Dr George Rice Community Garden
Dr George Rice Community Garden
Creating a garden for all the Community
There is a patch of land beside St Nicholas Church. It's right by the civic offices and under the shadow of the Gibson Road car park.
The plot of land is overgrown. It has become an area that is associated with litter and anti-social behaviour.
The land is marked 18 on the land registry map. It's the area highlighted and belongs to the council.
We have a vision for a new community garden right in the heart of Sutton. A space for all community groups to use, whether young or old.
We will work with volunteers to clear the overgrowth and create a mixed garden including a social orchard a small allotment space to promote growing food and a Memorial Wall to commemorate the key workers and others that bore the bunt of the COVID 19 pandemic.
Are you interested in helping?
Contact: jeff@suttonfx.com or join the Friends of Dr George Rice Community Garden on Facebook. https://www.facebook.com/drgeorgericegarden
Dr George Rice
Dr George Rice BA, MB, C-M Edin (1848-1935) was an African American physician who trained in Edinburgh under Sir Joseph Lister.
Sir Joseph commended Dr Rice for his ‘exceedingly efficient manner’ and ‘indefatigable zeal’.
Dr Rice came to Sutton in 1884 with his family and took up the position of Resident Medical Officer at the South Metropolitan District School on Brighton Road.
He conducted a successful practice within Sutton. He filled many local appointments that included the position of public vaccinator for Sutton, Cheam, and Carshalton.
He worshipped at St Nicholas where his children were baptised.
The Theology
This is a shared community project to bring life back into a patch of waste ground is a communal act of hope.
It presents Christians with a chance to be able to share their faith with others in a work setting, outside of a Church building but in a context that has deep spiritual significance.
"For the Lord will comfort Zion; he will comfort all her waste places, and will make her wilderness like Eden, her desert like the garden of the Lord; joy and gladness will be found in her, thanksgiving and the voice of song. " Isaiah 51:3
Each of us is not only a creature or product of God’s creation, we are also sub-creators with him. We are called to the work of the kingdom within the world.
"What are human beings that you are mindful of them, or mortals, that you care for them? You have made them for a little while lower than the angels; you have crowned them with glory and honour, subjecting all things under their feet." Hebrews 2:6-8
The work to create a garden emphasises our responsibility as followers of Jesus to do what we can to safeguard the integrity of creation and sustain and renew the life of the earth.