Connecting with God and Mother Earth

It's a warm Wednesday evening in May. There's no smell of barbecue or whiffs of rhubarb pie, but food most certainly is in the air.

A group of about a dozen talk about the good and good-for-you foods they've eaten in the past week. They talk about the beauty in the world around them and the abundance of farmers markets opening this spring, and they pass around a wrapper one of them found from local food company Stahlbush Island Farms that uses biodegradable packaging.

Guest speaker Lin Allen from Greenwillow Grains is in attendance to share about the organic company in Brownsville that produces whole grains such as rolled oats and stone-ground flour. And a buffet made up of locally bought or grown, in-season ingredients, including asparagus soup, a chocolate cake made with beets, and muffins with homemade jelly, awaits in the church's kitchen down the hall.

Organic, local, natural. These buzz words are well known in the food and health industries as well as by consumers, but they also are catching the attention of local churches, as some Christians are preaching the benefits of seeking out locally grown and raised foods and businesses that align with organic and Earth-friendly practices.

Such practices, they claim, are not only good for those who ingest such foods but for the Earth and the rest of its inhabitants.

"There is a small population of Christians who say the earth is not my home and I don't care what happens to it, and that makes me want to puke. That hurts my gut," Arlene Webb said. "That said, you will find environment organizations all the way from Evangelical, mainline and Catholic and other faiths, too."

The Wednesday night class based on the book "Simply in Season" has been meeting at United Methodist Church in Stayton. Webb, the church's minister of discipleship who has been co-leading the class, started connecting the dots between God, the food industry and the food we eat around the time she was attending seminary at Methodist Theological School in Delaware, Ohio, seven years ago.

"My passion really comes from a concern about taking responsibility for future generations, particularly taking care of this earth. God desires that we do that. … The very first chapter of Genesis says creation is not just good, but very good."

Webb and others want to get back to what God called very good. And they see shopping farmers markets, growing a home garden and buying organic foods as practical ways to do that.

Dell Ford and Pastor Janet Parker of First Congregational United Church of Christ in downtown Salem attended the same training session as Webb through Portland-based organization EcoFaith Recovery. Like the Stayton church, the Salem church is offering a Simply in Season class this spring. Though the class, set to start this week, is full, they plan on offering another in the fall.

"We are commanded to be good stewards of God's creation, and more and more Christians are realizing we are not being good stewards," Parker said.

She said the classes are in line with what her church has long been doing in environmental ethics. For example, it was one of the first churches in the state to install solar panels. And "Simply in Season" fits nicely with the church's key focus for the coming year on climate change that will include lobbying for climate-friendly legislation in 2015 and aiming to become carbon neutral — trying to offset its energy consumption by supporting such things as renewable energy or planting trees.

Both churches are using the cookbook "Simply in Season" as a guide. One of the two authors, Cathleen Hockman-Wert knows a thing or two about the food in the Willamette Valley. She lives in Corvallis and works for Oregon State University Foundation as a writer.

"Coming at it from a consumer, journalist, I started becoming aware of the stories behind my food," she said. "The stories can be very different. You see there is very serious impacts not just on environment but on people. The food choices we make say a lot about what our values are, how we care about the environment, neighbors, ourselves."

A Mennonite, Hockman-Wert grew up using the Mennonite recipe book "More-with-Less," which was her first connection with faith and food.

"Back in those days, people were looking at the world saying we are going to run out of food. Eat 10 percent less to have some for others," she said. "Fast forward 20 years later, foods changed. I wanted to update recipes and the issues. Issues nowadays are more about eating locally, sustainably produced food."

Her cookbook, which is planned to be rereleased in 2015 with more photos, breaks down recipes into seasons so people are thinking about what's available locally at any specific time, plus it focuses on whole foods and fair-trade foods. It also has corresponding study sessions for Sunday school classes or other small groups. For Hockman-Wert, it's about putting faith in action.

"We want to enact what we say we believe," she said. "I think this is when religion becomes exciting and real when it is connected to our daily lives. This is real. We are called to live as we believe. And this is a way to do it three times a day."

Buying organic and even local can be more expensive. Hockman-Wert said frugality is a huge part of her Mennonite religion too, but she said she thinks of a little prayer when she shops: "Let me not seek a bargain that leaves others hungry."

"In other words, if I'm spending less on something, who is paying for that? It's really more complicated than how much I'm spending on an apple."

A local apple, she said, you know where it comes from. If you buy it at a farmers market, she said you can ask the farmer how it was grown. But if it's from, say, China, besides the transportation issues, she said you don't know how the apple was grown, if the people were affected from pesticides sprayed without proper training, if farm workers and their family were put at risk or if the pesticides ran into the area's streams.

"It feels good to know you are a part of something better," she said.

Webb also acknowledges she may spend more on local, organic food, but she says there are tradeoffs.

"I buy less, and certainly fewer processed foods. If you eat a whole lot of veggies and grains and eggs, that is going to go pretty far. … Go to the farmers market and buy a lot of veggies and grains and a little bit of meat. Think of meat as more of a condiment. That is one way to deal with it. Eat less processed foods, meat. Eat more veggies."

Webb said many people are overwhelmed, that they don't know what to do, but both Webb and Hockman-Wert describe it as a process and said there isn't one prescription that is right for everybody.

"It's a journey for all of us," Webb said, "and we are not all going to do the same thing. Some people recycle and ride their bike."

For Webb's co leader, Michelle Weaver, growing her own food has turned out to not only be environmentally friendly, good for her health and better tasting but a way to evangelize.

"I'm not one to go out and knock on doors, but I do have an opportunity when I share our bounty to share the lord," she said.

One could say that's organic evangelism.

Have a faith-based story idea or person who would make a great faith profile? Contact hrayhorn@StatesmanJournal.com, (503) 589-6920.

Simply in Season

Classes: Both First Congregational United Church of Christ in Salem and United Methodist Church in Stayton are planning "Simply in Season" classes in the fall. Call (503) 363-3660 for First Congregational United Church of Christ and (503) 769-5700 for United Methodist Church.

Online: worldcommunitycookbook.org/season/