Welcome to the Garden Congregation KZfaq Channel!
Thank you for joining us!
This Easter Saturday join Dean Robert ("The Green Dean") and partner Fletcher (in the beautiful town of Greenwich, Connecticut - which many of you will recall is where DR and Fletcher were in residence last Fall for ten days at Christ Episcopal-Anglican Church working with the parish as the guests of dear friend Marek Zabriskie and his team - the recordings of these services are still available by going to the Christ Church website - www.christchurchgreenwich.org). This broadcast comes from the wonderful Botanical Center in Greenwich - a small but really lovely charity which does excellent work in the local community in encouraging the care of the planet and of the flora and fauna, educating people of all ages through a diverse set of special events all year-round and classes for many children especially from underserved communities, all just as we did at the Deanery for many years and in connection with other charities and organisations across Kent. DR has the pleasure of speaking with a very special friend of ours, Elizabeth Peyton - the head of the Annual Giving Programme at Christ Church, Greenwich, and also the President of the Board of Directors of the Center who we know you will love as much as we do - it is kind of impossible not to!
For those wishing to visit the Center (and we would recommend picking up a coffee - or, of course, a tea! on the way to enjoy whilst sitting in the pinetum or the botanical center) it is located at:
130, Bible Street, Cos Cob, Greenwich CT 06807
For the dates of the events that Elizabeth mentions or to find out more about the work of the charity - or how to support its efforts - click here:
Web: www.greenwichbotanicalcenter.org
Insta: greenwichbo...
The Garden Congregation:
When the Archbishop decided to close all churches to their clergy because of the Covid pandemic in March 2020, in addition and separately to the closure of churches to their congregations - which did make sense to stop the spread of the virus - the then Dean, Robert Willis, although not governed by the Archbishop (Deans of medieval cathedrals are crown appointments and sit outside of the church and are effectively on the same level as their bishop to serve as a check and balance to them), decided that out of loyalty to his fellow clergy he would also stop broadcasting from inside the cathedral. Instead he and his partner Fletcher held a daily communion inside the cathedral each day in a rotation of different chapels to ensure the tradition of a daily service which dates back to the time of Augustine was upheld and unbroken and also took to filming daily services and book readings in their garden through to May 2022. Usually joined each day by at least one of their cats (Monkey, Lilly, Tiger or Leo) and a whole host of their own menagerie from pigs and chickens to hedgehogs and newts and whilst sitting in the gardens through all seasons, this is a wonderful way to switch off and meditate whilst listening to a mix of poetry, recitals, current affairs, music - and of course the daily psalms and readings from the bible which are then explored and unpicked by Dean Robert. The original intention by Fletcher was to connect with "one or two members of our community who might be feeling lonely" and they could not have known that they would in fact connect with hundreds of thousands of people of all faiths and none from every part of the world who named themselves the Garden Congregation. Although initially the broadcasts were all on the cathedral website and other platforms, when they were unexpectedly caused to leave Canterbury, Fletcher transferred their approx 950 films to this new site so that they might still be enjoyed by anyone in the future.
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For Morning Prayer Dean Robert uses the Church of England book, “Common Worship Daily Prayer 2005” (Church House publishing). The bible is the English Standard Version (Collins), and occasionally - though always stated - Dean Robert uses the New Revised Standard Version or the King James.