River of Hope
Map
Map
Story & Experience
On the Sunday immediately following the Global Earth Exchange, we as a church community prayed for our local wounded places (including a tornado touchdown day after the spill). Then we created a RadJoy bird using natural materials gathered on our church grounds (plus some tornado twisted wood). This was then released to float downstream surrounded by swirling diesel.
On the Sunday immediately following the Global Earth Exchange, we as a church community prayed for our local wounded places (including a tornado touchdown day after the spill). Then we created a RadJoy bird using natural materials gathered on our church grounds (plus some tornado twisted wood). This was then released to float downstream surrounded by swirling diesel.
Why this Place?
Barnard Brook
On Wednesday June 17th a work truck went off the road into the Barnard brook spilling diesel. This waterway connects the two churches I serve as an eco minister. Wild Church is upstream on Atwood Brook and Taftsville Chapel Mennonite Fellowship is downstream on the Ottaquechee River. The spill happened halfway between these two connected churches.
Act of Beauty
We honorably harvested ferns, flowers, grasses from the sacred grounds we tend at Taftsville Chapel and the community worked together to arrange them into bird during the coffee break time. We made it in a pizza box to easily transport to the wounded site. En route to the brook, I stopped at the tornado touchdown and brought RadJoy bird out, leaving a few tail pieces as a blessing to that wounded place and adding in some twisted wood to honor the connection, also along the same waterway. We didn’t plan to float the pizza box and in the moment that seemed right (and 100% compostable), to launch the beauty, immersing into the life giving water surrounded with swirling diesel on the surface. Watching in silence, holding the space, a Kingfisher flew right over RadJoy bird just before the floated out of sight. Beauty!
Additional Photos
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