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!

09/02/2022

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.