Glimpses into the Garden Church Gathering

What a beautiful Gathering we had yesterday! Here’s a glimpse of it for those of you who couldn’t be with us in person. 
When you’re making church from scratch, the trunk of the car is key. Those leading arrived early and scouted out our meeting place….
...and then enlisted people to help set up as they arrived. One of the mottos we are engaging is, “give the work away.” Feeling useful and being a part of something engages us in a way that many other things don’t. It’s part of our whole “feed and be fed” bit. And so, as tempting as it was to get everything set up before people arrived, we restrained ourselves and had the joy of an entire artistic “name tag team” form, bonding over a “fill the watering cans” run, and worship space designers preparing the table. We then gathered around, ready to “make church together.”  Janis and Rachel shared with us how to plant and care for our lettuce seeds.
And then we got to work!
 People shared about the people in their lives that they were going to give their second pot to. Neighbors who they’d been wanting to connect with, homebound grandparents, close friend who is going through a loss. The Garden Church goodness spreading out into the world. Meanwhile, Lisa led the Garden Church Choir (“that’s you!”) in learning a song to sing during worship.Our youngest gardener won the prize… and made six pots!  At the Garden Church, we work together…. We moved into our time of worship and unpacked our Tabernacle, the marker points of God dwelling with us as we are a community on the move.  Helpers were at the ready and set out the Bible, the candle, the bread and wine, the water and our icon of the Tree of Life. We then rung the gong and entered into the sacred silence where we can hear the Divine speaking to us.  Hearing stories form the Word. 
And reflections on how we can engage our spiritual lives. 
The community furthers the sermon in their reflections.
 And then we share together in the Sacred Meal. The bread of life… …and the cup of salvation. Feed and be fed. Our Sacred Meal led into our community meal, where we enjoyed delightful food and good company. 
 We enjoyed the beauty of the choir singing and then teaching us, “This Pretty Planet” and by the end had the whole circle singing it as a three-part round, complete with movements and an ode to the scene behind us as we sang, “Golden sun going down, gentle blue giant, spin us around.” May the Lord bless you and keep you….as we go out to love and to serve.
Everyone take your pots of future salad… Packing up and leaving with full hearts under the glorious blessing of creation and our Creator.  Let’s be church together again soon!

Add your offering to the basket for the work of the Garden Church.

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