Miranda Writes

This summer as many as 15 of us met weekly to talk together about Michael Pollan’s latest book, In Defense of Food. In this book, Pollan outlines many reasons to be wary of processed foods and the industrial food system, arguing that many aspects of our current food system are bad for both human and ecological health. We found a lot to talk about, and argued with Pollan on occasion, but we all found something valuable in Pollan’s basic rules of thumb: Eat food (by which he means simple, whole foods – nothing highly-processed, or with too many ingredients, especially ones you can’t pronounce); not too much; and mostly plants. (And when you eat meat, eat local meat if possible – both Pollan and the movie Food Inc. offer many good reasons to avoid the industrial meat production system!)

What does all this have to do with faith? (What would Jesus eat?) When we spent time with this question in our final session, a couple of wonderful answers emerged. Several people spoke about how they have experienced God, God’s creation and God’s time by being outdoors, working in a garden, even coming to a farmer’s market or pick-your-own farm to experience the bounty of the season. God’s grace grows slowly, secretly, day by day, then bears astonishing fruit, just like blueberry bushes and peach trees. Supermarket shopping hides all those processes from us. We find God too in the relationality and connectedness of “short food chains” – of knowing the people and places our food comes from.

Reading and talking together left us eager to continue to build a network of mutual support, to help ourselves and each other find and use as much locally- or regionally-produced food as possible (“short food chains” are beneficial in lots of ways), and share ideas, resources, and skills (like pickling or canning) for eating and living sustainably. We plan to establish a “Sustainable Living” email list for this purpose, which will be open to anyone who’d like to be part of it. If you’re interested, talk to Miranda Hassett or keep an eye out for an announcement when we launch the new list! And if you have an idea or skill (or an oversupply of seasonal produce) to share, please let us know!

This sermon is a reflection on last Sunday’s visit to Common Cathedral in Boston. Karen, our PIT Crew leader, and I took six of our youth group members down to attend worship and serve lunch to the congregation there. Thanks to all at St. Andrew’s who supported the trip, helping us with food, supplies, and gifts to bring with us. It was a great experience, and we hope to do it again next year!

Let me tell you about a house built for God.

This house was built by Solomon, about 3000 years ago, in the great city of Jerusalem, and it was the most beautiful house anyone had ever seen. (more…)

If you wonder what’s keeping me busy this summer, here’s a significant chunk of it! Last March, I attended a wonderful workshop at Grace Church, Manchester, on using story to share our faith with young children, led by Gretchen Wolff Pritchard, the author and artist of our Sunday Papers lectionary coloring pages and a thoughtful and wise Christian educator. I came away from the workshop convinced that story is the key to nurturing young children in the faith. In early summer, I gathered with the teachers of our younger Sunday school classes to talk about taking on a more story-based approach. We like “Seasons of the Spirit,” the lectionary-based curriculum we used last year, & we’ll continue using it with our 2nd graders up through PIT Crew. But the lectionary texts aren’t always stories, and don’t always engage our youngest members.

After a great conversation, the teachers and I agreed together to try out a new approach with our pre-K and K-1 classes this year, using a story-based Episcopal curriculum called Godly Play. Godly Play offers age-appropriate ways to tell key faith stories, starting with Creation and moving through central Old Testament stories in the fall, the Christmas story during Advent, parables during Epiphany, the life of Christ in Lent, and stories of the early church in Easter season. I’ve worked with Godly Play before & found their story materials to be very good. (more…)