What We Do
As an emerging church in the 21st century, we began by meeting in private homes at times convenient to the schedules of our families. Our Sabbath service might not be on a Sunday! We also gathered for Green Bible Studies and suppers with friends. Public events like an Orchard Blessing, House Blessings and Blessing of the Waters at Lauderdale Lakes were part of our activities. In the fall we planned to Worship in the Woods and in the winter we planned to bless the resting wetlands. In spring 2013 we located to Michael Fields Agricultural Institute, where services are currently held in the Big Brown Barn at W2493 County Road ES in East Troy, Wisconsin.
The Good Earth Church of the Divine practices an open table, and ALL are welcome to Communion Services.
We’re building an Interfaith community living at the crossroads of God-talk and Earth-works. In addition to support for organizations like Heifer International and Amnesty International, we are people who explore contemporary environmental issues by taking small, practical steps as sustainable models.
Despite environmental degradation we can see, we remain people of hope, optimism and positive action. We relate to Dame Julian of Norwich, who wrote Revelations of Divine Love. She described God holding a tiny thing, like a small nut, so fragile and insignificant she wondered why it did not crumble before her eyes. She understood that the thing was the entire created universe, and she was told, “God made it, God loves it, God keeps it.”
We know hope to be one of three basic theological virtues. Under the drum-roll of repetitive negative news cycles, we still hear the song of hope expressed by the poet Emily Dickinson.
“Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune–without the words,
And never stops at all,
And sweetest in the gale is heard;
And sore must be the storm
That could abash the little bird
That kept so many warm.
I’ve heard it in the chillest land,
And on the strangest sea;
Yet, never, in extremity, it asked a crumb of me.”
Living with Hope, filled with Love,
We work to act out our Faith on this good earth.