On World Peace Day, there was a happy gathering of the whanau of St Columba – in its widest sense – after its Sunday service, to plant the beginnings of a food forest along the western boundary of the property.
The diversity of those who came to witness the planting – families from the community, parishioners and representatives from various St Columba groups, GL2030 and Business Grey Lynn – was matched by the variety of trees planted – fig, plum, nectarine and walnut, to name some.
The first was the plum, planted in memory of parishioner George Morgan who died last year. Mary, his wife, commented that just as he used to love meeting locals over his own front fence, he would have loved the position of the tree close to the footpath so passers-by could reach the fruit.
Another was planted by the Super Gs Seniors group, and another jointly by Brigitte Sistig from GL2030 and Gael Baldock from Business Grey Lynn. Reverend Talau Hoeft and his son, Counties under 19’s prop, Michael, planted a mandarin tree for the Tongan congregation, and members from the Fa’alogo-Lilo, Davidson and Fa’aiuaso families planted a peach tree for St Columba’s Samoan aiga.
The children placed a walnut tree in the playground with the vision that it will provide shade in years to come. As Sa’id settled a fig tree in the soil, he offered a prayer in Farsi to honour the victims of the Christchurch massacre, and his own father whose funeral he was unable to attend some months ago in Iran.
Each new tree was blessed, and there was prayer and singing. “It’s been a wonderful celebration of the community St Columba is part of,” said Reverend Brent Swann. “And this is just the start. We will plant more to add to what is already here. It’s about manaaki of the environment, and contributing to the local community – kai for the puku and kai for the eyes. The fruit will help us to feed visitors and those in need.”
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