It might be a stretch to say that the garden patch tucked behind Monroe Street United Methodist Church calls to mind the biblical Garden of Eden.
But there is something spiritual about the approximately 7,000-square-foot garden, a pleasantly haphazard collection of native plants, perennials, and raised beds filled with veggies. Likewise for each of the runoff-filtering rain gardens – one installed in 2007 and one being installed this summer – that face the street on the other side of the Toledo church.
“It’s about stewardship of God’s creation,” said Bea Maugeri, a member of the church and its garden committee. “It’s one of the tenets of the faith.”
“We’re fortunate, too, in that we have a lot of members of our congregation for whom that’s really important,” added Marilyn DuFour, who spearheads garden efforts alongside Ms. Maugeri. “For many people, nature is one of the primary ways that they experience God.”
There are a slew of reasons that might motivate a congregation to get their hands dirty on the grounds of their houses of worship, not least of which is beautification. But stewardship, a sense of responsibility to take care of what God created, stands as a particularly prominent motivator, even in those cases where the objective, at its surface, is an attractive landscape.
“I do it out of gratitude,” said Mary Kay Wing, who with a team of volunteers tends the hostas, hydrangeas, and other plants that add curb appeal to their 100-year-old Pilgrim Church on West Sylvania Avenue. “I think, personally, that I want to keep God’s house looking nice.”
Stewardship is also a key aspect of a pilot program under the National Wildlife Federation that several congregations have embraced locally.
Sacred Grounds invites faith communities to lean into the relationship between faith and care for the environment by implementing ecosystem-aiding landscapes; rain gardens, such as the ones being installed this summer at Monroe Street and at First Unitarian Church of Toledo, are one of numerous ways to tick off a box on the checklist toward certification.
Certification also requires congregations to educate and engage their communities on their efforts, writing articles, hosting workshops and finding other ways to connect with those both inside and outside the walls of their church, mosque, or temple.
“The idea is that houses of worship are often community hubs,” said Manja Holland, regional education manager at National Wildlife Federation Great Lakes Regional Center. “This is a way to really expand engagement throughout the community for people to get involved in beautifying neighborhoods, creating wildlife habitats, improving water quality, and connecting with nature.”
Eleven local congregations are currently working toward certification under Sacred Grounds, Ms. Holland said. The Toledo Community Foundation is supporting 10 with $1,500 grants.
The National Wildlife Federation hopes to roll the program out nationally within the next year or so, the education manager explained. It debuted it as a pilot program in the Chesapeake Bay several years ago, and, after learning of local interest, introduced it as a second pilot in Toledo last year.
Hal Mann, president of the Oak Openings chapter of Wild Ones has been involved in Sacred Grounds since the beginning. His nonprofit promotes and educates about native plants.
“One of the cool things is that so many of our faith communities have so much property. [To see it put toward] good environmental and ecological use is just a huge, huge benefit,” he said. “I like to think about our faith communities putting our grounds to good use.”
That “good use,” in the case of a rain garden, means absorbing the storm water runoff that would otherwise wash unfiltered into sewer systems; the deep-rooted native plants that make up these types of gardens are well-positioned for this role.
Ms. DuFour said her congregation has long been conscious of this benefit, especially as the church fronts the Ottawa River. Each of their rain gardens is designed to absorb runoff from specific portions of the church roof.
“Good use” might also mean conscious landscaping decisions, as Robin Reeves is working on at the Warren Senior Resource Center, which shares property with Warren AME Church and operates under its Warren AME Church Vision Empowerment Board.
Ms. Reeves, executive administrator at the center, is working with Mr. Mann to replace the scattered hostas that flank the building with more fragrant, more colorful and more pollinator-friendly native plants.
They plan on having wild bergamot, black-eyed susans, little bluestem and more in the ground by the end of the month.
While Warren Senior Resource Center is early in its path toward certification under Sacred Grounds, others, like Monroe Street, were well on their way to meeting certification requirements by the time the federation introduced them.
Ms. Maugeri and Ms. DuFour said their congregation’s gardening ministry began with a “children’s garden” in the early 2000s, geared at educating little ones on the origins of their food; within a couple of years, they had shifted to the more multi-faceted model they use today, including raising produce for the church food pantry and renting raised beds to neighbors who might or might not be affiliated with the church.
The children’s education aspect also remains present. On a recent afternoon, adults planted and watered vegetable seeds with children enrolled in Freedom School, a summertime literacy program through the Children’s Defense Fund that the Monroe Street Neighborhood Center hosts.
While the pilot program and its certification requirements are new, the idea behind them is not.
“Every single faith that we know of has part of its core teachings and beliefs that we need to take care of the earth,” Mr. Mann said.
Contact Nicki Gorny at ngorny@theblade.com or 419-724-6133.
First Published July 17, 2018, 5:56 p.m.