The Geranium Farm

Irenic Thoughts is, of course, not an original creation. Not only did we not create the idea of a blog, we didn't create a daily church blog. While it would be hard to know who was the first, within the Episcopal Church, it would be safe to venture that the best known is The Geranium Farm. Created in 2001 by The Rev. Barbara Cawthorne Crafton as "The Almost-Daily eMo from St. Clement's-in-the-'Hood."

As Crafton recalls at her website

I began to write them in the spring of 2001, as a way to provide my parishioners with a meditation they could use in their daily prayer. They spread quickly. By the time I retired from parish ministry at the beginning of 2002, there were almost 1000 recipients. Today, there are at least 10,000, and probably many times that number: one of the characteristics of Internet communication is that it is impossible to measure its reach.

The most recent entry is the August 15th post Church Shoes. Crafton's site has expanded and the Farm now includes "Hodgepodge" by Debbie Sharp Loeb and "More or Less Church" by Deacon J and more. It was a small idea that grew into something more than one might have imagined from its beginnings, perhaps not unlike a mustard seed...