Canticle Farm

01/11/2024

Who do we know who lives in Santa Cruz? The Canticle community is doing our annual retreat down there Feb 15-18 and we're looking for folks who'd be excited to volunteer/support on a cooking team for one or more meals for us. Let us know (email [email protected]) if it's you! Or someone you know!

Photo of example Canticle meal spread for inspo/algorithm!

10/14/2023

We are so grateful for the 118 people who have come together so far to secure a permanent home for the Sanctuary Program at Canticle Farm! With 5 days to go, we need to find $113,000 in donations or loans to close escrow on this property which will be home to asylum-seeking families and q***r folks. We welcome all your ideas and contributions of any size!

One way to give with no fees: https://www.facebook.com/donate/727332415892558/

All the other info at the link below.

CASA MONARCA: A Home for the Sanctuary Program at Canticle Farm The Vision A three-unit property is for sale next door and Canticle Farm would love to purchase it to strengthen our Sanctuary Program. We envision it as a place to receive migrant families, a place for healing, gathering and cultu...

10/09/2023

Congratulations to the Winnemem Wintu Tribe for receiving back 1080 acres of their ancestral land today on Indigenous People's Day!

The Winnemem Wintu hopes to solidify the connection between Indigenous rights and biodiversity.

10/07/2023

Memorial Mass of Louie Vitale, OFM, mentor to Canticle Farm co-founder Anne and friend of the community since the beginning.

Anne was honored to give the homily at his memorial mass on Friday October 6th, you can listen in in this video.

You can read about Louie's life:
- https://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/father-louie-vitale-obituary-saint-boniface-church-18376180.php
- https://paceebene.org/blog/2023/9/6/remembering-louie-vitale

"If Vitale did not have his hands outstretched in a gesture of giving, they were usually behind his back being cuffed."

And if you are moved to give in his honor, we are collecting donations for the Sanctuary House. Louie supported the sanctuary movement from the very beginning: https://www.facebook.com/donate/727332415892558/

08/02/2023

Canticle Farmer Oona talking about their soul work in Oaklandside!

"Valle uses Canticle to coordinate a sanctuary program for new immigrants and asylum seekers looking for support in their transition—offering retreats on the land to heal from the migratory process, English classes, and more. She connects her work with migrants to her role as a gardener and herbalist at Canticle by transforming ideologies around invasive species.

“In terms of land tending, a lot of what I do is welcoming newcomers,” Valle said. “Supporting people who are also coming from diaspora or people who are not native to these lands, and supporting us to be in a deeper reckoning of what it is to come from settler lineages.”

These small urban farms across the city are making fresh produce more accessible and teaching Oaklanders how to grow their own food.

04/05/2023

Gratitude to Renee's Garden Seeds for the generous donation of seeds we received this year! We're singing, we're sowing, we're watching our seedlings growing, and giving thanks to all the ancestors who saved these seeds so that we could enjoy the beauty and flavor of the harvest in our day.

01/25/2023

We don't very often have opportunities to get to meet our community virtually, here is one, happening tomorrow!

"Together Bishop Marc and Dr. Paloma Pavel will be interviewing Canticle Farm founders Anne and Terry Symens-Bucher and members of the community including Niria Garcia (Run4Salmon) and Troy Williams (founder of Restorative Media, formerly incarcerated San Quentin parolee).

Lu Aya will be our guest musician, Peace Poet from the Bronx. Breakthrough Communities partners Paloma Pavel and Richard Page visited Canticle Farm this week and were awestruck by the power and inspiration of this living learning urban farm community, inspired by the values of St. Francis.

Check out Canticle Farm’s video in advance for more background …and read Active Hope: How to Face the Mess We are in with Unexpected Resilience and Power” by Dr. Joanna Macy for Canticle Farm’s theological context based in “The Work that Reconnects”. Learn practical strategies for transforming rather than transmitting trauma, and restorative justice as a basis for growing diverse intentional community.

We know you will want to be there for this inspiring event and bring someone along with whom you want to grow Beloved Community in your life. Each one bring one! Invite a member of your family, friend or church / community member you would like to inspire. We can take a leap together in this New Year imagining the future we want to build, and then move from vision into action. We are better together!"

Sacred Earth: Growing Beloved Community webcast featuring Canticle Farm, Oakland January 26, 2023, 7:00 PM Anne and Terry Symens-Bucher, Co-Founders of Canticle Farm will be our featured guests in conversation with Bishop Marc Andrus and Dr. M. Paloma Pavel. Canticle Farm in Oakland is an urban gard...

10/18/2022

Congrats Robert Symens-Bucher! Thanks for bringing your classmates over to learn here.

Robert Symens-Bucher, a graduating senior in Geography, has been named the Chancellor's Public Fellow this semester 🎉 The fellowship recognizes his work in the The American Cultures Center at UC Berkeley Engaged Scholarship (ACES) partnership with Canticle Farm for students in Professor Seth Lunine's Geography 50AC course, offered by the Fall Program for Freshmen. Congrats, Robert!

09/06/2022

Please join us in prayer today alongside the Apache Stronghold as they continue to fight for the protection of Chi'chil Biłdagoteel (Oak Flat), a sacred ancestral ceremonial site that is being threatened by plans for a method of copper extraction that would transform the site into a giant sinkhole. Apache Stronghold has a second chance today to halt foreign copper mining at Oak Flat in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, requesting reopening the case against Rio Tinto Copper Mining Company with a full 11-judge court instead of 3 judges. We've been invited to pray and sing with them today between 6am-1pm, in the deep knowing that all of our struggles are interconnected and that indigenous lifeways must be protected. More information can be found here: http://apache-stronghold.com/take-action.html

09/02/2022

We are glad to host some of the programming of Sacred Roots, Oakland! They have a fundraiser going right now to resource their collective of BIPOC healers and educators: https://givebutter.com/BN9h99

08/03/2022

Anne wrote something for AllCreation.org about Canticle Farm! You can read it at the link.

Anne Symens-Bucher is one of the founders of Canticle Farm , an intentional community “doing the work that reconnects” in Oakland, CA.

07/02/2022

Greetings friends! We are cancelling tomorrow’s garden work party, as many of us will be out of town for the weekend. Come by and help us enjoy the abundance of plums and elderberry the following Sunday. Hope to see you soon!

06/21/2022

Rest in Peace and Power, Uncle Paul. On Juneteenth we lost this beloved elder. He lived with us for the two years he was free after 44 years of wrongful incarceration, during which time he was a pivotal organizer for ending indefinite solitary confinement in California. He was so filled with love and generosity and was constantly of service to community and movement, even while battling cancer. May his memory and legacy strengthen all who knew him as well as ongoing struggles for liberation.

If you are moved and able to contribute to support his family with expenses you can do so here: https://www.gofundme.com/f/paul-redd

11/30/2021

Join us for this Zoom event this evening if you would like to!

Creation Justice Ministries is hosting this webinar TONIGHT!: Truth, Healing and Conservation: The role of faith communities in supporting Indigenous land and water protection
Tuesday, Nov. 30th, 7-8:30 p.m. EST

How can faith communities support Indigenous-led efforts to protect sacred lands and waters? Creation Justice Ministries fellows will host a panel discussion with members of the Canticle Farm community in Oakland, CA, who will share how they have learned from and partnered with Indigenous communities like the Winnemem Wintu tribe in the Run4Salmon prayer journey, and the Sogorea 'Te Land Trust in their work for land rematriation. We will explore how involvement in Indigenous-led movements can offer healing and spiritual transformation. This webinar is offered through our Truth, Healing and Conservation Fellowship, and will culminate with opportunities for Christian faith communities in California to join our work for reparative justice in support of Indigenous efforts to protect the sacred.

Registration link in comments!

09/17/2021

Join Canticle Farmers Morgan & Niria in conversation about transforming ancestral legacies on Dec 3!

Friday, December 3 @ 10:00 am PST - 11:30 am PST - Join TNS Host Victoria Santos in a conversation with ancestors and money coach Morgan Curtis and with Xicana climate justice organizer, human rights advocate, and storyteller Niria Alicia Garcia.

07/23/2021

We are inviting you to join our food distribution here at Canticle, an effort to weave relationships in our neighborhood, to redistribute from excess to need, and to support each other's well-being in the spirit of mutual aid and the gift economy. 

Every Thursday since the first pandemic lockdown of March 2020 we have been distributing groceries to our neighbors from food that would have been wasted in the landfill. Plus community apothecary herbal medicines from the garden, seeds, clothes, poetry, song, and other random gifts from the community!

We are looking for folks with cars willing to pick up food from our partners in Alameda and Western Workers Service Association in West Oakland between 12-3 on Thursday’s. Also to come hang during the mercado libre 4-6! And if you feel super jazzed about cooking up excess foods into meals to distribute to folks who don’t have access to kitchens, that’s an option too. So many ways to plug in!

We will especially need volunteers in August and September. We'd love to orient folks in the next couple weeks (aka come with us on a Thursday). If you or someone you know is interested in getting involved please reach out to us here or directly to [email protected] and we can chat about what role would make you feel most alive! Thanks for these photos and the food!

07/14/2021

We are so honored and moved to see these young children showing up to witness, grief, and protect what is so dear to us all!

07/01/2021

Prayers for our water protector relatives that are facing severe over-policing and militarization for PROTECTING WATER! Follow Giniw Collective and their work to stop kine 3

06/28/2021

Upcoming in-person Work That Reconnects workshop with Queen Rev Mutima Imani and Constance Washburn. Thought some of you might be interested! More info in the link.

A Work That Reconnects 3 Day Residential Retreat Building Inclusion and Resilience Banyan Grove, Forest Knolls, CA August 12-15 , 2021 A donation based retreat Let us come together in person f…

06/24/2021

Canticle Farmers Morgan & Orion just gave a live tour of Canticle on the Foundation for Intentional Community page! It's recorded so you can tune in later if you'd like to see it (starts at 28:00!)

06/22/2021

Join Joanna Macy & Canticle Farmer Terry Symens-Bucher for this conversation on Thursday afternoon for a glimpse of some of the values & practices that inform Canticle Farm.

June Wild Luminary free webinar

05/17/2021

Support Canticle Farmer, our Uncle Paul, with accessing some urgent needed dental care! Paul served 44 years in CA prison for a crime he did not commit, finally getting free last year and joining our community. Paul was a lead organizer of the CA prison hunger strikes that ended indefinite solitary confinement. He now gives his time endlessly and selflessly to supporting other formerly incarcerated people in transition, as well as still incarcerated people and their families with legal support work and advocacy. We are very honored to live in community with him at Canticle Farm, where he blesses us with his wisdom daily. Thank you in advance for any support you are able to offer!

Please help support Paul Redd. He is in desperate need of dental care that is not cov… Jamie Weinstein needs your support for Help Paul Redd with Dental Care

05/08/2021

Our gifts for you! Come on by from now until 6pm to 1977 Harrington Ave, Oakland for the Encuentro de Abundancia! All of this offered to community, and we welcome anything you wish to share as well. Everyone is welcome, all outdoors and space for social distance.

05/05/2021

Some photos from Sunday's fence removal ceremony! Such a special day, making it possible for one more house and land to join the rest of the Canticle Farm land. Hours after the fence was down, the birds were flying right through where it used to be.

05/03/2021

A glimpse of our fence removal ceremony! It was a momentous day at Canticle today, taking down one more fence between the community and the house that most recently joined. We pray this one fence coming down has a ripple effect for all the other walls, borders, fences that must fall 🙏 Thank you to everyone that made this possible! We are so grateful to our community members of all kinds - residents old and new, donors, volunteers, children, elders, painters, cleaner uppers - it takes a village!