{"id":14901,"date":"2024-12-13T21:34:34","date_gmt":"2024-12-13T21:34:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/?p=14901"},"modified":"2024-12-13T21:42:23","modified_gmt":"2024-12-13T21:42:23","slug":"okra-peppers-and-communion-farm-church-offers-a-different-kind-of-worship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/9thstreetjournal.org\/2024\/12\/13\/okra-peppers-and-communion-farm-church-offers-a-different-kind-of-worship\/","title":{"rendered":"Okra, peppers and Communion: Farm Church offers a different kind of worship"},"content":{"rendered":"
On a Sunday morning this fall, Kristen Sommerfeld rang a small metal bell.<\/span><\/p>\n Clad in overalls and a sleeve of botanic tattoos, she stood among rows of planted vegetables on a farm in urban Durham. Twenty others worked around her, picking peppers, planting onions and pruning okra. The chime signaled a moment to regroup.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The small plot on the corner of Watts and Green streets looks like an ambitious neighbor\u2019s personal vegetable garden \u2014 full of root and leafy vegetables, seeded fruits and<\/span> beans. But the lot, nestled in the heart of the city\u2019s Trinity Park neighborhood, is home to something larger.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n It\u2019s Farm Church, a nontraditional place of worship without walls or a roof. Its members meet outside and pray with their hands in the soil. Founded in 2016 as a Presbyterian ministry, the church harvests thousands of pounds of vegetables each year to address food insecurity in Durham.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe like to say that we\u2019re a farm with a church on the side,\u201d said Sommerfeld, the farm\u2019s \u2018garden and gathered worship lead\u2019 and only paid employee. \u201cThe farm is central, and the church sort of wraps itself around.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n