DEDICATION OF TRINITY COMMUNITY GARDEN: 25 AUGUST 2013 We need: Seats, seedlings, shovels/trowels, watering cans, lectern, mic and

speaker/s

We gather around the garden David B: From its very beginning to its fulfilment and restoration, creation, and Gods purpose and destiny for it, is revealed in the Bible through the metaphor of a garden. From Genesis chapter 2 we read: Now the Lord God had planted a garden in the east, in Eden; and there he put the man he had formed. The Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food. In the middle of the garden were the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. Reading 2: And the Book of Revelation concludes with this image of the new Jerusalem: Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. It shone with the glory of God. The great street of the city was of gold, as pure as transparent glass. Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, as clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb, down the middle of the great street of the city. On each side of the river stood the tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, yielding its fruit every month. And the leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. David B: In the same way that the table fellowship of Jesus, eating with outcasts, women, ordinary folk and sinners, expressed the coming of the kingdom of God for all, so the garden indicates Gods purpose, from the very beginning, to bless us with food, with beauty, with natural resources, with communal work to share, in partnership with the divine miracle of natural growth and seasonal cycles. In our technological, industrialised and urbanised environments, we can lose touch with the very earth which sustains us. We can take for granted the natural environment, and the patient work and skill, which yields the abundance of food we buy so easily at the supermarket. Dave H: Today, Trinity church launches a new venture. This community garden is not just a place to grow plants, although we hope it will do that in abundance. The purpose of this project really is about growing community. Its about bringing people together in common interests, a shared appreciation of the bounty and beauty of nature, and partnering with nature and each other to yield a fruitful harvest.

Reading 1:

And when we think of the homes into which the food grown here will go, and the meals into which that food will go, and the people who will sit around tables eating that food, we can imagine how the blessing of these plots will multiply. And not only will the food taste all the better for having been grown organically in some of Wellington Points finest soil, it will be all the more a blessing having come from a garden dedicated to Christ, organised by a community of his people who seek to serve him. David B: Let us pray. Creator God, thank-you for your wonderful gifts of soil, seeds and plants, and the boundless variety of the diversity of life in nature. Thank-you for the opportunity we have in this garden to share in your act of creation to grow plants which will yield food, herbs and flowers; to grow skills; to grow in friendship; to become more attuned with our bodies and the earth. Thank-you for the opportunity we have to grow in appreciation for the history of this area in its agricultural use for potatoes, flowers and market gardens and those who tended this earth in earlier generations. We thank you for those people who have had the vision for this garden and worked hard to establish it Dave, Iain, Donald and Nat and others who have supported them, particularly Bob Day. Lord, we ask you to bless this garden. May it be a place of love and learning, of peace and partnership, of beauty and abundance. May it be a place where we offer practical care and friendship to people of the wider community. May it be a source of food for the body and for the spirit. May it reflect your generosity and creativity. Guide those who will exercise oversight and plan the gardens development. We now dedicate this garden to the ministry and mission of Christ. Help this garden and the vision which inspires it to bear fruit, not just for our tables, but in our lives. These things we pray in Jesus name. Amen. Song: Touch the earth lightly (TIS 668; tune Morning has broken, TIS 156) David B: We are now going to open the garden by planting the first seedlings.

Those involved come forward and do the planting. (Children involved?) Applause. David B: Each plot will have a special identification stake, made by Bob Day. Those of you who have signed up for a plot can now come and write your names on your stake and place it in your plot. As they do this, we will conclude this ceremony. Youre welcome to hang around, or go inside for morning tea. Thank-you and dont forget, come in your gardening clothes next Sunday!