FARMINARY ANNIVERSARY: Princeton Theological Seminary’s Farminary will be celebrating its 10th anniversary with a four-day event from September 24 to 27, featuring a variety of leaders in ecology, theology, and food justice and a range of presentations, conversations, panel discussions, shared meals, workshops, and more. (Photo courtesy of Princeton Theological Seminary)
By Donald Gilpin
The tenth anniversary celebration of the Farminary, the Princeton Theological Seminary’s (PTS) 21-acre sustainable farm for regenerative agriculture and theological reflection, will take place from September 24 to 27, bringing together what a PTS press release describes as “some of the brightest minds shaping the future of theological education and ecological imagination.”
Those minds leading sessions at the four-day event at the Farminary off Princeton Pike will include Willie James Jennings, Barbara Brown Taylor, Jeff Chu, Michael Twitty, Tiya Miles, and Heber Brown, who, along with other event participants, will be exploring the most challenging religious and environmental questions of our time.
“The world needs to wrestle with the reality that our ecological situation, which is dire, is inseparable from the question of what we value, what is important to us,” said Farminary Project Director Nate Stucky. “What is it ultimately that we are following? Who is it ultimately that we are following? There is this pairing of theology and ecology.”
He continued,” Our current ecological situation results from human beings worshipping the wrong things. It may not be a deity. It might be worshiping the accumulation of capital, or convenience, or consumerism. These things have superseded our attentiveness to the health of the planet.”
Since its founding in 2015, the Farminary has become “a place where the rhythms of the land shape our understanding of god, community, and calling,” said Stucky. It is the focal point of the PTS Master of Arts in Theology and Ecology (MTE) degree program, launched in 2023 to prepare leaders for ministry in a time of critical ecological challenges.
PTS students from all degree programs enjoy opportunities at the Farminary “to learn not only from books and classrooms, but from compost piles, planting beds, livestock, and shared meals that reflect a theology of independence and care,” the press release states.
“If the classroom is where we think about God, the garden is where we remember we belong to God, and to one another. The Farminary invites us to do both, ” stated New York Times bestselling author Taylor, who will be preaching at the opening worship service of the celebration.
The Farminary anniversary events will include keynote presentations, lectures, conversations, panel discussions, shared meals, workshops, food and wine tasting experiences, and storytelling.
Anyone who is interested in or concerned about “our exhausted world” and people who care about questions of values, questions of faith, or questions of worship should join this event, as well as folks who are curious about what the Farminary is, according to Stucky. “If you’re interested in thought-provoking conversations, good food, and time outdoors, you should come,” he said.
Stucky went on to discuss the world that his children will be inheriting and the need to expand the discussion of vital ecological and theological questions. “We need more people at the table,” he said. “The theologians on their own aren’t going to be able to do it. They need ecologists and farmers and scientists, politicians and policy makers, and all these kinds of people. Can we continue to expand the table and work at the kind of world that we want our kids to have?”
The press release states, “The anniversary celebration is designed to reflect this expansive vision and nourish body, mind, and spirit. To ensure broad participation, the event follows a ‘pay-as-you-can’ pricing structure, ensuring that cost is never a barrier to connection and gathering.”
Highlights on Wednesday, September 24 include a sermon by Taylor, a keynote address by Jennings, a theological discussion on creation, and an evening session on “Wine and the Bible,” with wine tasting and spiritual reflection centered around wine’s sacred role in biblical tradition.
Thursday’s offerings include workshops on composting, native seed collection, poetry, and ecological infrastructure, followed by an evening conversation between Chu and Twitty, exploring food, land, identity, and faith.
Institutional ecology, social entrepreneurship, and congregational farming practices are on the agenda for Friday September 26 with a Farm Chef Fest offering a tasting experience from local culinary leaders. The day culminates with an evening conversation between Harvard University History Professor Miles and Stucky, exploring Black environmental consciousness, storytelling, and sacred ecology.
Miles, the author of eight books including most recently an acclaimed biography of Harriet Tubman, has argued that Tubman, according to Stucky, “could do what she did in her life not because she was a superhero, but because of her faith in God and extraordinary familiarity with the land.”
The anniversary celebration will conclude on Saturday with a worship service at the Farminary and a sermon delivered by Brown, founder of the Black Church Food Security Network.
Stucky explained that when people used to ask him what he’d been growing on the farm he would name the fruits and vegetables, but in recent years he has been giving an answer that’s closer to the mission of the Farminary. “We’re trying to grow a different kind of leader for service in the world and the church,” he said.
He noted that those young leaders will not be going onto farms but into schools and nonprofits and congregations and neighborhoods that, like depleted farmlands, “know what it’s like to suffer because of exhaustive and extractive economies.”
He continued, “So the kind of leader we’re trying to form is the kind of leader who can go in and recognize where the vitality has been compromised in a certain place, do the careful research that can help understand that, and then be able to respond with the slow, patient affection that might be able to bring about renewed vitality, renewed life, renewed faith.”
Stucky described “regenerative agriculture, that skill of being able to regenerate, bring about new life where life has been depleted,” as essential to what the world needs now and “to our best understanding of Christian faith.”
For more information about the Farminary and tickets for the 10th Anniversary Celebration, visit ptsem.edu/farminary10.