All Saint's Episcopal Church, Smyrna, Tennessee, was on the verge of selling some of the 22 Acres of land next to the church until a recently arrived group of immigrants from Myanmar showed up. These Anglicans, part of an ethnic minority known as the Karen, as a group moved into the neighborhood and immediately began worshiping, in their own language, at All Saint's. Although they soon found jobs in the community to support their families, they asked the church if they could farm some of the parcel of unused land next to the church.
You see, the Karen are an agricultural people, and growing things is something they do well. "They derive a measure of dignity by being able to do what they are best at," said the vicar. "That allows the church to extend to them the grace of helping them (but not) keeping them dependent on a handout ministry" (source).
Kurios Farm provides food for the Karen and also provides extra income for the church's ministries. They've only be open for one season and have had tremendous success.
I'm not aware of many programs in the Diocese of Toronto like this, but it makes a lot of sense. I do know that St. Thomas' has a garden that grows fresh veggies for the Out of The Cold Program. As for others--let me know if you've heard of anything.
Unfortunately we don't have the room at COTM to do much. Perhaps if ever do a major renovation we could make the flat roof into a green roof. But I am looking forward to putting down a nice garden out back when the spring comes!
-t
Showing posts with label OOTC. Show all posts
Showing posts with label OOTC. Show all posts
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
All Saint's, King City
I made a visit to All Saint's, King City, to talk to their incumbent (The Rev'd Nicola Skinner) about their recent painting scheme. They worked with a color expert to repaint the church interiors in very dynamic and interesting way. Here's a picture of the Nave...
One of the interesting and subtle effects was created by using slightly offset colors in adjacent panels--so you'll notice that there are actually two blues and blue greens in the picture here. This is designed to create more sense of movement in the space. This replaced a horrid "dirty cream" color that was originally there. The scheme really compliments the stained glass and has a very warm feeling. The project has been well received by the congregation, and confirms for me that bold schemes are not necessarily controversial. The key is that they function aesthetically. So it makes me all the more eager to bring in a good color expert for our repainting project.
After the tour Nicola and I went out for lunch at the only restaurant in King City, a nice little Greek place with a surprisingly good Souvlaki Sandwich. Turns out that Nicola likes really hot peppers, too, so I'll have to send her a jar of my pickled "peppers of death." These are the hottest peppers I could legally purchase at the St. Laurence Street Farmers Market. I'm still searching for the "The merciless peppers of Quetzlzacatenango...grown deep in the jungle primeval by the inmates of a Guatemalan insane asylum." (After Homer eats these peppers in an episode of The Simpsons he has a vision in which his spirit guide manifests as a coyote with the voice of Johnny Cash.) Anyway, Nicola and I had a good talk about respective churches.
Back at COTM, our weekly Staff meeting sorted out various details. I decided to have the meeting in my office now that's in presentable shape. After that I met with a local nun looking for a place to hold her an Out of the Cold supper for Christmas. She's providing the food, the volunteers, and the guests. All we have to do is unlock and lock the building. Naturally, I'm not going to deny a nun a place to feed the poor!
I'm still not sleeping well. Or, more accurately, I sleep well in the morning, but not at night. I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed, I suppose. There's just so much work to be done... and yet I want to have a healthy life and that means going home at a decent hour and praying well and meditating and all that. Then there is a whole 'nother part of me that is screaming for attention. At the planning meeting for the Pageant last Sunday I ended up literally dancing around the nave to demonstrate how I imagined Mary might dance during the Magnificat. I need to get out of my head and into my body. I've got a ton of creative energy to release!
Speaking of the pageant, I need to work on the script, now, so I have it for the planning meeting tomorrow....
-t
One of the interesting and subtle effects was created by using slightly offset colors in adjacent panels--so you'll notice that there are actually two blues and blue greens in the picture here. This is designed to create more sense of movement in the space. This replaced a horrid "dirty cream" color that was originally there. The scheme really compliments the stained glass and has a very warm feeling. The project has been well received by the congregation, and confirms for me that bold schemes are not necessarily controversial. The key is that they function aesthetically. So it makes me all the more eager to bring in a good color expert for our repainting project.
After the tour Nicola and I went out for lunch at the only restaurant in King City, a nice little Greek place with a surprisingly good Souvlaki Sandwich. Turns out that Nicola likes really hot peppers, too, so I'll have to send her a jar of my pickled "peppers of death." These are the hottest peppers I could legally purchase at the St. Laurence Street Farmers Market. I'm still searching for the "The merciless peppers of Quetzlzacatenango...grown deep in the jungle primeval by the inmates of a Guatemalan insane asylum." (After Homer eats these peppers in an episode of The Simpsons he has a vision in which his spirit guide manifests as a coyote with the voice of Johnny Cash.) Anyway, Nicola and I had a good talk about respective churches.
Back at COTM, our weekly Staff meeting sorted out various details. I decided to have the meeting in my office now that's in presentable shape. After that I met with a local nun looking for a place to hold her an Out of the Cold supper for Christmas. She's providing the food, the volunteers, and the guests. All we have to do is unlock and lock the building. Naturally, I'm not going to deny a nun a place to feed the poor!
I'm still not sleeping well. Or, more accurately, I sleep well in the morning, but not at night. I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed, I suppose. There's just so much work to be done... and yet I want to have a healthy life and that means going home at a decent hour and praying well and meditating and all that. Then there is a whole 'nother part of me that is screaming for attention. At the planning meeting for the Pageant last Sunday I ended up literally dancing around the nave to demonstrate how I imagined Mary might dance during the Magnificat. I need to get out of my head and into my body. I've got a ton of creative energy to release!
Speaking of the pageant, I need to work on the script, now, so I have it for the planning meeting tomorrow....
-t
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