reimagine stewardship solutions which engage community building and to discover how your gifts can be used in this journey.

Closing in prayer:

Lord, our Creator, guide our diocese and its collaborative partners to continue on a creation care journey. Guide us to use our gifted talents and time as instruments of your peace – striving to plant, sow, and make connections and to share stories so that others may grow. Bless our garden and property efforts. May we discover your glory in the upcoming Season of Creation as stewards in community with others. Amen.