Wild Church Network
RETURNING TO NATURE AS SPIRITUAL PRACTICE
An emerging movement of edgewalkers, seekers, and spiritual leaders are responding to a call from deep within to change the way we relate to the natural world. The Wild Church Network is a place to connect with others who are remembering our sacred place in the web of life and returning to a spirituality connected with the soil, trees, waters, and creatures of all kinds, human and more-than-human. Our neighbors.
Wild Church is not a new religion, but a call to remember and remind ourselves of our place within the web of life, within and beyond any spiritual tradition.
As the old stories of separation and dominance begin to crumble, Wild Churches are popping up like mushrooms after a spring rain to re-sacralize what has been desecrated, to restore soulful relationship with our place as holy ground. Each community is unique to their place and their particular people, united in their yearning to restore the "Great Conversation" between humans and the rest of life, practicing a spirituality of radical belonging that honors the Earth as beloved community.
Wild Church Network is our collective response to the call of the wild to restore sacred relationship.
What is Wild Church?
Wild Church is an emerging yet ancient spiritual practice of connecting with the living world as kin. It is more than a novel way to "do church outside”; it is a movement to re-sacralize our wild and alive Earth. And, in the process, to re-wild our own souls. By moving beyond human-made walls and dogmas, we open ourselves to a direct experience of Mystery, listening for sermons whispered through the wind, the trees, and our local watersheds.
There is no single template for a Wild Church, because relationship is always particular. A gathering in a snowy maple forest in Ontario looks different than a summer sunset circle in the Texas hill country. Some communities are rooted in established religious traditions, while others avoid the word church altogether.
Untaming Religion beyond Institutions: Wild church doesn’t ask people to leave or join any particular religion. The us-them boundaries of religious identity are less important than the common roots of our shared belonging with a sacred Earth. While some wild church communities identify as explicitly Christian, interspiritual, Buddhist, or spiritual but not religious, the common invitation is to rewild your spirituality, no matter what your tradition or orientation.
You might find a Wild Church:
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Meeting in a city park where the roosting of hundreds of crows offers hymns and chants
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Serving communion with local berries and teas made from native plants.
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Exploring rewilded practices rooted in Celtic spirituality, Buddhist mindfulness, or Christian liturgy.
Whatever the form, the common thread is a recognition of the holiness of the living world. Most gatherings move through a simple rhythm of grounding, storytelling, and an invitation to meet the more-than-human world directly to remember our deep interconnection with a holy Earth. Most communities are centered in a practice of reverent sauntering, solo wanders with intention to listen and enter into sacred conversation with the holy and the wild, returning to the circle to share and process what is witnessed and discovered.
The Books
Church of the Wild by Victoria Loorz explores the restoration of our sacred relationship with the Earth, offering an ecospiritual lens on what it truly means to be "church" in an interconnected world.
Field Guide to Church of the Wild by Victoria Loorz and Valerie Luna Serrels provides a practical framework for the Wild Church journey, filled with rituals, prayers, and practices for gathering in reverent relationship with the more-than-human world.
"The goal of a wild church... is to enter more deeply into relationship with a spirit-soaked world."
From Field Guide to Church of the Wild by Victoria Loorz and Valerie Luna Serrels
A Shared Ethos
While Wild Church manifests in a diversity of expressions, we are held together by a shared mycelial connection—a commitment to a new way of being human on a sacred Earth.
Kinship & Radical Belonging
We move from seeing the Earth as a collection of objects to a communion of subjects. Our "beloved community" includes the trees, the waters, and the winged ones of our local watersheds. Beyond the "stewardship" model of caretaking, wild churches practice a spirituality of relationship and kinship with our more-than-human neighbors.
Reciprocity & Sacred Conversation
We gather to receive the overflowing gifts of the earth and enter into a sacred conversation of prayer, grief, and praise. This is an invitation to practice reciprocity—returning the gift through careful attention and responding to the needs of our kin with acts of service, restoration, and advocacy.
Direct Experience & Local Autonomy
Every Wild Church is an organic community with its own intelligence, led by those who create space for direct encounter with the holy wild. We value the "sermons" of the wind and the crows over human-made dogmas, inviting each seeker into their own conversation with the natural world.
Testimonials
“The Wild Church Network has been such a gift to me as I live into my own wild spirituality and invite others to come along. Knowing I am connected to a larger community gives me deep grounding and reassurance. From the incredible resources to the deep conversations to the laughter, I am so grateful to have found this beautiful group of people.”
Elizabeth Hill, Sacred Wild, Alabama
“I joined the Wild Church Network so I could be more connected with people engaged in eco-spirituality who are forming communities in line with this movement toward more connection with Sacred Earth. What I’ve found is deep connection, support, and an aliveness that transcends the geographical distance between us all.”
- Charity Muse, Wild Wood Gathering, Calhoun, Georgia
“Although we had a hiking ministry before discovering the Wild Church Network, joining as a member significantly enriched and expanded our wild offerings, community, and spiritual practices. It was only after joining the network and officially becoming a Wild Church that we named our ministry Sacred Way. Through the Wild Church Network's monthly leader calls, online resources, and support, our offerings expanded to include Terra Divina, providing adaptable practices accessible to all." - Lara Upton, Sacred Way, Charlottesville, VA
"Wild church is something you can’t just read about. You need to experience it yourself: in your own ecosystem, in relationship with your particular community of humans and trees and rivers and hawks and bumblebees."
From Field Guide to Church of the Wild by Victoria Loorz and Valerie Luna Serrels