Even though I’ve never lived in Wisconsin before, I feel like I’m back home. I grew up in a small town in northwestern Ohio. When I was growing up, many people were no longer making their living in agriculture, and many farmers worked day jobs in factories. Still, life was dominated by agriculture. I would later joke that for fun, we had barbecues and watched the corn grow.

The area of South Carolina in which I lived was never dominated by agriculture. The economy and culture were very different.

We visited the Dane County Farmer’s Market on our first Saturday in Madison. Corrie has already gotten to know many of the farmers and we enjoy the products of their fields and pastures. As rector of a downtown church that is adjacent to the Farmer’s Market, I am intrigued by how we might minister in that context. What is our role? We are studying issues of food, sustainability, and hunger in our adult ed program this fall, but it seems to me there is much more that we could do.

I’m fascinated by a recent article in the Chronicle of Higher Education that discusses the plight of rural communities in the Midwest. It’s available here. Much of what is described resonates with my experience. It wasn’t so much that people urged me to leave. I never felt comfortable there, even as a child, so I jumped at the opportunity to leave, even if it was only to a college town slightly larger, ninety miles away.

Still, after I had really left the Midwest for Boston, I tried to come back for a summer, to see if I might live, and work, in my hometown. I realized I couldn’t.

The question I’ve been asking myself since I’m back in the Midwest is what is our role as an urban church, and my role as a priest in an urban parish, in reaching out to our rural neighbors?