Peter Dula has taught undergraduate and graduate theology at EMU for the last 20 years, though many current students may not have had an opportunity to take one of his classes. This semester marks his return to teaching courses since the spring of 2024, when Dula was granted a two-year leave with the mission of planting trees on his property in Rockingham County. Over the course of his break from teaching, he was able to plant roughly 500 trees, while also completing other projects to start the process of rehabilitating the land.
“You can’t really plant trees in the summer. Ideally you plant them when they’re dormant, which means basically late February [to] March. I just decided to see if they would give me a leave to do it, and they said yes,” said Dula. Dula initially tried to teach half-time and work on his undertaking, but it ended up just not being feasible to balance both. This project really started during the height of the COVID pandemic, when Dula, his wife Ilse, and extended family decided to go halves and purchase 55 acres of heavily degraded farmland that surrounded his small property.
Far before even thinking about planting trees, Dula had a number of other tasks he needed to get done to set his nursery up for success. Thanks to a sizable grant from the local National Resources Conservation Services organization which paid for these first parts of the project, he was able to dig a well, fence the cattle out of the pond and creek, put water troughs throughout the pasture, and finally build a gravel road around part of the pond. Once these had been accomplished, Dula then had a good foundation set to start planting all around the property.
“Silvopasture is among the best natural things that we could do to mitigate climate change, bringing trees back to the pasture,” said Dula. “It’s good for the environment. It’s also really good for the soil, and it’s good for the animals.” During his planting extravaganza, Dula planted about 50 Chinese chestnuts, 30 pecans, 40 hazelnuts, and an extensive grove of spineless honey locust derived from the rootstock of trees that are often planted in public parks. Unfortunately, the batch of pecan trees did not do so well, so he spent a weekend earlier this semester replanting them.
“Hopefully when I retire these trees are starting to produce, whereas if I waited to plant them when I retire, then by the time they’re producing I’ll be in VMRC,” said Dula. Dula’s introduction to agroforestry came through his wife, who had conducted field work concerning regenerative agriculture in the Amazon for her PhD in Biogeochemistry. Her experience there was instrumental in their vision for regenerative agroforestry on the farm. Additionally, his own research on a major literature review of Anabaptist Ecotheology more recently had him reading lots of writings by farmers, which created a greater desire to experiment with agroforestry himself.
Dula has spent time living in Burundi, Ethiopia, Iraq, and Jordan, all of which have influenced his perspectives of theology and social justice. His family background in Ethiopia quickly shaped his interest in the global church and the “dialectical” differences between his own Mennonite culture and those of other regions. His time in the Middle East through Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) is a big reason why he is involved with Mennonite Action and their work advocating for an end to the genocide of Palestine. As a theologian, Dula often finds it frustrating how right-wing politicians give conservative religious justification for their actions, almost as a “fig leaf” for their agenda.
“I don’t think that the left is somehow immune to ideological uses of religion. In organizing against the Israeli genocide in Gaza you often hear ‘we’re here because of our faith convictions,’” said Dula. “I get that, but I’m not sure you need to provide justifications for being against genocide.” Dula says that he doesn’t have everything sorted out, though he takes courage in the fact that faith convictions are motivations to have a faith that is active and engaged.
