Our faith communities are responsible for a lot of land. The Episcopal Church holds titles and stewards countless acres of land where we have congregations, camps, conference centers, schools, farms, universities, seminaries, monasteries, cemeteries, diocesan offices, and more. If we had an accurate count of our acreage, we probably have more land per church member than any faith community in the United States.
We have lots of church gardens, and there is room for more. We can also steward our land in ways that are regenerative by pollinating our neighbors’ yards, supporting the wider community, protecting our watersheds, composting our food waste, mitigating climate change, and providing habitat for wildlife. It’s an endless list!
How Good News Gardens Began
During the very early days of COVID in 2020, Jerusalem Greer, then the Staff Officer for Evangelism in the Office of the Presiding Bishop, came up with the idea of Good News Gardens (GNG). She reached out to Nurya Love Parish at Plainsong Farm and to me about bringing her vision to reality.
In her college years, Jerusalem studied victory gardens during World War I and II and brought that knowledge to the founding of Good News Gardens. As Madeleine Compagnon says in “The Surprising Backstory of Victory Gardens,” “cultivating the earth as a response to moments of crisis dates back over a century, but not just as a relaxing activity. During World War I, writes Rose Hayden-Smith, a major Victory Garden movement promoted the idea of gardening as a civic duty” (JSTOR Daily [May 15, 2020]).
At the beginning of COVID, we witnessed news reports of food bank shortages, bare supermarket shelves, and a shortage of seeds to plant food gardens. Along with feeding our families and those closest to us, we were reminded of those who suffer chronic hunger and food insecurity. Our call to feed the hungry became even louder: “I was hungry and you gave me something to eat” (Mt 25:35, NIV).
Now we have developed ecumenical partners who are a part of growing the Good News Gardens Movement. GNG has benefited from inspiration, ideas, and partnership with a variety of friends and partners, including: Presbyterian Hunger Program, World Renew, ELCA World Hunger, United Methodist Church Food Justice, Gleaning Network of the Society of Saint Andrew, and FaithLands.
Getting Started with a Good News Garden
Good News Gardens is a simple idea for our gardens and lawns at home and at church:
1. Plant
Commit to planting more than you would under average circumstances in order to share the bounty.
2. Pray
Commit to praying daily for our church and our world to form loving, liberating, life-giving relationships with all of creation through the better use of our land—personally and communally.
3. Proclaim
Commit to proclaiming the love of God through word and example by sharing your
Good News Garden commitment, status, and story.
What If Your Community Can’t Plant a Garden?
Don’t let the word “garden” scare you off. Everyone can be a part of Good News Gardens. It just takes a little imagination.
Here are some ideas and examples from communities who have found creative ways to get involved in the movement:
- Host and tend beehives – Put beehives on your church roof or put up mason bee hives in your backyard; check out the beekeeping ministry at Saint Mark’s Cathedral in Seattle for ideas
- Compost – You can do bokashi composting in a tiny apartment and donate your compost and tea to a local community garden; one parish that is spreading the word about this composting method is Episcopal Church of the Resurrection in Roslyn, WA
- Rooftop gardening – How about your roof? Check out the Hell’s Kitchen Farm Project on the Metro Baptist Church roof in NYC
- Plant an orchard or microforest – How about a church orchard or microforest that your grandchildren and future generations can enjoy? St. Peter & All Saints Episcopal Church in Kansas City, MO has created a “giving grove” on its land, and the Communion Forest offers numerous ideas for getting involved in protecting and restoring forests across the Anglican Communion
- Support Black food ecosystems – Get involved with the Black Food Security Network, an ecumenical and nationwide initiative that provides opportunities for collaboration and inspiration
- Participate in land restoration – Small-scale prairie restoration is a great way for communities located on grasslands, like All Saints Episcopal Church in Northfield, MN, to care for creation; you can learn more about this process at the Episcopal Grasslands Network Gathering in April 2025
- Work for justice and repair with Indigenous neighbors – Good Courage Farm in Hutchinson, MN, for example, has created a land acknowledgement and “pay[s] a land tribute (equivalent to the current property tax) to the Indian Land Tenure Foundation“; St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in White, Shield, ND is undertaking “environmental reparations” by building a prayer path and garden that tell the story of the displacement of Arikara communities from that area, according to 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 News Service [Apr. 13, 2023])
- Plant native plants – If you have a turf grass yard, transition the landscape to native plants; check out “Kill Your Lawn (or Churchyard),” an episode from the SpadeSpoonSoul podcast that features the story of how St. Peter’s Episcopal Church in Old Ellicott City, MD transformed their landscape
- Learn more about agrarian ministry – The Stevenson School for Ministry is offering an Agrarian Ministry class and certificate that starts online in January 2025
Connecting and Sharing with Others
Being a part of Good News Gardens is as easy as planting, praying, and proclaiming. You can join as an individual or with your community. Once you are on board, you should register at the Good News Gardens website. You will receive a regular newsletter, notices for monthly Zoom gatherings, and invitations to in-person gatherings. You can also order a GNG sign or download graphics to make your own sign or banner.
Along with the GNG website and archives, there are a number of storytelling platforms for ideas and inspiration. Here are a few:
- “Sharing the Bounty: Stories from the Good News Gardens Movement“
- Agrarian Ministries – Episcopal Church Facebook Group
- Stories of Food and Faith
- Good Courage Farm
- SpadeSpoonSoul Podcast
- Faithful Agrarian Blog
I also invite you to share your ideas and examples with me. You can connect with me at my website: “The Faithful Agrarian.”
“May your feet tread lightly
within this precious garden,
and imprints left behind
be simply where you paused
to sow a seed of love,
where now a flower blooms.”
Celtic Garden Prayer
Header image is from All Souls Episcopal Church in North Fort Myers, FL; first additional photo is from Good Courage Farm in Hutchinson, MN and taken by the article author, Brian Sellers-Petersen; second additional photo shows Brian Cleary and Bob Burns in the Good News Garden at All Souls Episcopal Church in North Fort Myers, FL; and the third additional photo is from the Community of St. John Baptist in Mendham, NJ and taken by Julie Crawford