{"id":817,"date":"2026-07-21T21:19:48","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T21:19:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/peacebuilding\/?p=817"},"modified":"2026-07-21T21:19:48","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T21:19:48","slug":"highland-avenue-church-of-the-brethren","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/peacebuilding\/highland-avenue-church-of-the-brethren\/","title":{"rendered":"Highland Avenue Church of the Brethren"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">By Cheryl Brumbaugh-Cayford<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Green Team at <strong>Highland Avenue Church of the Brethren<\/strong> in Elgin, Ill., has worked to create beds of native plants around the church, one under an old elm tree on the northwest corner of the property, and one in a long narrow space bed between the fellowship hall and the parking lot. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Last year, small colorful signs were added to identify the beds as friendly to pollinators and the environment, and a birdhouse also was added under the elm. This multi-year project has had many rewards, from varied colors and varieties of flowers native to the local ecosystem that have bloomed from spring to fall, to the three different types of milkweed that have thrived in the hot and dry space alongside the parking lot. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Earlier this June, the Green Team also was rewarded when a dozen or more monarch caterpillars were seen feasting on the milkweed. The team asked the congregation to join in prayer for the caterpillars\u2019 survival to grow into the next generation of beautiful monarch butterflies!\u00a0<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-8f761849 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"558\" height=\"749\" src=\"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/peacebuilding\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/17\/2026\/07\/flowers-elgin.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-815\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/peacebuilding\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/17\/2026\/07\/flowers-elgin.jpg 558w, https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/peacebuilding\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/17\/2026\/07\/flowers-elgin-223x300.jpg 223w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 558px) 100vw, 558px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Native plants. Photo by the Green Team from Highland Avenue Church of the Brethren in Elgin, Illinois. <\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"562\" height=\"750\" src=\"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/peacebuilding\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/17\/2026\/07\/monarch-caterpillar-elgin.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-816\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/peacebuilding\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/17\/2026\/07\/monarch-caterpillar-elgin.jpg 562w, https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/peacebuilding\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/17\/2026\/07\/monarch-caterpillar-elgin-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/peacebuilding\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/17\/2026\/07\/monarch-caterpillar-elgin-560x747.jpg 560w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 562px) 100vw, 562px\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-element-caption\"><em>Monarch caterpillar on a milkweed plant. Photo by the Green Team from Highland Avenue Church of the Brethren in Elgin, Illinois. <\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Green Team at Highland Avenue Church of the Brethren has worked to create beds of native plants<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":816,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42],"tags":[9,64,65,68,67,66],"class_list":["post-817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-creation-care","tag-creation-care","tag-highland-avenue-church-of-the-brethren","tag-illinois-wisconsin-district","tag-milkweed","tag-monarch-butterflies","tag-native-plants"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/peacebuilding\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/peacebuilding\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/peacebuilding\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/peacebuilding\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/peacebuilding\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=817"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/peacebuilding\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":818,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/peacebuilding\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/817\/revisions\/818"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/peacebuilding\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/816"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/peacebuilding\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/peacebuilding\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.brethren.org\/peacebuilding\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}