With a nod to Sir Francis Bacon’s line that “God Almighty first planted a garden,” the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland sees gardening and growing city green space as a way to plant more peaceful, godlier ways within communities.
Such horticultural hallowing and related themes of “environmental stewardship, social justice and creative, centered spirituality” will be featured at the downtown Cathedral of the Incarnation’s Grace and Gardens Conference today through Wednesday.
“We use gardening as a metaphor throughout,” said Paul Beares, senior cathedral warden and conference chairman. “A lot of our focus is on taking [disused] city lots and turning them into gardens — either vegetable, flower or community gardens — and on what that means to have these quiet, sacred spaces available to people in the city.”
Beares said the cathedral itself has two public gardens within its grounds — one dedicated to Baltimore children killed in violent acts and the Bishop’s Garden, “where people are encouraged to pause from their busy lives, reflect and pray.”
One of the scheduled conference speakers — Tom Stoner of Annapolis’ TKF Foundation — heads a nonprofit responsible for the creation, since 1995, of some 30 privately funded gardens and green spaces in Baltimore City and 119 in the Baltimore-Washington area.
“TKF funds a wide range of parks, from prison gardens to hospital and therapeutic gardens,” said Erin Largey, a TKF spokeswoman. “[Such efforts] promote opportunities for a deeper human experience [through] the creation of public green space that offers a temporary place of sanctuary, encourages reflection, provides solace, and engenders peace.”
Billed as an effort “to educate, inspire and motivate participants to embrace environmental stewardship, social justice, and a creative, centered spirituality, and to make positive changes in their lives and communities,” the third annual conference — the first time in Baltimore — is the brainchild of gardener-authors and featured speakers Terry Hershey and the Rev. Phillip Roderick, an Anglican priest.
Roderick, the founder-director of the Britain-based Quiet Gardener Movement and Contemplative Fire Ministries, has established gardens and green spaces worldwide.
The conference, which costs $295 to register plus a daily program fee, will also feature the Rt. Rev. Eugene Taylor Sutton, Episcopal bishop of Maryland, and Brian D. McLaren, noted author, speaker and pastor.
Other speakers include representatives from the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, Johns Hopkins University Center for a Livable Future, and the Tai Sophia Institute.
IF YOU GO
Cathedral of the Incarnation
4 E. University Parkway
Baltimore, MD 21218
410-467-3750; ang-md.org/gardensandgrace
