Posted on 05/23/2006 5:00:34 PM PDT by sionnsar
If you're wondering where hippies went, some of them seem to have become Episcopal nuns:
"We used to pay to have this property mowed; it was a huge lawn," says Sister Catherine Grace of the Community of the Holy Spirit, speaking about the Bluestone Farm and Learning Center in Brewster, New York. The Community now is in its third year of gardening, and with only 23 acres, is growing vegetables, fruit, grains and beans for drying. Nut trees are going in around the edge of the woodland. "The idea is to eat organically and locally," she adds.
The Community’s farming efforts are rooted in work with Sister Miriam Therese MacGillis, OP, begun in 2001. She helped the group pose the question: "What are all the unborn of Earth’s living systems asking of us -- as women religious in the Episcopal tradition of the 21st century -- so that they might come into existence?" This opened up thinking about the future and made connections with the deep-time origin-creation story. Sisters Helena Marie and Catherine Grace were charged to establish an earth learning center at Melrose Convent in Brewster. Sister Helena Marie had always wanted to garden, and the rest is an emerging story.
"What are all the unborn of Earth’s living systems asking of us -- as women religious in the Episcopal tradition of the 21st century -- so that they might come into existence?" In addition to the vegetables, fruit, grain, beans and nuts, it sounds like someone has a nice little patch of Anglican arugula going. Why are they doing all this anyway?
To some it may appear that the Community of the Holy Spirit is indulging in a rural idyll, but evidence from around the country suggests that they are participating in a trend to reconnect with the rest of creation through the means that everyone, wherever they live, has -- through their food.
What that basically means is that if you absolutely have to buy food at a store, it better be Whole Foods even if you have to drive your hybrid car a hundred miles each way.
Ends, who is a member of Trinity Episcopal Church in Janesville, Wisconsin, points out the tremendous human price exacted by much of our food system. He notes that we seem to want to get to know our doctors, lawyers, teachers and pastors, but not those who grow our food. "We budget for the best, the highest quality, the most secure service in almost every area of our lives and then squander our dollars on cheap food from an anonymous system of production that threatens food security, endangers our waters, depletes nonrenewable resources; encourages dependence on fossil fuels; damages our health, diet and nutrition; and contributes to injustices economically and socially...."
See? But if you were really concerned about the Earth and not some poser who goes to a grocery chain and buys allegedly "organic" food manufactured by some big corporation, you'd drive out into the country and buy your food directly from a small farmer.
He adds: "To farm ecologically and sustainably is to integrate crops and livestock at a sane, humane, just level of production. This is not possible unless a farm family adds value to its raw products and direct markets them to the public."
You can always stay home and grow your own if you've given up your hybrid car in favor of a bicycle.
For some people, reconnecting with nature through their food means growing their own. Whether deciding to take the search for heirloom tomatoes to their own tiny backyard, or working toward sufficiency in food for a large family, growers turn to sources like Bountiful Gardens. "They may come to us for seeds for gourmet or health reasons," says Betsy Bruneau, "but they learn about sustainability."
Bruneau has always seen selling seeds as a ministry "both to the earth and to people, to their quality of life. Maybe its just the personality of gardeners, but people often tell us their stories. Sometimes they are stories of loss. But people become reoriented to life through growing a garden; through growing their food they feel hope again."
If you go that route, you might run into a little problem if you like beef or pork products. Some towns have these fascist "city ordinances" about keeping livestock around or your fascist neighbor might complain to the fascist authorities if your hogs tore up his hydrangeas. But you can always vote the Green Party city council slate, kick the fascists out and change those fascist laws.
To sum up, cheap, plentiful food grown by big corporations is a very, very bad thing. Expensive, not-as-plentiful food grown by small farmers is a very, very good thing. Seems to me that if everyone decided to "reconnect with the rest of creation through the means that everyone, wherever they live, has -- through their food," food pantries might have to cut way back on the number of people they serve. But I guess churches can give the poor a hoe and a packet of seeds instead.
Traditional Anglican ping, continued in memory of its founder Arlin Adams. Episcopal nuns? I didn't know there was such a thing.
yeah, no kidding. The dirty little secret is that the leftists WANT people to die, because they are using up the world's resources and causing pollution. Much better if only they and their enlightened friends remain.
Argle bargle morble whoosh.
Why can't people just garden because it makes sense? Everyone in my grandparents' generation kept a garden, unless they lived in the inner city. None of them asked what they could do for the earth ... they just wanted some fresh tomatoes and carrots, for free!
I can't wait until I can really connect with a rutabaga.
They probably don't even believe in Creation, so what's the point? "Connecting" with other parts of a randomly-developed chemistry?
Rutabaga are those turnipy-looking things that great-uncles with no teeth try to give you, late in the year, right?
Yes, that is why he doesn't have teeth--connecting with too many rutabagas.
Aha!
I don't think there's anyone as weird as "spiritual" feminists. Barking moonbats. Not that I wouldn't buy some vegetables, if they had a stand near me :-).
So are these people pro-life? Or do they consider "Earth's living systems" to be more sacred than human life?
Call any vegetable and the chances are good...that the vegetable will respond to you!
Didn't I hear that in a "Veggie Tale"?
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