While God’s Garden is the story of Fr. Moses, it is also the story of everyone who has ever traveled far from home, only to find his or her way back, far richer for the journey. It is the story of everyone who has made the passage from darkness to light.
These troubled times call for narratives that strengthen and inspire. God’s Garden is a response to that need. We hope that it will make a significant contribution, calling us all to a greater appreciation of our diverse culture, and our place in it.
Here are some of the key story elements of God's Garden.
Setting
• Fr. Moses
is the great, great, great grandson of frontier legend Daniel Boone.
• The family cemetery is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. It dates back to 1875 and is dedicated to slaves, indians and paupers. It is one of the oldest African American owned cemeteries in the U.S. Those buried there include his great, great grandmother, Caroline Boone Berry, Fireball Yokum, who's in the Kansas City Monarchs Hall of Fame, and Mother Charity, who worked with Harriet Tubman on the Underground Railroad.
• Fr. Moses is the founder and curator of the Ozarks Afro-American Heritage Museum which contains the lock from his great grandfather's slave chains, as well as a slave tag from the lot of slaves for sale that included his great grandmother, pre-civil war quilts sewn by his ancestors, as well as an original painting given to him by Mel Tillis and a variety of other priceless artifacts.
• Fr. Moses
lives in the house his great grandparents built in 1875.
• The Berry
farm has been designated a "Century Farm," family farms that have
been in the same family for at least 100 years. The Berry farm is
the first African American century farm in Greene County, MO, and one of only
a few in the state.
Story
• As a seven
year old boy, Fr. Moses asked his mother why there were so many races, to which
she responded, "We're all flowers in God's Garden."
• Fr. Moses
was jailed at 20, but a sincere prayer provides for a dramatic awakening and a
truly miraculous release.
• Many years
later on a trip to Richmond, Virginia Fr. Moses finds the flowers in God's
garden that look like him in a surprising discovery of his
African-American roots.
Today
• Fr. Moses
currently serves as the priest of a growing Orthodox church that he began
in a small portable building at the family cemetery.
• Fr. Moses
is one of four (that we know of) African American
Orthodox priests in America.
• Fr. Moses
was the first canonical African American Orthodox priest in America since 1907.
• Fr. Moses
is the founder of the Brotherhood of St. Moses the Black, a pan-Orthodox
nonprofit organization.
• Fr. Moses
is a contributor to An Unbroken Circle, and much in demand as a
speaker about mission and also Ozark African American history.
• Fr. Moses
is the co-founder of the annual Ancient Christianity & African American
Conferences.
