Do you or your parish community have a garden, either ornamental of for a feeding ministry? Or do you perhaps keep bees? Maybe you engage in a creation care ministry?
“Good News Gardens” is part of the Creation Care Ministry of the National Episcopal Church, operating out of the Presiding Bishop’s Office. It is a group open to “essentially anyone who is growing something or doing something that is part of the bounty of the earth and is part of a spiritual practice, either formally or informally,” said Jeannie Marcucci, the self-proclaimed “Garden Evangelist” who serves as a regional contributing editor for the Good News Gardens Newsletter. Marcucci will be ordained a deacon on Aug. 21 as part of the 2021 class of the diocese’s NJ School for Ministry. She is looking for photos of gardens to feature in the monthly newsletter.
According to its web site, “The mission of the Good News Gardens movement is to partner with people in transformational agrarian ministry that feeds body, mind and spirit. Good News Gardens is a church-wide movement of individuals, congregations, schools, colleges, seminaries, monasteries, camps, and conference centers involved in a variety of food and creation care ministries—gardening, farming, beekeeping, composting, gleaning, feeding, and food justice advocacy.”
In his video introduction to this ministry, Presiding Bishop Michael Curry describes it as “a way to actually make a difference for the Earth, and for the entire human family.”
Marcucci adds, “As a garden designer—garden evangelist—who lives and gardens in New Jersey, I know the spirit is on the move in all of us who tend the earth and each other, as we fulfill our baptismal covenant in a unique way as we ‘plant, pray, and proclaim,’ the key tenants of the Good News Gardens movement.”
Contact Jeannie Marcucci by email or phone (856-217-5100) to share information about your garden, and join the movement here.
