Abstract
Brian Sellers-Petersen has taken the light out from under the bushel basket in Harvesting Abundance: Local Initiatives of Food and Faith. In a resource that will surely be of great value to the Church, Sellers-Petersen compiles the stories of twenty-three different agriculture initiatives throughout the Episcopal Church. Parishes, farms, seminaries, cemeteries, diocesan centers and camps, schools, and more are represented among them. As expected, the introduction outlines the theological and missional methodology behind the importance of agricultural initiatives within communities of faith. While Sellers-Petersen writes from an Episcopal/Anglican perspective, and the examples are of those within Episcopal institutions, the usefulness of this resource transcends the denominational divide. Full and ample appendices provide readers with resources to further discern the possibilities for their communities of faith.
Sellers-Petersen anticipates the question: why a church garden? He answers this question on several levels, starting with the human. Citing Genesis 2:15 (“The Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to till it and keep it.” [NRSV]) Sellers-Petersen lifts out of the biblical text the primordial vocation of humanity: to tend the earth and share in its fruits. This kind of stewardship is reflected in the Gospels and in turn the baptismal covenant of The Episcopal Church (Book of Common Prayer 1979, 303-4). He also cites the Five Marks of Mission set out by the Anglican Communion. According to Sellers-Petersen, Christians, and Anglicans in particular, are called to this work in a special way.
Harvesting Abundance follows the development within the Church of a renewed focus on stewardship of creation. Rather than viewing agricultural initiatives as merely a socially responsible use of underutilized land, Sellers-Petersen situates the initiative as a missional response to faith in Jesus Christ. Bishops, priests, pastors, and chaplains alike would benefit from the stories contained in this compact volume. These stories serve as both testimony to the work of these communities of faith, and as an invitation to other leaders in the church to reimagine the ways they faithfully model, teach, and lead their congregations into a deeper engagement with the most basic aspects of our human existence and with the communities in which they work.
While Harvesting Abundance would be of benefit to the clergy in the church, the same could be said for the laity, and of lay leadership in particular. For vestries who are dreaming what new possibilities they could be called to in one, two, or five, years down the road, Sellers-Petersen’s book exhibits possibilities and provides follow-up resources.
Sellers-Petersen makes the point that these kinds of agricultural initiatives can be evangelistic as well. They can be an entry point for community members outside of the faith to begin to interact with and be fed by the fruit of the vine and the fellowship of loving community.
Not to be neglected is the ecumenical possibility in this kind of work as well. With an average Sunday attendance of sixty in the typical Episcopal parish many communities may find themselves called to an apostolate that reaches beyond what their numbers can handle alone. Reaching out to other communities of faith, and our full-communion partners in particular, creates a unique opportunity for fellowship to the strengthening of the Church’s catholicity.
Should Harvesting Abundance enter a second edition, it would benefit from a more in-depth excursus on the theological underpinnings of abundance in the Christian Gospel. This might be done by expanding the Introduction into a more fulsome theological treatment, followed by the testimonies. The inclusion of discussion questions at various points would encourage the suggested use of having vestries read the book for reflection and discernment. Further expansion of the spirituality that underpins this kind of work could only serve to increase the utility of this already valuable resource.