Is your Unitarian church WILD enough for you?

I know some “wild Anglicans” here in Vancouver. They’re in the Salal and Cedar group who are part of the BC Wild Church network. Over the web I’ve met some “wild United Church” folk too.

As I understand it the two key requirements are: meet outside and connect in a circle. I like both of those “rules”. I’m part of the Earth Spirit group through the Vancouver Unitarians but I admit we’re pretty quick to dart inside at the least bit of weather coming our way. Although we do fairly regularly walk the outdoor labyrinths and at least once a year dance the maypole outside.

I’ve now find a couple of UU congregations interested in offering “Wild Church”.

Most recently I notice UU Amherst have begun weekly “wild church wilderness meditation” sessions prior to their regular Sunday service. They use a “lectio divina” approach – reading a poem several times – combined with a check-in (within circle), meditation in whatever way the individuals choose and a time to share at the end. They have two labyrinths on their property–their labyrinths and property are both bigger-and a bit wilder–than ours in Vancouver. When UCV was built in 1964 it was on the outskirts of town, but now it’s a very busy throughfare and while the neighbours have been polite there are people walking by and clearly interested when we’re out there doing ritual. Perhaps our hiking group will morph into a Wild Church, or Wild something or other (Given that we’re considering removing the word “church” from our legal name.)

Here’s a service about Wild Church at UU Amherst

Earth Day and the Wild Church

and I can’t resist including Les Buhite’s talk on labyrinths. (Minister’s spouse, btw).

And from just south of the border, Quimper UU in Port Townsend.

They say: There are 3 mostly equal parts: Greeting/Grounding, Wandering/Wondering, Circling-Up/Sharing.  And advise to bring a chair, a hot drink and dress appropriately.

Links

Wild Church Network

https://www.wildchurchnetwork.com/About-Us

It began as a phenomenon of isolated pastors and spiritual leaders, taking prophetic and courageous steps in their radical vision to leave buildings to connect with the natural world to restore sacred relationship.  As we began to find one another and connect, “wild church” blossomed into an organic, spirit-led and collaborative movement.  We are a network of “churches” affiliated with many denominations and others who are not affiliated at all. Some don’t call themselves church at all, as the word itself can trigger wounds. Others find the word church to be nourishing as it becomes something very different outside of literal and theological walls.

Wild Church BC (associated with United Church) based in Okanagan/Kamloops area

https://www.wildchurchbc.org/

I quickly received an email with offers of support when I sent a note to: wildchurchbc@wildchurchbc.com

Salal and Cedar (associated with Anglican Church)

https://salalandcedar.com/

The book

I’ve read this book. Available from Vancouver Public Library

https://www.victorialoorz.com/book

I posted to my 2000 plus facebook friends about starting something up in my neighbourhood. I included, I know the word “church” can be triggering, and sure enough, 10 of the 12 comments focused on that, but… two people said they were interested.

Wild Church, Anyone?

I first learned about “Wild Church” from Unitarians on Vancouver Island. Maybe in mid 2000’s or so, a young adult I’d gotten to know during the time I worked for the Canadian Unitarian Council sent me a note knowing I’d find it interesting. Outdoors! rain or shine! in a circle! All welcome! What’s not to like?

Next I met Rev. Laurel Dystra, Anglican Priest, at an interfaith gathering and learned about the “Salal and Cedar” group here in Vancouver. https://salalandcedar.com/

Perhaps it was on CBC Tapestry that I learned there was a book. So I read that. Church of the Wild by Victoria Loorz. And Salal and Cedar are mentioned there. https://www.victorialoorz.com/

All of the Wild Churches I have found are connected to a Christian denomination–Anglican or United–and use explicitly Christian language, albeit in a very new (or renewed) format. As a Unitarian, it just hasn’t seemed the right place for me. So I’ve just continued with the Earth Spirit circle at my local congregation and initiating things like book groups and zero-waste forums and, most recently, one of the promoters of the All We Can Save circles. allwecansave.earth. But, to be honest, we’re not all that wild.

Popping up all over the land, like wild mushrooms after a spring rain,
 communities are responding to a call from deep within
to change the way we relate to the natural world.
“from a collection of objects, to a communion of subjects”
Thomas Berry

This past Sunday as I was travelling around the UUUniverse, I stopped into one of my favorite congregations, in Amherst New York and discovered their congregation was having a conversation that very day about the possibility of starting a Church of the Wild on their property (which has two labyrinths, by the way). I then googled “wild church Unitarian” but didn’t come up with anything.

Here’s Rev. Michelle Buhite’s service from a year ago introducing the concept to their UU church.

Earth Day and the Wild Church

I love how she engages with the congregation. Here she asks the congregation to share “a book, a story or a song with the word “wild” in the title.”

In case you want to hear it right from the pulpit, here’s the announcement from the board representative: https://youtu.be/O9wkABZc1PU?t=2858 (I have, of course, being me, already sent him an email asking for more information.)

The rest of the service is also worth watching IMHO. As are many other services. I often attend 3 -or more – Unitarian*Universalist services on a Sunday, and this church is one of my top 10.

I got more and more inspired, thinking perhaps the time had come to try to move this forward so I can have a “Wild Church” in my neighbourhood. So I floated the idea to see if any of my 2000 Facebook friends would be interested in getting something going in my beautiful neighbourhood of Kitsilano. I did preface it with “I know the word church can be triggering…” and, yes, that was certainly the case. There were more comments on the word “church” than on the concept, but one artist friend of mine said, “Keep me posted.” Maybe my fb friends and I are going to get something going; maybe it’ll be called Wild Sanctuary. I’ve been in touch with the Wild Church BC group and it seems that (almost?) anything goes and they assure me there are many non-Christians involved. And that one person is so triggered they won’t attend because of “church”.

I got a grant a couple of years ago to organize labyrinth walking and sacred circle dancing at a park right near the ocean in a forested area. This was high covid time, so we kept our distances but even so both activities allowed for space – and also meditative space as well as physical. (I crocheted the “walls” of a labyrinth from plastic bags, as there’s no labyrinth there usually. There was a yoga group and probably a few other groups that met there too. Yes, people were pretty curious but we rarely had any interruptions.

No idea if or where this will go, but if you’re interested, let’s chat.

I’ve joined the (free level) of the Wild Church Network Ecosystem here:

Join the Wild Church Network if you lead or want to lead your community out of buildings and into deeper relationship with the sacred through nature. Our beloved communities includes the entire ecosystems in which we live.  A group membership is $35/month. Join me?