Vivian Campagna

I first learned about Canticle Farm as a low-residence seminarian at The Church Divinity School of the Pacific and was immediately drawn to it because Canticle Farm is the manifested example of a dream I've held within me, and it's more beautiful than I could imagine. My life as a community organizer in the Low East Side of Manhattan working to preserve the network of community gardens from being razed and replaced with "market rate" development in the early 1990s gave me the gift of working with community gardeners who modeled a life of sustainability, community and compassion as a life-giving alternative industrial corporate driven economy. As a deeply spiritual person and an Episcopalian discerning ordained ministry, the model of sacred life-sustaining community to me is the best model for "the church of the future" I can imagine. My family and I live in Baltimore, MD a city that shares many similarities with Oakland, CA. I am deeply moved to work to create a similar community here. There are folks, Catholic Workers, community activists, and community gardeners doing pieces of this work yet it is all very siloed. It would be amazing to have a "Canticle Farm East"!