Ministry Team Letter for the Month

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 Dear Friends

 

During the summer I have done quite a lot of connecting with creation. I have a large veg garden, and as well as planting, tending, and harvesting I have also done a lot of weeding. I try to do as little weeding as possible, because I prefer to work with nature rather than against it, but to be honest, the bind weed is always an issue. This year however, I have discovered a way in which it can actually be useful. I have tried for a while to grow cabbages, cauliflowers, kale, and broccoli. If you are a gardener of this particular family of vegetables, you will know both the joy and the anguish of seeing white butterflies in your garden. Now I do not mind sharing my cabbages with the small stripy caterpillars of these butterflies, but I do object to them eating everything. So, this year, I built a cage and decided to grow my broccoli inside it. The broccoli plants were only a few inches high when I planted them out, and as they grew bigger, so did the bind weed on the netting.

 

I was going to try pulling out some of the roots of the bind weed when I had a sudden idea. Why not leave the bind weed and let it is climbing vines become part of protecting my broccoli?

 

So now, although I do have some other plants that I have sacrificed for the good of the butterfly population, my broccoli is looking amazing!

 

From the beginning of September until October 4th the church is going to be celebrating creation tide.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            It is a few weeks when we focus on care of creation as an integral part of the expression of our Christian faith, and think about ourselves in a relationship with the rest of the created world.                                          

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                It is something that a lot of Christian communities are beginning to think about at the moment, but it really is not just a passing fad or something that is currently trendy. Right back to the end of the first century, after Jesus, theologians were writing about the way that God reveals God's self through creation.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                So, during creation tide, it is not just going to be about coming to church on the Sunday. There will be other things on offer – invitations. Opportunities to be quiet and focus on a particular aspect of creation; walks that are about noticing what is around us with all of our senses; a chance to get to know our immediate locality in a little more depth; and other things that are still ideas, but hopefully will become more definite. I am excited for this – I hope you are too.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                      Hilary Bond

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