This spring and summer, I have been working with my friend Mills Polatty, (many others have helped as well), to build an aquaponics pilot project just behind the Episcopal Bookstore at St. Mary’s Cathedral, in Memphis, Tennessee.  The project is an attempt to answer the question, “What role can faith communities play in local food systems?”  The pilot project is the creation of a relatively small system designed to hold about 900 plants and grow up to 200 lbs. of fish.  The fish waste reacts to bacteria in the plant roots to create nitrates which in turn fertilize the plants.  The plants in return clean the water for the fish to live in. This type of system can grow food with about 4% of the water used in traditional farming and with a fraction of the space. 

One beautiful illustration from our experiment is the value of waste. Early in June, 100 lbs. of catfish arrived as a donation from Pride of the Pond catfish farm in Tunica, Mississippi. Children for the Vacation Bible School at St. Mary’s were invited to gather around the fish for a “Blessing of the Catfish and Catfish Poop.” As children gathered to give thanks for the fish and their waste, they learned a valuable lesson: everything that God has created is sacred. The fish waste is a necessary ingredient for the plants to grow. This celebration raises the question if we as Christians have a theology of waste. And how could we participate in life if we found value in everything we used or generated as opposed to our practice of consumption, which draws what is useful and discards the rest?

I have no idea if this type of farming is the answer to food sustainability issues in our world. I do know that we need to think about how to make food more local, and to move away from industrial farming practices. And maybe, more importantly, we need to think about what is waste in light of our understanding of creation. We need to take seriously the sacred nature of all things, and if we are serious, maybe this will change the way we relate and interact with the world. Maybe this would call into question our relationships with human beings, our understanding of justice, and the way we advocate for our resources.

While this project is just a pilot, the hope is it might lead to the ability to provide both food and jobs in under-resourced communities and create a more just economy. I hope this summer, it will lead to a farmer’s market on a Sunday morning that has employed a person or two from the St. Mary’s neighborhood, connected people to local food, and been a visible and tangible sign of resurrection and justice in the community. And I hope for those children and the larger community, we see waste for what it really is, a sacred gift from God.  

Listening is a critical component of gracious leadership. In Peter Block’s seminal work on building community, he says, “This kind of leadership, convening, naming the question, and listening, is restorative and produces energy rather than consumes it.”[1]  In Holy Currencies language, we must listen to the voices of those whose voices have been suppressed in order to circulate the currency of truth. This is a shift from seeing ministry as something we do to someone else, and instead, the allowing of others to find their voice. It is a ministry of empowerment. 

St. Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral has just begun a new ministry, one of listening and empowerment. During the Currency of Truth workshop as a part of our Holy Currencies model for ministry, the Cathedral team came to a crucial realization.  While there was transformative and holy work taking place on Wednesday mornings with worship, job preparation, art, and community breakfast for over a hundred of the housing-insecure people of the neighborhood, there was a much-needed vehicle for learning the story of these individuals and building a more holistic community. 

The Cathedral’s Holy Currencies team member, Denise Dinkins, suggested creating a leadership team from guests of Wednesday morning. The team created a process in which once a month volunteers set communication guidelines, study scripture, and dream about the possibilities for the neighborhood and community.  Together, the Cathedral and the residents of the neighborhood are discerning a collective vision. 

One resident suggested that programs in the summer for children would be helpful.  A clergy member of St. Mary’s reflected that programs were done the summer before but were not well attended.  The resident offered to go door to door and recruit as she would be trusted in the community.  Here, a person, who had been seen as a guest of St. Mary’s was being empowered to become a leader in the community on behalf of the church.  The Very Rev. Andy Andrews, Dean of the Cathedral shares, “In the listening session I attended, a participant shared that what they were really looking for in the Cathedral was a safe space to be present, to be heard, and to be prayed for, and not a place to be fixed or where programs would supposedly make them better.  I am learning that more programs are not always the answer.” 

St. Mary’s has now conducted two leadership rounds, one in April and one in May of 2016.  There is a healthy tension between wanting to respond to many of the concerns that are being raised by the residents of the neighborhood and those who are housing-insecure. St. Mary’s is learning more about the issues of the community, the challenges of bad credit, dishonest landlords, of issues of safety and the need for mental health advocates, drug addiction programs, and literacy help.  The Cathedral team is learning that as their community creates more porous boundaries, many of those who had been seen as clients or guests are empowered to be agents of change as they live into their ministry.  This is not the result of creating programs to fix others, but instead learning to listen which in turn turns a guest into a partner in the holy work taking place at St. Mary's.