Garden/Earth Ministry
Tending our outdoor spaces
Over the past few years, we have worked, through a variety of projects, to give this land around out building its plants back — not through colonialist appropriation, but through a slow and careful process of revisiting the growth each season and adding plants that are indigenous to this place.
Nature Connections 2026
Saturday, May 30: Planting Day
From 1- 3 PM, we’ll be learning from local gardener Kim Dooley about the lifecycle of butterflies, and then planting the milkweed that monarchs love on our grounds. You’ll get the chance to plant, find out (and even sign up for) our summer Vacation Creation Camp and enjoy snack and fun with your neighbours. Come on over!
Friday, May 22: Biodiversity Day Presentation, with Joanne Kalan
From 7 - 8:30 PM, local gardener and wise woman Joanne Kalan shared the story of the Cedar Park United outdoor project that turned into our Garden/Earth ministry, and why Biodiversity is at the core of it. Biodiversity is here, there and everywhere!
Saturday, May 16: Planting trees
From 9 - 11 AM, we’ll be planting native shrubs and saplings outside our building. If you have a strong back and a garden shovel, you are welcome to come help!
Friday, May 1: Native planting in our home gardens
This presentation kicked off a month of Nature Connections in our neighbourhood: Together as neighbours, we'll discover that just MAYbe I can make a difference after all!
We've been inspired by the City of Pointe-Claire's Ecological Garden Guide and are grateful for the opportunity to put this knowledge into practice around the Cedar Park United outdoor spaces this season. Kim Dooley, local Pointe-Claire gardener and Kyra Pompeo, of the City of Pointe-Claire, shared ways that we can all make a difference in what we choose to plant, and how. Planting native species, bolstering biodiversity—it all matters for the neighbourhood (and the planet) we share.
Vacation Creation Camp
For the fourth summer now, we’re inviting to become Creation Counsellors, taking turns caring for our little corner of Creation throughout the summer.
This year, we’re launching VCC on Saturday, May 30 during our last Nature Connections event, from 1 - 3 PM.
Sign up to be a Creation Counsellor and care for our veggie-campers during the summer!
Healing Garden
So many people from this community have shared their time, talent and plants to care for this little corner of creation that is ours to tend.
In the fall of 2022, we began a Healing Garden, inspired by the wisdom of our First Nations siblings. It contains native plants, including the Three Sisters, and has grown and flourished over the past two years.
Outdoor labyrinth
In the summer of 2021, members of the Cedar Park United community came together to lay a labyrinth on the lawn in front of the church building. It has gone on to be a place where people from all walks of life and all types of connection with the community come to seek wisdom and a time of focus.
You are welcome to walk the labyrinth whenever you like, and if you wish, you can make use of the Labyrinth Guide below as a resource.
Linden, our prayer tree
In the summer of 2020, as the pandemic kept our community separated, we turned the linden tree on the front lawn into our prayer tree. By the end of the summer, Linden’s branches were covered with prayers and heart wishes.
In 2023, Linden underwent tree surgery and now has metal rods holding her two trunks, and a wire keeping her top branches, together and standing strong.
Linden has continued to hold our prayers on her branches, and has become a part of our Garden Ministry, Children’s Worship and neighbourhood outreach point.
