We have struggled, at St. George’s, to find our nitch in the community.

Part of the struggle is our facility — we have little room to use.  Part of the struggle is our size and age — we are a small, older congregation, on the whole.  And it’s not like we’re not doing anything.  We have  been proactive in welcoming members of the GLTBI community.  We have five twelve step groups meeting in the parish hall.  We have a support group for older women meeting in the parish hall.  We have made the facility available for a number of community meetings.  We have given out a scholarship for about twenty five years to students from the local high school district.  We have all sorts of people volunteering for all kinds of community service.  But we have never, in my mind, had a face in the community.

That may be about to change.  We have been working this past year to try to set up a community garden.  The first visible steps should take place next month.  It’s not a done deal yet.  But I fully expect to have a small community garden in place on our grounds by this spring.  And I expect it will grow and develope over time.

In many ways this is a small step.  But it will be something visible that’s happening at our church that benefits the local community.  We may even ask people to tythe their produce in lieu of any fees to cover our expenses.  And, in our current economy, we may find it to be of significant benefit as a source of food to folks who become part of the community garden.  Time will tell.

Meanwhile, I’m getting excited.