From the Wild Edges

a seasonal newsletter from the Wild Church Network

After three years watching Wild Churches sprout up organically across the continent, we are crossing the threshold into a new phase of emergence. The Wild Church Network is now positioned to provide resources, more points of connection, and support to grow the movement. 

The Wild Church Network is an emerging community of eco-spiritual leaders, organized to nourish the spread and growth of Wild Churches. In a culture of desacralizing some lives for the benefit of others, the churches within the Network affirm the holiness of all beings, regardless of faith tradition, sexual orientation, race, gender, genus, or species. All are sacred. All of us, interconnected.

If you've started a Wild Church, have been thinking about how to start one, or are just interested in what this is, check out our new membership based website.

Thank you for being integral to the emergence of this network!

Welcome! Join the Wild Church Network

Connect your existing Wild Church

Sprout a new Wild Church in your watershed 

Pollinate the movement with a donation

Wild Church Profiles

Every newsletter will highlight different Wild Churches in the network. Follow their links to learn more about these communities, and find resources they've written specifically for their gatherings, or resources they use. 

Mennonite pastor, Rev. Wendy Janzen, planted Burning Bush Forest Church and Wilmot Forest Church in Kitchener, Ontario (Read More...)

Valerie Luna Serrels is the founder of Shenandoah Valley Church of the Wild in Virginia, a non-denominational church within the Celtic tradition (Read More...)

UCC pastor, Rev. LeAnn Blackert, planted Wild Church Kamloops and Wild Church Okanagan in British Columbia (Read More...)

UMC pastor, Rev. Stephanie Price, is the founder of The Land in Aurora, CO (Read More...)

Solstice Reflections: 

Summer Solstice marks the time of year of fullest light and illumination, exposing what had been previously hidden. The Above. It also marks the beginning of the waning of light toward dark. The Underground. This solstice is defined by the stark illumination of a global pandemic and the uprising against embedded systemic racial injustice. We may also find gifts long hidden within us, within our culture, that are waiting to be released for the healing and wholing of our world. We sit in the heat of a transformative moment. 

We live in a world defined by a planetary environmental crisis, in addition to the roots of white supremacy and patriarchy that have shaped the socio-economic-political systems of this continent. A revolution is needed in how we be human on and with this earth and each other. ALL the each-others. Over its first few years, the Wild Church Network has been living into its mission of providing a new model of Church, reconnecting humans in kindred relationship with the rest of the natural world, without creed or doctrine. 

If we listen closely, there is also much being illuminated within ourselves that has been kept in shadow. We, too, are complex beings, capable of great love and great destruction. It’s time for a coming-to-terms with the way things are and asking ourselves, our churches, our organizations, what is mine to do, ours to do? What is our part to play in the Great Turning?

We look forward to learning and growing together. 

Many Wild Blessings in this time of uprooting and grounding deeper,

Valerie Luna Serrels and Victoria Luna Loorz 

on behalf of the Wild Church Network