Cultivating the Commons: Duke Student Partners with a Local Faith Community Rooted in the Land

Have you ever heard of a farmastery? About 20 minutes from Duke’s west campus, a community in Hillsborough called Spring Forest is a unique combination of a working farm and a monastery. Participants care for the land and join together for spiritual practices. They also host potluck dinners and partner with local nonprofits.

This kind of intentional community fascinates doctoral student Brooke Reardon, who studies theology and ethics at the Duke Divinity School. “A lot of Spring Forest’s community actually lives onsite, and they think of themselves as a sort of commons. I’m doing work on the commons, and so I wanted to see an actual community that thought of themselves in that way.”

Reardon spent last summer with Spring Forest through a Community-Engaged Doctoral Fellowship provided by the Duke Center for Community-Engaged Scholarship. For eight weeks she immersed herself in a wide variety of activities from farming to prayer to community outreach. 

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“I spent 60 to 70% of my time doing a lot of farm and agricultural work, so I was learning a lot about sustainable agriculture and using agroecology techniques to care for the soil and the plants,” Reardon said. “The other 30% of my time was taking that produce and bringing it into the community.”

Spring Forest partners with two nonprofit organizations in Durham, Reardon explained. “One of them is World Relief, which works with refugee families. On Thursdays, we would put on a free farmer's market for refugee families. It was my job to organize that. And then, while the free farmer’s market was happening, they also had a cooking class that Spring Forest ran with its chefs on staff who focus on making culturally appropriate foods so that the families will have food that tastes like home.”

With North Street, a community of people who have intellectual and physical disabilities, Reardon helped bring produce from the farm and present a class focused on making cooking accessible for people of various disabilities. 

Throughout the summer, Reardon reflected on “what it would mean to think of the church as a kind of commons, and how that makes you think differently about what church life is,” she said.

“I think one of the biggest themes that I’m really starting to think about is how a commons is more than just an economic practice, but it becomes a social and spiritual practice as well. The community that practices commoning together, they reshape their imagination of what the world is, and what their relationship to the world is, and they develop a kind of shared sense of meaning and purpose. I think that that was really evident during my time at Spring Forest.”

“The fellowship provided a perfect match between Brooke’s research interests and what we are about at Spring Forest,” said Rev. Elaine Heath, abbess and farm manager. “She participated in all our circles of service, prayer and hospitality, attending morning prayer, assisting in growing, harvesting and distributing organic produce. Brooke also assisted with our midweek farm-based wellness program for children and their caregivers. During our potluck dinners, while farming and while examining scripture with others, Brooke raised wonderful questions and made keen observations. We were sorry to see her fellowship end, because over the weeks she became a beloved member of our community.”

The fellowship may be over, but Reardon plans to stay connected and join Spring Forest for potluck dinners. She also prepared a case study for Norman Wirzba’s course, “The Theology and Spirituality of Place.” 

“At the end of the class, we’re doing a couple of different case studies where our students will get to think about what it means to care and practice faith through actual place,” Reardon said. One of the case studies will be at Spring Forest. We’re going to visit the farm and help our students creatively reimagine what a church could look like, when you really take into consideration a place.”

About the Duke Center for Community-Engaged Scholarship 

Launched in February 2025, the new center is an interdisciplinary hub facilitating collaborative scholarship between community partners and Duke faculty, staff and students. It connects community organizations with students and researchers to explore difficult questions, analyze data and enhance their impactful work. Learn more about the center and sign up for the Duke Community Affairs newsletter.

Main image: Theology doctoral student Brooke Reardon, right, with a Spring Forest volunteer (far left), chef Netta Edwards, abbess and farm manager Elaine Heath and chef Shaima Muradi