An invitation from The Episcopal Church Creation Care and Evangelism Departments:
Our Mission
The mission of the Good News Gardens movement, as led by The Episcopal Church, is to partner with people in transformational agrarian ministry that feeds body, mind, and spirit. Good News Gardens is a church-wide movement of individuals, congregations, schools, colleges, seminaries, monasteries, camps and conference centers involved in a variety of food and creation care ministries – gardening, farming, beekeeping, composting, gleaning, feeding, food justice advocacy. The list goes on and on. Collectively Good News Gardens share their abundance, their prayers, and the Way of Love in their communities and beyond.
Our Call
As the Episcopal branch of the Jesus Movement, we believe that we called to follow Jesus Christ and his way of love, growing in faith and action, in order that we can bear witness to his way of love in and for the world. We believe that one place we can bear witness to this love is through our relationship with the land. We believe that when we commit to planting more (be it beehives or herb gardens,) praying more (with our words and our deeds) and proclaiming more (through our stories and our bounty) in order to share the loving, liberating, and life-giving Good News of God’s love with all people, we will find ourselves, our church, and our world transformed.
How to Join in the Movement:
- Plant: Commit to planting more than you would under average circumstances in order to share the bounty. This may mean you plant one window box of herbs when you have never planted any, or you add an extra row to your garden or an extra hen to your flock.
- 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. Not sure where to start? Don’t worry, we will be sending a monthly email with scripture, prayer, and practical resources.
- Proclaim: Commit to proclaiming the love of God through word and example by sharing your Good News Garden commitment, status, and story via social media channels, and personal testimonies (A great place to begin is by joining the Agrarian Ministries Group on Facebook). Click here to download a folder of shareable images and files, including postcards and yard signs.
Benefits of Joining:
When you commit to the Good News Garden Movement you will be joining Jesus and his way of love. To help you on your journey you will receive support in the following ways:
- Monthly newsletters that will include:
- Wisdom from leaders in Episcopal Agrarian, Evangelism, Creation Care, and Justice ministries.
- Practical links on growing and sharing the bounty
- Way of Love in the Garden Bible Study
- Prayers for Growers
- Additional videos, podcasts, and other helpful resource links.
- Community Support via the Agrarian Ministries of the Episcopal Church Facebook Group
- Good News Garden Webinars and Open Office Hours from Creation Care and Evangelism
Our 2024 Field Days event at Kanuga has been rescheduled for September 2024. Further details and registration information will be available in July 2024.
Field Days: Good News Gardens at Kanuga
Kanuga Conference Center 130 Kanuga Chapel Drive, Hendersonville, NC, United StatesJoin us on September 22-24, 2024 at Kanuga in Hendersonville, North Carolina. We are thrilled to welcome Dr. Mallory McDuff as our keynote speaker on Wednesday evening. Mallory will speak […]