John Creasy
John lives with his wife, Alyssa, and three teenage kids in the Stanton Heights neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He is the founding director of Garfield Community Farm, the largest permaculture site in Pittsburgh, where he has worked for fifteen years. John is also a founding pastor of The Open Door Church in Pittsburgh. John and his wife Alyssa perform musically as This Side of Eve. For a decade, John has been creating ecological designs for food production for schools, home owners and churches. He is a team teacher for Pittsburgh’s Permaculture Design Course. Wild Indigo Guild is John’s new endeavor to help congregations and people of faith connect with God through nature and develop the tools to bring effective food justice, environmental justice and ecological restoration into faith practice.
In 2019 John and his family went on a pilgrimage to visit the oldest, tallest and largest trees in North America. Their quest took them to the Sequoias and Redwoods of California, the Bristlecone pines of the Great Basin, the “pando” Aspen forest of Utah and, in 2022, the newly discovered ancient bald cypress forest of North Carolina. Much of what Wild Indigo has to offer came through these experiences in the natural world.
John is available for Permaculture Design consulting through his design business and co-teaches a permaculture design course.
Evan Clendenin
Evan Clendenin lives in Olympia, WA with his wife Amy, and their good dog. He likes to get his hands in the dirt, work at art, crafts, cooking, assorted subsistence pursuits, reading and languages.
Evan has worked as a horse-farmer, market gardener and teacher. He has served in urban, small town and rural ministry settings, with both Episcopal and Lutheran congregations. As he has moved, he has always made it a practice to pay attention to the local landscape and how local life-ways reflect a love and knowledge of local creation. This practice enhances faith life, preaching, as well as accompaniment of others in faith and life.
Trained in community organizing and spiritual direction, he listens with others as they desire to grow contemplatively in the love and knowledge of God in creation and their daily lives, and in pursuing good.
He has developed a variety of classes and programs, from a community bench build to a blessing of presque isle bay, that engage all ages for children and adults in faith, listening, care, good work, art, and appreciation of the wider creation.
With Wild Indigo, Evan hopes to offer more such things for your growth in the love and knowledge of God in the whole creation.
