St Peter’s Anglican Church in Gonville Whanganui, Aotearoa New Zealand, is creating space in their front garden for a whole lot of connecting and growing. St Peter’s Garden is more than just a garden – it is a space where the community can connect, make friends, grow vegetables and play chess! Reverends Luca and Sam Tovey Duckworth say, ‘The community garden is a great place of intersection for people who wouldn’t normally make a Sunday gathering. It’s been cool seeing people take ownership and start to have their own ideas about what can happen in this space.’
St Peter’s is just one of the many churches engaged in A Rocha Aotearoa NZ’s burgeoning Eco Church Programme. Church communities across Aotearoa NZ are taking a more active role in caring for God’s creation. Collectively their actions are resulting in a measurable reduction in waste, carbon, pollution and energy use, leading to more sustainable ways of living that restore and enhance the natural world while connecting people to the Creator.
