Anathoth Community Garden

The Summer Apprenticeship Program (SAP) is designed as a curriculum-based, immersion experience for college-age (or older) Christians interested in developing the agricultural and theological proficiency to start/sustain agrarian ministries in their own communities. In 2013, SAP will run for twelve weeks, from May 23-August 15.
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HOW TO APPLY:
 
   APPLICATION DEADLINE: Admission is rolling through March 1. 
   ADMISSIONS DEADLINE:  We will make decisions within two weeks of receiving your application. 
   
To apply to SAP, download and complete all the forms below; mail them to the following address, or email them to anathothgarden@gmail.com:

Anathoth Community Garden
PO Box #138
Cedar Grove, NC 27231

Also, visit your off-campus programs office to inform them of your intention to study with Anathoth this summer.  They will be able to help you with your application and any other procedures your school has for studying abroad (which there normally are).  If your school does not have a dedicated off-campus programs office then visit your registrar. 

   >> 2013 Summer Apprenticeship Program Application
   >> Academic Recommendation Form
   >> Personal Recommendation Form
   
Anathoth will consider your application as soon as it is complete, so the sooner you get your application in the sooner we can let you know if you have been accepted into the program.  We strongly encourage you, therefore, to send in your application well before the application deadline.
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WHY APPLY?

At Anathoth, we have seven years of experience as a rural, community development ministry (read about our story), and we are positioned in the hub of the South’s “local, organic food and agriculture movement” and in proximity to Duke Divinity School. This provides apprentices with the unique opportunity to learn the fundamentals of regenerative agriculture and its place within the framework of Christian reconciliation, theology, and community development–not only in the garden and the surrounding community, but also from leading practitioners and scholars!

   
                                   Study, practice, and reflection in a living-learning community.
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WHAT TO EXPECT:

Our goal is to equip each apprentice with the experience and resources they need to grow spiritually and learn how to use agriculture to better minister to the communities of which they are a part.  In return, our hope is that apprentices would help us do the work to sustain this ministry by working in the garden, loving our neighbors, and helping us imagine how we might better minister to Cedar Grove. 

  
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TESTIMONIALS: 

Over the past eight years we have equipped more than 25 people through the apprenticeship program. In 2012 alone, three out of four summer apprentices found employment in the field of faith-based agriculture and community development within two months of leaving Anathoth. Here’s what they have to say about their experience.

 ”My summer working at Anathoth in Cedar Grove taught me the refining worth of close community, the spiritual and physical value of hard work, and the importance of reconciliation in our hearts, our neighborhoods, and our land. In the time spent farming, serving, eating, and reading, I learned lessons I know I will carry with me for the rest of my life.”

Cari Phillips, Sustainability Coordinator, Union University

“Coming to Anathoth, I was excited to live in an intentional Christian community, learn about regenerative agriculture, and make friends along the way – but never did I expect that I would leave with the skills to do more than just tend to a garden! It was through my work at Anathoth and time in Cedar Grove that I saw firsthand how a community can truly work to engage one another to care for the land that sustains their lives – - a form of fellowship really; encouraging and loving one another every moment in the garden.”

Mallory Boyd, Garden Manager, Vista House Kierkegaarden, Furman University

“I encourage anyone who is in pursuit of learning how to serve a community through theological and agricultural principles to participate in Anathoth Community Garden’s summer apprenticeship program. The beautiful lessons learned during these three months will be cherished deeply by you, and the community you will serve.”

David Hamilton, Campus Farm Coordinator, The King’s Academy, Seymour, TN
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ENDORSEMENTS:

“Since we dug the first beds and planted our first crop (garlic) in the fall of 2005, Anathoth has been a place committed to God’s restoration and healing of all things. That this work takes place in a garden is no accident, for we come from a garden (Genesis 1-2) and it’s to a garden that we are headed (Revelation 21). Learning how to care for a garden, and how to care for others in that garden, is no easy task. It is not glamorous work. It is work that can be begun, but never finished. But “tilling and keeping” the garden is good work, and it is a vocation to which all of us are in some way called. Should you come to Anathoth to take up this work yourself, you will be embarking on a journey far more important than you could have imagined. It certainly was for me. I ended up staying four years.”

Fred Bahnson
Director, Food, Faith, and Religious Leadership Initiative, Wake Forest University School of Divinity  
Co-author, “Making Peace with the Land: God’s Call to Reconcile with Creation”
Former Director of Anathoth  

“In my work as a theologian and an agrarian, Anathoth Community Garden has served as a focal place where many of the great themes of cultural renewal, community healing, and land regeneration come together. Digging beds, weeding, working in community and with complete strangers, sharing food–all this and more become an essential education on the way to Shalom. Our church and our world needs Anathoth if we are going to live into God’s reconciling ways with the world. It needs apprentices who will take what they learn in Cedar Grove and then create many more gardens of work and delight and hope across this nation and beyond.”

Dr. Norman Wirzba, Ph.D
Research Professor of Theology, Ecology, and Rural Life, Duke University Divinity School
Author, “Food and Faith: A Theology of Eating”

“For the past 17 years I’ve run Christian undergraduate environmental studies programs in Belize and New Zealand, and for the first time I’m excited to endorse another program—the Anathoth Community Garden Summer Apprenticeship.  If you’re serious about learning how to grow food, live in community, serve your neighbors, and grow in faith this experience will meet your expectations and then some!”

Dr. Chris Elisara, Ph.D
Founder and Executive Director, Creation Care Study Program           

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MORE DETAILS:

-Learn the fundamentals of regenerative agriculture: how to design and plan a garden, prepare and maintain soil fertility, raise livestock on pasture, make compost, start seedlings, harvest and store vegetables, save seeds, and much more!  

• Participate in running a 25-person Church Supported Agriculture program
• Field-trip to area farms
• Converse with expert gardeners and farmers
• Participate in educational workshops hosted by the garden
• Access an extensive library of resources related to regenerative agriculture

-Study the role of food and agriculture in the Church and world

• Engage in rigorous and relevant readings each week 
• Converse with leading scholars and practitioners in the field of food-and-faith
• Reflect theologically in a classroom setting, once a week

-Experience incarnational ministry in the Cedar Grove community

• Practice living in intentional Christian community (housing will be co-ed with an adult Resident Advisor)
• Participate in the worship life of a Cedar Grove congregation
• Engage in common prayer and Bible study each morning

-Gain leadership experiences

• Facilitate service and educational opportunities in the garden for multi-generational and multi-cultural groups   

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WHAT TO DO WE EXPECT?

 -Hard-working, mature, physically-capable, self-initiating, enthusiastic individuals who are committed to the Christian faith and planning on using the skills and experience gained from this program to further their goals for ministry in their own community.

-Full-participation in all of the above opportunities.

-40+ hours/ week (Tuesday-Saturday) commitment from May 23 and August 15.
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COST & CREDIT

If you wish to receive academic credit for this experience, you will need to coordinate this with your home school.  We provide an academic level experience, which you may earn credit for if your school agrees to give you academic credit for your experience, but at this time SAP is not an accredited program that can provide you with a transcript of accredited courses.  If you want to receive academic credit and approach your school to obtain it, we are willing and able to work with you.  If this applies to you, and you need our assistance, please don’t hesitate to contact us.  Finally, as a note of encouragement, last summer’s apprentices interested in arranging credit for SAP were able to do so.

RECOMMENDED CREDIT:   
    >> Core course: 4 credits 
    >> Practical course: 1-2 credits