Allotment

Follow the Star Christmas Trail – 20th and 21st December

  • Follow the trail of stars to find our nativity scene, engage with the Christmas story, make a craft to take home
  • Hot chocolate and Christmas snacks
  • See the display of stars made by children in our community.

Who

We will gear the trail activities towards 4-12 year olds. Younger ones are welcome but there will not be specific activities for them.

Where?

Gather Community Garden (On path from Bridgemere/Churchdale Road to Wickes/Bookers/Tesco retail park)

When

Friday 20th December | 3:30-5pm

Saturday 21st December | 10-11:30am

It’s all FREE but donations welcome.

To help us plan, take 30 seconds to fill out our short booking form below

Fill out my online form.

The Lost Sheep Nativity Trail

Lost Sheep Nativity Trail

Find the lost sheep and discover 12 clues about the Christmas story

Gather Community Garden
Churchdale Allotments
10am – 12 midday
December 18 – December 22

Children can look for 12 lost sheep (each one introduces a short part of the Christmas story) The trail finishes at a nativity scene in our quiet garden room. There will be some activities there and you can also have hot drinks and seasonal snacks.

Entrance is FREE

Ness Wilson, Pioneer UK leader, challenges us to go to the ‘spaces and places’ where people gather

Ness Wilson is the Pioneer UK Leader. She visited us to film at the Community Garden as part of the preparation for the network conference in March ’23. 5 other church expressions will be filmed for the conference, which will explore how we join in with the mission of God by creating community in the ‘spaces and places’ of our neighbourhoods. Prepare to have your thinking stretched.

Midday Creation Care Book Club Launched by Gather Collective

Eastbourne community church, the Gather Collective, are inviting people from other churches to participate in a midday fortnightly book club around the themes of creation care, climate change and food topics. The group will meet in person and via Zoom, with the face to face version coming from the Gather Community Garden Quiet Room and the Zoom call being broadcast from there at the same time.

It started on the 20th October from 12.30 -1.30 pm.

Initially it will start with a book called PlanetWise – dare to care for God’s world, written by Dave Bookless, who heads up A Rocha UK, and is also a vicar at a church in Southall, London. It is clear that the issues of climate change, living simply and sustainably, and with less waste, etc are important issues of our time. Especially for those of us who believe that this world belongs to God and He cares about how we treat it.

Here’s a quote from the back of the book:  This is not another book on green issues to make you feel guilty. There is hope. God can take your small and insignificant efforts and multiply them in his great plan, Besides, honouring him, living simply can be an exciting adventure.

There are other recommendations from Ruth Valerio, Elaine Storkey and Nicky Gumbel.

If this is something that would interest you, you can order the book from the Christian resource centre  or via an online retailer. We will begin by reading through the Introduction and Chapter 1 before we meet. There are questions after each chapter that can help us in expressing our thoughts on the day.

What about lunch if you attend in person?
It would be helpful to bring a packed lunch and a flask of something warm, so that we can eat and reflect together from the outset.

How long will it last?
There are 9 relatively short chapters, so it would take 5 weeks (doing 2 chapters per session), meaning that we would finish in mid-December, (meeting every other week).

It would be helpful if you could let them know if this is something you would be up for. You can register your interest here

Delights of The Garden Art Show to be Hosted by Gather Community Garden

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gather Community Garden, an expression of the Gather Collective, an Eastbourne community church, is hosting an art exhibition around the themes of ‘edible’ and ‘the natural enviroment.’ The Delights of the Garden exhibit has been curated by Tempo Arts and Compass Community Arts with input from Amberstone Artists and Blackberry Buzzard. The works will be spread throughout the 7 plot allotment, which is open 6 mornings a week and includes a quiet garden around the theme of Psalm 23.

The 9 day event will launch on Friday 10th of September at 6pm with special guests including MP Caroline Ansell and Deputy Mayor Helen Burton. Refreshments are included.

The exhibition can be viewed from 11am – 4pm on the following days

Friday 10th – Sunday 12th
Friday 17th – Sunday 19th
Friday 24th – Sunday 26th

The Gather Community Garden is part of the Churchdale Allotments, which can be found on the footpath between Churchdale Road and Hammonds Drive. (The path is famous for its chickens – which are part of the Gather Community Garden. Google Maps will take you to the exact place if you search for Gather Community Garden.)

Entrance is Free

Gather Defib Helps Save Life

The Gather Community Garden, a project of the Gather Collective, was able to donate a Defibrillator for use among the 500+ allotment users at the Churchdale site (and other people from the locality.) Funded by a generous donation, the machine appeared to have been taken recently and the casing damaged.

It has since emerged that it was used to treat a patient and went with the patient to the Hospital. Due to an admin issue the emergency services were unable to access the unlock code from their database. An allotment holder, who lives locally, had advised that there was a machine there and to access it to treat a friend who had become ill. The only option left was to force the door.

Gather spokesperson Ruth Kenward comments: ‘Our upset over the broken door was transformed the moment we heard what had actually happened. This is just the kind of patient scenario we had in mind when creating this resource for local people.’

The Gather Community Garden is spread over 7 plots at the Churchdale site and includes vegetable and fruits as well as a quiet garden. Bee keeping and chickens rearing are among the other activities at the site which has been working with a tiny team for the last 12 months. We are now back at to our full programme – find out more about a tour by calling 07838 388128

New Partnership in Community Allotment Project

A new addition to the various Men’s Sheds around Eastbourne brings a new twist to the idea. Linking Lives is partnering with a local community allotment to create a twice weekly event for men. The allotment is open 6 mornings a week and welcomes everyone – but for two mornings a week will have a special focus on men.

Linking Lives Development Worker Dave Roberts comments: ‘Some of those we befriend still have a fair bit of mobility and a desire to re-connect with community. This kind of activity works at many levels, providing exercise, connection with nature, small group community and meaningful work. Not to mention the allotment volunteers bonus – take home vegetables. Because of the size of the community allotment we are able to welcome people, in line with government guidelines, in all but a lockdown. Care is taken over social distancing at all times ‘

The work varies from light sit down tasks through to digging, shredding and the erection of posts and small growing structures. The pilot project will be detailed in a short 8 page document, complied by our partners for these sessions, local charity Growing Futures and local community church Gather Collective. This document can be used by Eastbourne churches and charitable groups to create their own unique Men’s Garden Shed projects.

If you would like to know more about the Men’s Garden Shed idea or refer people to it contact Dave at [email protected] or call/text 07838 388128, People can come for taster sessions on Saturday mornings post lockdown.

Creation Care is Mission

Gather Collective is committed to creation care as a core biblical practice. If you want to dig a little deeper yourself here is a conference we commend to you.

A one-day virtual conference to explore the theology and practice of caring for creation

For mission agencies and churches supporting missions

Morning speakers (10-12am)

Rev. Dr. Chris Wright, International Director, Langham Partnership International
Dr. Rosalee V Ewell, Director of Church Relations for the United Bible Societies
Seth Appiah-Kubi, Director, A Rocha Ghana
Sumayya Sajjad, Project Director for Tearfund, Pakistan

Afternoon (2-4pm): case studies, workshops & discussions on topics including

An in-depth look at eco-theology
Practical advice on greening your mission agency
Embedding creation care in policy and practice
Carbon footprints and what to do about them
Engaging with the next generation
Creation care IS mission!
The EcoChurch toolkit around the world
Supporting environmental missions – a UK church perspective

Important information:

This event costs £10 per person

Find out more here

gather@theallotment

As part of our commitment to creation care, hospitality and food justice we are partners in a community allotment project called gather@theallotment. After the lockdown a structured programme, including a Friday Growing Club and Meal and a Wednesday Men’s Garden Shed will emerge. But in the meantime we have up to 5 people per weekday working alongside Paul of Growing Futures, our partner in the project.

Soon we will have a new website at gathereastbourne.com focused on all aspects of the community allotment. in the meantime you can check out our regular updates in Instagram at @gatherattheallotment. E-mail [email protected] if you would like to chat to someone about what we are doing and possible participation.

Sharon Roberts is a key facilitator of the community allotment – she shares some of the vision below and how we might pray for this aspect of our work in the community.

Prayer for the Allotment

Psalm 24:1 The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it.

The following ‘Vision and Values’ are based around Genesis 1:26:

Then God said, ‘Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.

And, also, Genesis 2:15:

The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.

 

Vision and Values

These are founded in the Creation mandates noted above.

  1. A space to look after and care for part of God’s land: the vegetation, wildlife and the whole eco-system.
  2. To learn together how this ecosystem works, and also how we are to live with an interconnectedness to it and to one another.
  3. To share the abundance of food together, and with those in need.
  4. To develop a space to pray and exercise our creative gifts among nature.
  5. To form deep relationships with each other, and those who do not yet understand that there is a Creator who loves them and loves His world.

Our regular prayers for gather@theallotment will be formed around each of those values