21: Hospitality to Birds and Bees

USA

A Climate Pollinator story by Sierra Ross Richer

At Taftsville Chapel Mennonite Fellowship in Vermont, USA, money isn’t the only thing congregants tithe. They can also offer food scraps for the church’s compost pile.

“It’s a beautiful example of redemption,” said Heather Wolfe, the congregation’s creation care liaison. Once decomposed, the compost nourishes what Heather calls a “garden of Eden of permaculture,” on the church grounds. 

The congregation stewards about half an acre of land in Taftsville, a hamlet within the town of Woodstock. The church building is surrounded by berry patches, a tea garden, an edible food hedge and–the most recent addition– a peace garden planted last year with sunflowers and a crimson clover cover crop.

“We’re trying to make our outdoor space feel like a sanctuary,” Heather said. She wants to create a space where human and non-human neighbors feel welcome.  

This year, the children from the congregation completed the National Wildlife Federation checklist to make the property a certified wildlife habitat. As part of the process, they installed bird houses and pollinator gardens. 

The neighbors and wildlife are also welcome to share in the bounty of the gardens, including berries, fruit and herbs. 

“This is hospitality,” Heather said. “We’re trying to be hospitable to the bees and the birds, to the soil microbes, milkweed and monarchs, and to all God’s creatures.”

Heather describes making the church land a sanctuary for human and non-human beings as a way to heal broken relations with the land. 

Settler congregations in North America are beginning to talk about how to make reparations with the indigenous peoples who originally lived on the continent. “When we talk about restitution and reparations with human groups,” Heather said, “my mind goes to ‘what about non human species?’” 

Reparations with the natural world can’t be paid in money. More creative gifts are required. 

“A lot of work that we are doing on our church land is building soil, planting more natives, mowing less, and creating wildlife habitat… this feels like restoration and reparation and restitution offered for these non-human species that we’ve damaged and displaced,” Heather said.

“Every time I buy a plant and put it in the ground, that’s money that’s going back to that species.”