Congregational Life Centre
Our mission is to assist congregations to be more
effective in their ministry
Nurturing Fresh Growth - the GEA
For the third time
in two years, more than 500 people turned out to city hall in Edmonton to
support a campaign to preserve farmland on the edge of the city for agricultural
use. The group that organized that campaign is one you will be hearing more
and more about in the future, the Greater Edmonton Alliance.
The organization is unique in that it brings together some 40 churches, labour organizations and small businesses. They want to create a viable and sustainable local food economy. They are also interested in green employment opportunities, quality care for seniors and who are the best people to serve on City Council.
The Greater Edmonton Alliance was the organization behind the Great Potato Giveaway last September. Edmonton farmer Gordon Visser handed out 45,000 kilograms of free potatoes to thousands of people. The traffic jam made the news everywhere.
By
banding together with labour unions and small business, churches are finding
they can make a difference. Alliance membership includes ten Catholic, one
Muslim and seven Protestant organizations - among them Trinity, Mill Woods
and Southminster-Steinhaurer United Churches. Anglicans, Moravians and Lutherans
are also members.
Making a Difference Locally
Armand Houle, minister at Mill Woods United Church, talks enthusiastically about the benefits for his congregation. The GEA offers regular training events for potential leadership - how to prepare a talk and present issues. A core group from his congregation has been involved in that and are putting those newfound leadership skills to work in the congregation.
Local food production is a big area for GEA involvement. Members of the Mill Woods congregation took part in the Great Potato Giveaway and the presentations at city hall. One very practical result is the establishment of a community garden at Mill Woods, putting a big "Local" into the idea of locally grown food. Two members of the congregation are involved in helping to make energy-saving home retrofitting more affordable.
"It's great to see the benefits that go both ways," Armand said. "We bring energy and enthusiasm to the group, and that comes back to us by way of training and issues that people can get involved in."
Canadian Food Grains Bank
At Trinity United Church, they are taking their enthusiasm for locally grown food into a special event in support of the Canadian Food Grains Bank. The CFGB is a partnership of 15 Canadian church-based agencies who want to involve Canadians in the effort to end hunger in developing countries. The Trinity TABLELAND evening is a celebration of the production of "tasty, local, sustainable and seasonal food." In addition to raising funds for the Canadian Food Grains Bank, the aim is to build relationships with local food producers and contribute to building a vibrant and sustainable local food economy.
In February Debbie Hubbard, a member of the Trinity congregation, had an opportunity to visit four CFGB projects in northern India and Bangladesh. She reported, "I saw first hand the impact that our support is making in the lives of the citizens. Leadership development, nutritional needs, income generation and local business generation were some of the outcomes. … CFGB is supporting people to figure out how to feed themselves and to develop connected and sustainable community life and local economies."
Listening Skills
Debbie Hubbard is one of the key organizers at Trinity United Church. For her, the Alliance provides a different way of doing justice work. "It's not as polarizing, not about good guys and bad guys. It's discovering what we have in common and what we can all agree on."
When it came to preserving valuable local farm land for agriculture, that approach made it possible to work with developers as well as farmers, with people for and against preserving the land.
Debbie feels her association with the GEA has given her new skills in conflict management and negotiating. Those skills can be helpful in congregational life, "listening to each other, even when we do not agree, and finding what we have in common."
You can get more information about the Greater Edmonton Alliance on its website www.greateredmontonalliance.com. The yearly membership fee for a congregation is 1% of annual collections with a minimum of $1,500.
Congregational Life Newsletter. April 2010. Volume 16 No. 4.