Site Stewardship

The Site Stewardship Committee’s mission is to guide the planning, implementation and management of Mishkan Shalom's outdoor environment in keeping with the congregation’s founding principles. Just as the building incorporates, reflects and enables prayer, study, acts of caring and repair of the world, so the site — as an extension of the building — is infused with these same core values. Both the ultimate form that the site takes and the process of developing it are understood as embodying these founding ideals.

The Site Stewardship Committee’s role is long-term and will change over time. To date we have been very hands on: collaborating with various committees on specific tasks, generating budgets, gathering plants, coordinating community-wide workdays, digging, hauling, weeding and watering — all the components of building true commitment and stewardship of the land where our community resides. In order to fulfill our mission and to remain an ongoing and integral part of the Mishkan community, we need to shift our emphasis from the role of gardener to that of planner, advocate and educator.

As such, we will continue to shepherd the site’s design in a direction that creates flexible spaces for congregation, study, prayer, celebration, education, exploration and play; advocate and educate for ecologically sound design and construction of the site through smart storm water management, plantings that create habitat and are sensitive to hydrology; engage and educate the larger Mishkan community through dialogue and participation in the care of the site; continue to bridge relationships with our immediate neighbors by engaging in environmental work in the surrounding streets and community; educate the community about our collective role as environmental stewards.