West Branch Episcopal Apiary Project

As members of Christ's body, we are compelled to care for all of God's creation. Insect pollinators like honeybees are vital to the environment and food supply. By planting and sustaining honeybee hives and stingless bee houses, we promote pollination of food bearing and ornamental plantings throughout our community. There are approximately 30,000 to 40,000 bees in a healthy honeybee hive and worker bees can travel up to six miles from their hives, visiting 50-100 flowers on each trip. That's A LOT of pollinating power!

Bees use nectar and pollen from flowering plants to produce honey and bee bread to sustain them through the winter. With favorable conditions, beekeepers can harvest excess honey for themselves. We harvested just over 50 pounds of honey from the hive placed on Trinity's roof last year.

The expansion of our apiary to other churches and our community allows us to share with a broader base of people. Neighbors who are not affiliated with our parish are curious about the bees and some have expressed interest in helping with this mission. We have found this to be a joyful way to be in community with our neighborhood - evangelism through creation care!

Diocesan Shaped by Faith grant funds helped us expand our Apiary Proect. Currently we have two hives on Trinity Pro-Cathedral's roof, two hives at Church of the Good Shepherd in Upper Fairfield Township, and one hive off site for Trinity, Jersey Shore.

Community Garden

Trinity's Community Garden is located at the rear of Trinity's parking lot on land leased from Park Place. In the fall of 2022 we built 10 raised garden plots and filled them with enriched soil.

The hope was to grow fresh, healthy food in a thriving garden, to create a sense of community and cooperation among local gardeners, to promote positive neighborhood relationships, and to maintain a safe environment.

To help achieve this, the beds were provided free of charge to the gardeners. Plant seedlings were also free to participants who were expected to plant and maintain their beds while offering excess vegetables to their neighbors.

We hoped that this would, in a tangible incarnational way, be a piece of healing of both creation and relationships as part of the beloved community of Williamsport. It is a nice addition to our Creation Care efforts which include a beehive on our roof and plantings of pollinators around our church property.

We received grant funds from Shaped by Faith and had many financial and in kind donations from local businesses, community members, and parishioners.

We are pleased to report that the Community Garden has fulfilled these hopes!

Pollinator Gardens

The Diocesan Creation Care Committee granted us $450 for our new pollinator flower beds in front of the church. This is phase one of our planting project.