Back to the Garden: Pastoral Care for Humans and Humus

Pastoral care has always gone beyond the walls of the institutional church, particularly in the form of chaplains at hospitals and in the military. However, in recent years, with the vast decline in mainline churches, congregations are using increasingly creative means to meet people and care for people outside of the church building. Additionally, with the vast increase in the phenomenon of eco-anxiety (Hickman et al., 2021) as a result of human-induced climate change, many people are seeking to reconnect with the Earth in sustainable and loving ways. Rooting oneself in nature offers psychological (Kimmerer, 2013) and spiritual benefits (Clinebell, 2013), and a garden is a place where people can connect with one another, with nature, and with God.

In this paper I offer practical theological insights from work with children and youth and their experiences of eco-anxiety in the context of a garden. I present a case study based on my work with children exploring natural spaces, and offer interdisciplinary insights at the intersection of psycho-spiritual care and religious education within practical theology. Drawing on gardening as a spiritual practice, and integrating practices into the presentation itself, I will help illustrate the multi-faceted practice of gardening with youth and children in the face of eco-anxiety. I share three concrete spiritual practices that congregations and educational institutions can use with young people who face eco-anxiety in the setting of a garden.

The pastoral landscape of a garden provides resonance for the spiritual struggles individuals are facing because of eco-anxiety (Pihkala, 2018) —like guilt, condemnation, and a sense of radical futurelessness. Paul Tillich’s classic interpretation of the three existential anxieties offers a theological grounding for eco-anxiety (Tillich, 1952). I argue that Tillich’s anxieties: the “anxiety of fate and death,” the “anxiety of emptiness and meaninglessness,” and the “anxiety of guilt and condemnation,” (Tillich, 1952) offer a lens through which to consider eco-anxiety as a spiritual issue of our time—a concept initially extrapolated by Panu Pihkala.

Then, drawing on the case study of work with children and youth in the garden, I offer three spiritual practices that attend to each of these underlying spiritual and existential anxieties. First, I consider “the anxiety of fate and death,” (Tillich, 1952). This notion pertains not only to the death of individuals, but of species, civilizations, and even the planet. I offer the practice of Earth lament in the garden as a way to ameliorate this anxiety. Examining research from climate activists (Britt Wray, 2021), psychologists (APA Climate Report, 2023) and practical theologians (McCarroll, Mercer, Pihkala, Ayres), I offer a lament for the Earth as a way of mediating this existential fear.

Second, in the face of the “anxiety of emptiness and meaninglessness,” (Tillich, 1952) brought about by eco-anxiety, I offer the construction of a botanical labyrinth. Biblical theologian, Barbara Rossing, explains the climate crisis not as, “primarily a scientific crisis, or even a moral crisis…our crisis is a narrative crisis” (Rossing, 2017). Spiritual practices in the garden, attune us to nature and the transcendent, and help us to create narrative meaning. In the face of eco-anxiety experienced because of the climate crisis, children must somatically work out a meaningful narrative. Through my case study, I examine the construction of a botanical labyrinth. A labyrinth is an ancient spiritual practice where participants walk toward the centre of a cyclical maze and then walk back out—mimicking the spiritual walk toward our centre with God, and the changing of narrative as we move back outward. Through my case study, I recall witnessing children “walk out” their narratives of meaninglessness into narratives of meaning in the botanical labyrinth.  

Third, considering the “anxiety of guilt and condemnation,” (Tillich, 1952), as a way of experiencing eco-anxiety, I look at story-integrated planting as a method of allowing children to weave meaning collectively as they sew seeds in the soil. In the face of personal guilt and the condemnation of others for the negative things we have done to the environment, story-integrated planting offers a meaningful way to partake in climate-positive actions (Goldman, 2022), without shame. Through my case study, I demonstrate story-integrated planting. This method uses specific children’s stories like Here: The Dot We Call Home, by Laura Alary (2022). In this children’s book, readers are reminded that both good and evil things have happened to the Earth throughout history, and that we have partaken in some of these things. What helps the Earth is not our guilty conscience, but our individual and collective action. We can refocus our guilt by taking part in climate positive, life-giving actions, like planting a seed. Story-integrated planting includes reading a book, answering a few questions, and then actively participating in planting seeds.

Through the praxis of Earth lament, botanical labyrinth construction, and story-integrated planting, I recognize how pastors, theologians, and caregivers can provide simultaneous care to people and planet in their work in the garden. These three practices (among others), offer hope for children who desperately need spiritually-integrated care in the face of the phenomenon of eco-anxiety. Congregational and institutional gardens offer a landscape on which to practice the pastoral vocation. The case study demonstrating specific spiritual practices in the garden offers activities that can transform the eco-anxiety of children into positive coping mechanisms that benefit both humans and humus.

*Full bibliography available upon request.