Together Article John Riddell

Sussex Farmer and Member of the Sussex Church Leaders Group, tells the story of his

COMMITMENT TO THE LAND

Rural people have always been connected to the land in a way that urban people never have. Land was their home, their source of livelihood, their faith and the basis of their security, centred on the home, the church and the local. Today neither the rural people nor the land are what they were a couple of generations ago.

All my working life I was a tenant farmer up to the end of the last century but then, what with the devastating effects of BSE, Foot and Mouth and an increasingly detrimental globalised world market, agriculture no longer provided a living. Like many others the temptation to surrender my tenancy was well nigh irresistible but God clearly spoke to me through several quite independent sources to ‘remain connected to the land’.

At first I thought this meant keeping in contact with those who continued to be involved with the land, which helped but was not enough. Diversification projects and other non-agricultural activities were fine as a way of securing an income and the development of a simple, informal cooperative with other local farmers facing the same problems was a step in the right direction but the nagging thought of being ‘connected to the land’ would not go away.

I needed to do some hard thinking on what it meant and embarking on some theological study opened my mind to new possibilities as I developed my own theology of the land.

I learned how the phrase echoed the Old Testament prophets, but what did they mean by it? Did the Bible offer a sound theology for agriculture? My search for answers reminded me that God created the heavens and the earth that his creation is good and that we human beings are part of it and have some responsibility for it. But then, as a farmer in North West Sussex, I looked at what we and are forbears had done to it. I saw the damage caused by neglect, bad stewardship and agronomic practices, injustice and the displacement of people.

This surely was never what God intended but it did help to explain what Paul meant when he talked about healing and bringing wholeness not only to persons but to the entire created order (Col 1: 19-20). I discovered a gospel which went far beyond personal forgiveness to the transformation of whole communities (2 Cor 5:17). I understood how God’s kingdom cried out not only for a renewed relationship with the Creator, but also for renewed harmony and justice between all peoples and the entire created world order (Isaiah 55:12). This must be what scholars meant when they talked about cosmic redemption. Redemption of the whole created order of which land was a crucial part.

It calls for a transformation from ownership and control by the few to the many, if people who have been divorced from their heritage to the land are to be reconnected with it and saved from an enforced dependence on a supermarket shelf.

The theory was fine. But what was I to do? I went to see my landlord, a peer of the realm. I told him what I had been doing. I shared with him my dreams and hopes and at once he picked up on the idea of a cooperative model for land management. He too wanted to connect more effectively with his tenants and the local community and he insisted that we develop this together without delay. After a couple of meetings in which we discussed these proposals, he wrote personally to members of the local community inviting them to form a Cooperative Forum, to meet quarterly to look at issues relating to the stewardship of the land, just and Godly principles for the land, the people of the land and the local community.

Thus was born the Petworth Stewardship Forum consisting of representatives from the local farm tenants, the estate land agent, the Chairs of the Parish Council, the Community Association, Churches Together, the local Historical Society and a representative of the National Trust.

We have a Mission Statement (‘Working together for the land and its people, towards a just and ethical practice’) and for the last three years have been working to develop relationships between landlord, tenants and the local community, ‘joined-up thinking’ in stewarding the land and local resources, diversification projects which serve the local community, opportunities for people to access land for growing their own food linking local markets with local growers, and appropriate access to, and informed awareness of the countryside.

Progress has not been as swift as we would have wished but the Petworth Stewardship Forum with people from across the spectrum of community life and influence actually sitting around the same table exchanging news and ideas for the benefit of the town and surrounding villages in itself has had enormous value in the community. Projects include Farm Walks, Countryside Days for Schools and (our latest project) linking schools and farms within the local community, with farmers visiting schools and schools visiting farms.

Concerns on our agenda have included the intimidation of the Petworth Park Wall and residual perceptions and attitudes in the community to the Land Enclosures Act and Commoners’ rights, education on modern farming practices, food production, and the country code, and a Community Land Connection, whereby plots of land could be made available, under small business tenancies enabling people to grow produce which could be marketed in a visitor centre/shop or farmers market.

John Riddell