Our culture is disenchanted. The technocracy reigns. Exploitation of one another and the creation for the bottom-line and the top dollar is the dominant way of being. The industrial standard of efficiency has replaced the neighborly standard of love. The way of life has been reduced to the acquisition of knowledge and doctrine. And in everything, we hold the deepest realities of the cosmos at a distance.

But this is not the only way.

The Local Academy aims to be a fellowship of thoughtful contrarians. As gardeners, we cultivate a local, embodied love of God, neighbor, and creation. As trees, we are loving neighbors rooted in one another, in the land, and in the divine mystery. In the words of a Kentucky poet, we practice resurrection.