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“I was instantly drawn to the theoretical side of the Garden Church. As a community psychologist, I’m really interested in civic engagement and empowerment, and alternative settings to allow those processes to shape out. The Garden Church just seems like a natural fit.” -Emma Ogley-Oliver, Community Psychologist
Give and share! http://givingtuesday.razoo.com/story/The-Garden-Church-Fund
“As the Lord says, why say “Lord! Lord!” and not do what I said to do? That’s the beautiful thing about The Garden Church, we’re all participating in it. The Swedenborgian faith is about love, and about action, it’s about living. The word ‘love’ is hollow, without actually loving…and doing….and believing.” -Cory, The Garden Church, San Pedro, CA.
Give and share! http://givingtuesday.razoo.com/story/The-Garden-Church-Fund
“I’m very excited about the Garden Church in San Pedro. Ultimately, they are going to be raising food, and worshiping together, and eating together. I think that is a really important model to explore. It certainly was a model that Jesus used. Even though, I live in New York, I financially support the Garden Church. Even a small amount, for me, allows me to watch this beautiful thing grow. And for the people participating – it supports their community.” –Russ Jennings, Host of the podcast, “Love in a Dangerous Time”.
Give and share! http://givingtuesday.razoo.com/story/The-Garden-Church-Fund
“As someone who’s thought a lot about faith, but never knew what it meant to engage in the Bible, and who wasn’t raised with religion at all, it’s been a real blessing to have a wonderful pastor like Anna. And to have a community that is supportive of difficult questions, and really intellectually stimulating conversations about what it means to believe in God. – Rachel Burrows, The Garden Church
Give and share! http://givingtuesday.razoo.com/story/The-Garden-Church-Fund
“I support Anna Woofenden’s vision of The Garden Church because I believe in the Biblical, classical image of the garden, God creating humans in the garden, and feeding people. It is a wonderful thing.” -Junchol
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“The reason I’m so excited about The Garden Church is I believe that there are thousands of people who crave not only physical food nourishment, but also spiritual nourishment that can come about by people coming together as communities and growing things. Whether or not it’s literally food or, growing relationships, growing their own attitudes about the world and why they were placed here, and how they can express their love for their friends and their neighbor and their families.” -Robert Carr, Treasurer, Pacific Coast Association of the New Jerusalem; Member, Swedenborgian Church of San Francisco.
Give and share! http://givingtuesday.razoo.com/story/The-Garden-Church-Fund
“I’m invested in the Garden Church because, the church is changing. I love the church and the future of it matters. And so when people have conversations with me and say, ‘the church is dying’ I can tell them, ‘let me tell you about the Garden Church.“ –Rev. Amy Gall Ritchie
Give and share today! http://givingtuesday.razoo.com/story/The-Garden-Church-Fund
The Garden Church is re-imagining church as we work together, worship together, and eat together.
We’re so excited about the Garden Church, which is being planted in San Pedro, California! And we want you—wherever you live—to be part of it!
We are re-imagining what it means to be church, gathering a group of people together to create a church that is a communal garden, and a communal garden that is church.
Part of re-imagining church is re-imagining our funding sources and methods. The way the world works is changing, and the funding for new expressions of church aren’t primarily coming from our institutions any more.
Instead, we have the opportunity to build a community of support made up of individuals who share our passion. We believe there are people all over who want to be part of doing something to make the world a better place—perhaps including you!
We need to raise $2,000 a month for the next year from our Cultivation Team. That’s 200 people giving $10 a month, or 100 giving $20, or 50 people giving $40—you get the idea. Give what amount is right for you, monthly for the next year, and be an essential part of the team that is re-imagining church and bringing more heaven here on earth.
Be part of our Cultivation Team by praying, pledging, and participating in being church together.
You:
Pray—hold good intentions and energy for the work and being of the Garden Church in whatever way is true to you.
Pledge—to give regularly (monthly is incredibly helpful for our budgeting, but of course we welcome any way that you feel moved to give) during our startup season until we establish local financial abundance.
Participate—Stay connected and participate from afar through engaging in work, worship, and eating in the spirit of the Garden Church in whatever way you are inspired.
We:
Pray—Our community will pray regularly for you.
Pledge—We pledge to share in the experience through monthly newsletters, audio and video sharing of sermons and worship, regular social media posts, and stories of how the Garden Church is growing.
Participate—We’ll share stories, ideas, liturgy, lessons learned, inspirations, and whatever else we encounter as we grow. And you are always welcome to come join us in San Pedro and spend some time working, worshiping, and eating together with this community. Because you’re part of the Cultivation Team and there’s a place for you at the Table.
Our goal is to gather this collection of generous pledges by #GivingTuesday (you’ve heard of BlackFriday, CyberMonday, we believe in #GivingTuesday), December 2, 2014. Pledge, celebrate, and spread the invitation!
Give and share today! http://givingtuesday.razoo.com/story/The-Garden-Church-Fund
~Be sure to check the “monthly” reoccurring donation option at check out~
~Your gift to the Garden Church Startup fund is tax deductible through our denominational body, the Pacific Coast Association of the Swedenborgian Church~
A sermon about Word, the Bible, and how as we want to consciously choose to engage it as a life-giving, rich, deep, wide text that points to loving God and loving our neighbor as we form a community and re-imagine church.
Audio complete with train whistles and the sound of the wind!
Rev. Anna Woofenden
The Garden Church
San Pedro, CA
10.26.14
Podcast: Play in new window | Download
The Garden Church gathered this Sunday to be church as we worked and worshiped and ate together.
People were greeted in the parking lot of a local park, with a “Welcome to the Garden Church!” and handed a trash bag and gloves.
Soon the hill was filled with people with black plastic bags in one hand, bending down and gathering up the litter and debris that was covering the area.
And in what seemed like no time, the area went from a messy dumping ground to a clean slice of nature. I watched as people went from individually picking up trash in various areas, then slowly migrating together to form a trash-collecting cluster of community caring for the earth.
After celebrating how much trash we’d picked up in a short half hour, we washed our hands, grabbed our picnic stuff, and headed over the hill to a grassy spot under a tree.
We spread out blankets and set up our worship table and put our picnic items in the shade.
Our youngest community members helped me to begin our time of worship together by setting out the objects that mark our worship space together. We set out the Word, the bread, the cup, the light, the water, the bell, and the tree of life. As we unwrapped each one we talked about the meaning and the vision for who we are as a church and how God is present amongst us.
As we moved into worship we spent time in silence that our bell ushered us into, finding silence in and amongst the sounds and movement around us. We noticed the wind blowing, the feel of the grass, and how the ocean had places that looked purple in it.
We then shared the story of the Children of Israel and how when they traveled, they set up their tabernacle and we heard the story of the Manna, the bread of life that God gave them in the wilderness. And we talked about what this story means in our community, and our lives.
Which led us into sharing the Sacred Meal, Communion, Holy Supper together, gathered around God’s table and feeding and being fed by each other.
The Sacred Meal then led into our Community Meal and we enjoyed fresh sandwiches, delicious fruit and crisp creative salad.
During our meal we heard people’s stories about where they find belonging and feel at home in the world, and what it means to be church together.
We closed in prayer as we stood together holding hands in a circle and thanked God for the gift of worship and community.
We packed up our tabernacle and cleaned up our picnic. Chatted and finished conversations and then walked back down to the parking lot together.
Good to be church together. Let’s do it again soon.
