An outdoors communion. Photo courtesy of Farm Church<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nPlanting<\/b> \n<\/b> \n<\/span>On May 1, 2016, Farm Church hosted its first service at the SEEDS campus. Brimer offered a scripture passage while more than 60 people stood on the bare earth SEEDS shared with them. Then they got to work. <\/span> \n<\/span> \n<\/span>First on the agenda: Improving soil health.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0\u201cThe first year in that garden, we were literally digging into red clay, like hard, dry red clay. It was awful,\u201d said <\/span>Anneke Oppewal, a middle school Spanish teacher who was one of Farm Church\u2019s first congregation members.<\/span><\/p>\nFive years and several harvests later, the soil is rich and dark brown. And the congregation has grown. Anywhere between 70 to 100 people pass through Farm Church a week. <\/span> \n<\/span> \n<\/span>On Wednesdays, members spend the afternoon working on a tenth-acre plot on Watts Street. Anne Hodges-Copple, an associate bishop of the Episcopal church and a fellow gardening geek, offered them the land, Brimer said.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nWith no official building to its name, Farm Church attracts those looking for an unconventional religious community that offers an active worship experience. Something that feels productive and purposeful.<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cIt has attracted people who are spiritually curious, but institutionally suspicious,\u201d said Mark McIntyre, a member of Farm Church since its founding.<\/span><\/p>\nOppewal said she felt unfulfilled by her previous experiences of \u201cnormal\u201d indoor church.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cIt was all too easy to go in, sit down, stand up, leave. I was like, I think church is supposed to be more than this,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cFarm Church mixes this notion of practicing our faith life with doing something that’s actually physically useful to people as well. It satisfies not just a spiritual need, but a physical one,\u201d said McIntyre.<\/span><\/p>\nFew people living in urban centers like Durham get to experience the satisfaction of defending precious crops from crowding weeds or watching shoots burst from seed capsules to stretch toward sunlight. Norman Wirzba, a professor of Christian theology at Duke Divinity School, believes such cultivation experiences take on spiritual meaning.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cWhen you look at scriptures, they’re all about God’s love for the land, God’s love for non-human creatures, God’s love for all human beings, and certainly God’s love for bodies,\u201d he said. \u201cThat’s why you find Jesus constantly healing bodies, feeding bodies, befriending bodies, reconciling bodies, even exorcising the demons that are disfiguring bodies, because Jesus loves embodiment.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nBrimer, now head pastor, describes the garden as a \u201csmorgasbord of metaphors\u201d for Christian teachings. <\/span>On Sundays, after Brimer reads and reflects on the scripture passage for the day, he ends with some meditative questions for the group.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cWhen is a time that you did the compassionate thing, even though it was the hard thing to do?,\u201d he might ask. Or: \u201cWhat does justice look like in the midst of a pandemic? What does mercy look like in the midst of the Black Lives Matter movement?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nWith these questions in mind, Brimer walks members through the SEEDS gardens,<\/span> pointing out plants with insect damage or encroaching weeds. He teaches skills, like how to harvest greens so they grow back stronger. The group then chooses what to prioritize and gets to work.<\/span><\/p>\nAfter working the land for 45 to 50 minutes, congregants step into an indoor space on the SEEDS campus for a break. They discuss the meditation questions and the scripture passage’s implications for their daily lives.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cI never thought weeding could be something spiritual,\u201d said Oppewal. \u201cThat very much connected with me, the idea of taking things out that are not serving us to make room for things that will; that has been a big metaphor.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\nAfter discussing scripture and Brimer\u2019s questions, it\u2019s time for communion liturgy \u2014 minus bread or wine these days due to COVID-19. Service ends after everyone shares joys or concerns from the week and Brimer says a final prayer. <\/span> \n<\/span> \n<\/span>People clean tools and head home.<\/span><\/p>\nBags of greens harvested by Farm Church members. Photo by Allen Brimer<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/b>Action<\/b> \n<\/b><\/p>\n
Farm Church members are passionate about food insecurity.<\/span><\/p>\nRadishes, lettuce, kale and the other foods that members grow are donated to local food banks, including one run by Iglesia Immanuel Presbyterian congregation, and to Mt. Zion Baptist Church\u2019s food pantry.\u00a0 <\/span>During the pandemic, they have helped efforts to feed Durham public school families who depend on free or reduced-price meals.<\/span><\/p>\nWhen bad weather keeps them home, they watch documentaries about food systems and join Zoom talks with others working to try to improve access to healthy food in Durham.<\/span><\/p>\nWhile the injection of fresh produce from Farm Church into Durham food sharing networks is a first step at helping, Brimer wants to go further.<\/span><\/p>\nReducing food insecurity in Durham has been a humbling experience for many. Low-income, marginalized communities experience a<\/span> higher risk of food insecurity<\/span><\/a> in the U.S. and Durham is no exception. <\/span> \n<\/span> \n<\/span>Part of a predominantly white, middle-class congregation, Farm Church members acknowledge they are disconnected with the people most in need of assistance.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cFarm Church right now is very much a Band-Aid to very big and real problems that we can’t just address and be done with. We know that food insecurity stems from racism and poverty and health disparities, and these things that we can’t necessarily tackle,\u201d said Oppenwal.<\/span><\/p>\nPlans are underway to develop a spot by a bus stop on Holloway Street where people can one day pick their own food while waiting for a ride. Brimer plans to seek out more people working on solutions and offer the church\u2019s help, he said.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\u201cWe want to ask if we can accompany them solving the problem and keep asking: How can I be useful here?,\u201d he said.<\/span> \n<\/span> \n<\/span>9th Street reporter Olivia Olsher can be reached at olivia.olsher@duke.edu<\/span><\/em><\/p>\nAt top: A Farm Church fall harvest. Photo by Anneke Opewal<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At 3:17 a.m. the Rev. Ben Johnston-Krase jumped out of bed, scrambled for his iPad and started Googling \u2014 somebody must have thought of this…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4733,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[140,163,216,251],"class_list":["post-4729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life-in-durham","tag-farm-church","tag-hunger","tag-presbyterian","tag-seeds","entry"],"yoast_head":"\n
Church plants seeds to ease hunger, promote spiritual growth - 9th Street Journal<\/title>\n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n \n \n \n\t \n\t \n\t \n