Every bee is sacred at Greenwood United
DONWOOD — A Peterborough area church has been named the first Bee City faith community in Canada.
Greenwood United Church received the designation from Bee City Canada, an organization that encourages the protection of pollinators.
The Donwood Dr. church has four bee hives and is working on a pollinator garden.
Greenwood was established in 2015, after Donwood United Church and St. Matthews United Church amalgamated.
It has a small congregation of about 50 people, with Rev. Allan Smith-Reeve at the helm.
As a new church, the congregation came up with a new name and vision, with a focus on the environment.
“I think the connection between the environment and
God’s love for the world is a natural one for all faith communities,” Smith-Reeve said.
In 2016, Greenwood joined GreenUp’s community bee keeping program as one of five sites to host bee hives.
Since then, the congregation has acquired two hives and Rev. Allan SmithReeve and his wife have attained two also.
The hives are secured on the church’s property and tended to by the reverend, the congregation and Tom Childs, the head bee keeper.
Greenwood also decided to turn the church land into a pollinator garden by letting the grass grow and planting wild flower seeds.
A blessing of the bees was held on Earth Day in April, which is also when the congregation created and tossed seed bombs into the yard to start the garden.
The garden is one of many pollinator gardens to pop up recently in the city. In 2016, each of the five wards were given $20,000 from a city Participatory Budgeting Project to create pollinator gardens.
Childs, who tends to the Greenwood bee hives weekly, said he and other pollinator advocates are applying for Peterborough to become an official Bee City in the fall.
Selwyn Township was already awarded the designation earlier this summer for the work residents and organizations are doing to protect pollinators. It’s Bee City Canada’s 18th Bee City.
As for the Greenwood’s efforts, Childs said he’s impressed with its exclusive title, especially considering the size of the congregation.
“They may be small, but they’ve got a good heart and vision for the future.”
Childs hopes other faith communities take note and realize what they can do with their properties.
It’s up to community members to take pollinator protection into their own hands, he said.
“It’s a way for people to really make a difference in the world,” Childs said.
Meanwhile, Greenwood’s minister has high hopes for what the church’s property could become.
“I would love for it to be a neighbourhood hub of local food and pollination and environmental stewardship and a place where people can come and enjoy the space and learn,” Smith-Reeve said.