For the Beauty of the Earth

In a recent review of four books by evangelical authors addressing our calling to “creation care,” Christianity Today recognized Steven Bouma-Prediger’s For the Beauty of the Earth: A Christian Vision for Creation Care (Baker Academic) as the most commendable, primarily because Bouma-Prediger ”faithfully treats texts in light of the larger biblical narrative and the cultures in which they were written.”

Read the full review of all four books here: Review in Christianity Today

FOOD AND FAITH

Food as a moral movement.  Growing veggies on faith home grounds Grace Lutheran’s straw bale project, Highland Baptist Community Garden, Westdale United etc. Growing food in community -Hill  St. Park community garden (faith group collaborative). Eating locally (Environment Hamilton). Gardens for newcomers (Hughson St Baptist church). Good Food Box. Fruit tree picking project. Canning and preserving, (Environment Hamilton). Sacred Heart’s farmer’s market and more!

Come out and learn from community leaders about what area faith communities are doing to help create food security for all people.

Visit booths and displays, enjoy light refreshments. All welcome!

When? Wednesday September 22nd

Where? Hughson St Baptist Church

383 Hughson Street N. Hamilton

Event starts at 7pm-9pm

Contact Beatrice Ekwa Ekoko at for more information or to register

bekoko@faith-commongood.net

905 549 0900

A Joint Project of Faith and the Common Good and Environment Hamilton with generous support of the Trillium Foundation

Food and Faith Poster 8.5 x 11

Visions of a Healthy City

Here’s a talk given by Greg Reader at a recent Greening Sacred Spaces workship on forming neighbourhood networks.

Visions of Healthy Cities

Hill Street Community Garden

(By Emma Cubitt)

The idea was initially given to me to start a garden in the (Kirkendall)

neighbourhood that was faith-based, and in fact I have had my eye on

this city-owned underused parcel of land for several years. Since

then, I have learned that other interested gardeners have had their

eyes on the site as well, but it does take a lot of determination to

get such a project started. The catalyst that helped move my idea

forward was meeting Katrina VandenBerg, a recent graduate of Redeemer

college with experience working for Green Venture in their community

garden and organizing kids programs. We learned that we both dreamed

about starting a garden in the neighbourhood, and by putting both of

our collective experiences and skills together we started to hatch the

idea of the HSCG.

We both decided that the Hill St. site was the right place to be, and

then we started to think about who would be interested in partnering.

Last summer I had helped organize a group called “Backyard Theology on

Tap” which was a gathering of people from various churches (First CRC,

New City, St. John the Evangelist, and Central Presbyterian – maybe

others) to welcome speakers on various philosophical and cultural

topics. Our first speaker was a friend named Jack Van Dorp, a recent

planning grad who had written his thesis on community gardens in

Hamilton. Ironically, Jack spoke about how churches could help start a

community garden, and I think several of the people who were there

that day are now part of the HSCG. By advertising for Backyard

Theology on Tap in the bulletins of these churches we began to build

relationships with these neighbourhood churches, and it was easy to

open up and continue these partnerships for the HSCG.

Last fall we put together an informative brochure about our vision for

the HSCG and invited all the local (i.e. within a 5 minute walk)

churches & neighbourhood associations to partner with us (we noted

that this meant being an active proponent by way of communicating to

the congregations about the garden, but not a financial obligation).

We had the five churches sign up right away (the four churches from

Backyard Theology on Tap plus First Unitarian) while I had followed up

with the other churches & synagogue in the neighbourhood a few times I

didn’t hear a definitive “yes” from these other groups, and so we

decided to try again next year once the garden was more than just an

idea.

Katrina and I started meeting with Cllr. McHattie (who has been a huge

help) and City staff to create an agreement for the lease of the land.

We asked First CRC to be the “primary partner” which means that we get

liability insurance through their insurer, our finances are filtered

through the church’s account (which means we have charitable status

for donations), and the church has signed the license agreement with

the City. Their role is HUGE, and we are very very thankful.

My husband, Graham, and Crystle Numan joined Katrina and I in January

and together we were able to negotiate with the City (which took

several meetings and many emails), advertise, fundraise, grant-write,

meet with adjacent neighbours, and eventually design and implement the

raised bed garden design. We easily have each put in over a hundred

hours by the end of this process – it is no small task!

We advertised for gardeners through the partnering churches,

neighbourhood association emails, Locke St. businesses, and posters on

hydro poles. We easily had our first 30 gardener household signed up

within a couple weeks, and then a hefty waiting list. Since then we

have asked gardeners to share their plots if they did not need the

entire 200 ft2 and now we have about 40 different households in the

garden. We built the raised beds in mid April with over 100

volunteers, including nearly all the gardeners, their friends &

family, and volunteers from the partnering churches. Three of the

pastors were available to participate in the opening ceremony before

the garden raising day, which included a blessing of the land and

future relationships.

The HSCG has been very blessed by the partnership of these churches,

the approx. $8000 in gift-in-kind donations we have received to built

the gardens and the shed, a grant, the many volunteers who have put

their backs into it, and our fantastic group of gardeners. The

gardeners all live within walking distance of the garden, and about

half are affiliated with the partnering churches. It is a very diverse

group of singles, couple & families with very different lifestyles,

incomes, and backgrounds. Many are new to Hamilton (not immigrants per

se, but new to Hamilton in the past 5 years or so).

We have a lot of ideas for how the garden can be used as a “third

space” for community building, as well as raising healthy food. I

would recommend anyone interested check out our web site

(www.hillstreetgarden.org) for pictures from the past few months and

other info about where we got our donations, etc. There is a tab on

there where you can sign up as a supporter to receive emails every

other week with updates on garden activities. There are many more

people involved in the garden than just the 40 households.

Feel free to stop by any time, but Wednesday

evenings are best to meet many of the gardeners (this evening has been

set aside by many for the summer as gardening time).

For more info go to http://hillstreetgarden.org/

Film Night at Meadowlands CRC

Denise Neutel will be screening a free documentary film, Friday June 11th @ 8pm. “The World According to Monsanto.” 211 Stonehenge Dr, Ancaster. For more info see www.mfcrc.com. Everyone welcome!

World Evangelical Alliance: Blessed Earth Event

WEA Announcement: Blessed Earth – Hope for Creation On April 21 at 7:30 p.m. Eastern Standard Time in the U.S., “Blessed Earth” will produce an event gathering the largest group of Christians ever to have a conversations about caring for God’s Creation.  Tens of thousands of churches and individuals from countries around the world are signed up to sign on to this simulcast, and you can too.  This event, which has been endorsed by the World Evangelical Alliance, will inspire and equip you to better care for God’s creation and better protect the poor.  Our obedience to scripture (Genesis 2:15) and our compassion for the vulnerable, should compel Christians to be responsible leaders on the 40th anniversary of Earth Day.  Go to www.blessedearth.org <http://www.blessedearth.org/> and sign up to worship and interact with us! Dr. Matthew Sleeth and Dr. Joel Hunter are hosts. Dr. Hunter is a member of the WEA North America Council. World Evangelical Alliance (WEA): World Evangelical Alliance is made up of 128 national evangelical alliances located in 7 regions and 104 associate member organizations. The vision of WEA is to extend the Kingdom of God by making disciples of all nations and by Christ-centered transformation within society. WEA exists to foster Christian unity, to provide an identity, voice and platform for the 420 million evangelical Christians worldwide.

KAIROS’ John Dillon Speaking at St James Anglican

John Dillon, Economic Justice Program Coordinator at KAIROS, will be speaking on Climate Change, Cap & Trade and Ecological Debt, at St James Anglican Church in Dundas Saturday Mar 10, 9:30 am – 2:00 pm. Click on this link for more details:

Poster Mar 20 2010

Handle With Care

The Mennonite central Committee has produced an excellent resource for churches.

Synopsis: A resource to inspire the church to take greater care of God’s creation. The four sessions focus on creation care theology, energy conservation, renewable energy and sustainable food systems.

Contributors include church leaders Bruxy Cavey, David Martin and Sandy Young, as well as local heroes Dave Klassen, Nina Bailey Dick and more.

A leader’s guide gives ideas for putting faith into action and asks viewers to pledge specific ways to reduce their carbon emissions, such as energy audits, solar energy installations and joining community supported agriculture programs.

A trailer is available on the MCCO website: http://ontario.mcc.org/stories/videos/handle-care

Creation Care Crossroads: Embracing Sabbath

Here’s the latest edition of Creation Care Crossroads from the Mennonite Central Committee of Ontario:   CCC Winter 2010 Embracing Sabbath

Previous issues are posted at  ontario.mcc.org/creationcare

Melrose Breakfast presents:

Creating a just, green future through a green economy with  Environment Hamilton’s Dr. Lynda Lukasik

How do we move forward in tough economic times in a way that respects the planet and ensures a fair, living wage for
local workers? Environment Hamilton believes that a focus on greening our local economy provides a viable solution.
Come out to learn more, share your ideas and consider getting involved in EH’s GOLE (Greening Our
Local Economy)Project.

February 13th -
Breakfast starts at 9am
Speaker starts at 9:20

Melrose United Church
86 Homewood Avenue
Hamilton

Suggested donation is $10 per person