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A UMNS Report
By Joey Butler*
7:00 A.M. EST April 22, 2010
Jocelyn Patterson prepares seedling trays for planting at Anathoth
Community Garden in Cedar Grove, N.C. UMNS photos by Ronny Perry.
View in Photo Gallery
OK, they have bins for paper, aluminum and glass. Oh, and
plastic. But only plastics numbered one through five? Wait – is
cardboard considered paper? Do they take pizza boxes? HELP!
It doesn’t have to be this hard.
You don’t have to become some stereotypical, hemp-wearing slave to a
compost pile in order to help protect the environment. Lots of people
are making a difference with small steps and slight alterations to their
lifestyle.
April 22 is the 40th anniversary of Earth Day, and one can chart the
progress of the “green movement” the past four decades. Today,
practices such as recycling, community gardening and buying local
produce – once considered radical – are simply part of the daily
routine.
Grow your own
Though new life sprouts from its soil every day, Anathoth Community
Garden in Cedar Grove, N.C., has roots in a murder.
Following the 2004 shooting of a local bait shop owner, Cedar Grove
United Methodist Church organized a community prayer vigil. One woman,
Scenobia Taylor, was so moved that she felt God tell her in a dream to
give five acres of her land to the community, and somehow this land
would help heal the community’s wounds.
Around this time, the church was seeking a way to address the
poverty in the area and the fact that many of its neighbors had no
access to fresh, healthy produce. The church’s mission met with
Scenobia Taylor’s vision, and Anathoth was born.
For a $5 membership fee and an agreement to work a few hours a week
in the garden, the entire community is invited to share in the food and
fellowship grown in the garden. Almost all work is done by hand to
encourage more participation and opportunities for community members to
come together.
“How we eat and live together on this planet is the manner of love.
What we’re doing isn’t a program; it’s what Jesus invites us into: a
different way of living our lives together,” says the Rev. Grace
Hackney, Cedar Grove’s pastor.
Jocelyn Patterson helps at Anathoth several times a week and says she
enjoys her fellowship with other workers. She describes herself as “a
hippie Martha Stewart,” and advocates a low-maintenance lifestyle.
She says, “I’ve never owned a cell phone; I
don’t have cable TV; I don’t have a dishwasher. I recycle almost
everything, and heat my house with wood.” She sews, and often barters
handmade clothes or mending services in exchange for firewood.
Anathoth routinely hosts mission teams, who come to work in the
garden and learn how to start their own. The garden has applied to
become a project of The Advance, the designated-giving program of The
United Methodist Church.
Norman Wirzba, a professor of theology, ecology and rural life at
Duke Divinity School in Durham, N.C., is also an Anathoth board member.
He thinks community gardens and community-supported agriculture
programs are excellent outreach ministries.
“You promote a sustainable agriculture while providing your
congregation with good, nutritious food,” he said.
Keep it local
During this year’s Lenten season, the Rev. Enoch Hendry, pastor of
Trinity United Methodist Church in Savannah, Ga., asked his congregation
not to simply give up sweets. He encouraged them to eat sweets –
provided they were made in Savannah.
For 40 days, Hendry challenged church members to “live locally” by
eating local foods, patronizing locally owned businesses and living more
simply in general.
“This isn’t just about buying and shopping and eating,” Hendry said,
“but about simplifying our lives and figuring out ways we can do
that.”
It is estimated that the average meal travels 1,500 miles from the
farm to the consumer’s plate. Shopping in a local business district is
better for the environment because it involves less packaging and less
fuel for transportation.
Church member Matt Deacon said he and his wife, Jennifer, considered
the Lenten program “the perfect opportunity to see how our Christian
beliefs align with some of our ‘green’ beliefs and to see the parallels
between them.”
The Lenten program led Trinity member Fran Stanley to join her first
food cooperative. “This is self-denial, because I’m changing something
I do, but this is also doing good,” she said.
Extreme green
People can care for the environment in countless easy ways, but
others may prefer a more over-the-top approach.
Kelvin Gu, student president of the Duke Smart Home Program, stands in
front of storage tanks used to collect and distribute recycled
rainwater.
View in Photo Gallery
It doesn’t get much more over the top than the Duke Smart Home – the
ultimate combination of hippie sensibility and mad-genius engineering.
Think of it as Bonnaroo meets “The Big Bang Theory.”
Housed on the campus of United Methodist-related Duke University,
the Smart Home is a 6,000-square-foot residential dorm and research
laboratory that uses state-of-the-art advances in smart living.
Constructed with a sponsorship by The Home Depot, the interior was
designed to allow maximum natural airflow. Solar panels collect energy
to power the home. Plants growing on a “green roof” filter rainwater
that is collected and stored in several massive tanks in the basement. A
specially designed heat pump sends that water back to the roof during
the day to be heated by the sun. That system supplies toilet and
washing needs year round.
Kelvin Gu, a junior and student president of the Smart Home, says
the solar-heated water can reach temperatures of up to 170 degrees.
“The water is hot enough out of the tap that a roommate was able to
cook Ramen noodles without even turning on the stove.”
Other than the Ramen noodles, does that sound anything like your
average dorm?
The 10 residents, all students from Duke’s various engineering,
science and technical schools, contribute to their living environment
by implementing various projects for use in the home.
For instance, Gu says, another student is working on a project that
will convert plants plentiful in the area to biofuel.
The Duke Smart Home Program, sponsored by The Home Depot, encompasses a
6,000 sq. ft. residential dorm and research laboratory and is operated
by Duke's Pratt School of Engineering.
View in Photo Gallery
Gu acknowledges that the “techie” aspects
are as big a draw to potential residents as the eco-friendly aspects.
“For a lot of us, what we’re taking away is not just a lifestyle
change,” he says. “We’re going into industry or research on
technologies that will benefit the way people build structures, or
improve transit.” Gu hopes to go into the renewable energy field.
While admitting he is in a unique situation, Gu thinks people will
grow more accepting of green lifestyles in the future.
“In the same way television was brought into the home, there will be
new utilities introduced into people’s homes, and they’ll adapt to
them. Whether you’re an energy-conscious person or not, I think more
energy-efficient ideas will be entering people’s lives.”
See? Saving the earth is as simple as using your molecular biology
skills to break down the cellular walls of the weeds in your garden to
fuel your minivan.
Or, you could just bypass that bottled water in the checkout aisle
and drink out of the tap.
*Butler is editor of 18-34 content at United Methodist
Communications, Nashville, Tenn. Additional information from the South
Georgia Advocate.
News media contact: Joey Butler, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5105
or newsdesk@umcom.org.
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