A Movement is Emerging...

From isolation to connection.

From detachment to immersion.

From dualism to interBeing.

Popping up all over the land, like wild mushrooms after a spring rain,

Wild Church communities are responding to a call from deep within

to change the way we relate to the natural world, moving

"from a collection of objects, to a communion of subjects"

Thomas Berry

In this age of mass extinctions, we feel compelled by the love of Christ to invite people into intimate relationship with some of the most vulnerable victims of our destructive culture: the land, waters, and creatures with whom we share our homes.

New Wild Churches are emerging all the time, offering invitations to reconnect with the natural world. As kin. As sacred. As beloved co-participants in a larger story of grace and inter-being.

Wild Church gatherings offer opportunities for contemplation, grief and praise, movement and song, solo wandering and wondering, advocacy, ecological restoration and activism on behalf of and in collaboration with the beloved others in our watersheds.

A larger beloved community.

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.

Join the Network

The Wild Church Network has been a support system for new and growing wild churches and their leaders since 2016. We've outgrown our wild seedbed and are ready to open to wider ecosystems! Wild Churches are revitalizing spiritual practices and what it means to belong and the Network is dedicated to supporting and growing this way of being and learning.

We are widening our welcome to include seekers and those who are playing with new ways of being human in relationship with the land and creatures as a space to grow and learn together. We need each other in this time of so much breakdown and breakthrough. Join the Network at this threshold of growth so that we can offer more resources, workshops, webinars and gatherings to meet the growing need.

Find out more about our new Mighty Networks platform called The Ecosystem with Wild Seekers and Wild Church Network memberships! Just click on any of the photos.

Wild Church Leadership Certificate Course

Seven Week Online Program
begins February 1, 2024
12-2 Pacific

Grounding and Guidance

This seven-week course offers you the tools and support you need as you consider, plant and guide a wild church community

This course is a partnership between the Wild Church Network and the Center for Wild Spirituality. While this program is not required to start a Wild Church, it provides guidance to participants to step into their role of spiritual leader and create a community that honors Place and the soul's longings within the context of the needs and ecologies of your community.
Wild churches are ecumenical and spiritual-but-not-religious and some are connected with existing religious institutions. There are no dogmas to recite, rules to follow, or step-by-step instructions. Rather, wild churches are organic organisms, with a life and intelligence of their own. The online course guides you in listening to what is emerging. It is a process of liberation for your own soul in relationship with the more-than-human-others in your particular Place, woven in with your particular community.

Who is This For?

For existing wild church pastors and leaders as well as those considering starting one in your wildish Place. For those inside or outside of the "church" or particular religious orientation. Wild Churches don't all call themselves "church." This program is a grounding into your own particular spirituality in relationship with the sacred earth and with all beings.

Sessions include:

Introduction to the Wild Church movement, wild spirituality and theology, wild leadership, practices, logistics, Wild Church Network membership, and integration. Topics include: The primacy of deep listening and holding space, orienting to the "preachers" from the land, sharing council-style, outreach, building a team, a bit of theology to ground you in your Place, and decolonizing.

is there a wild church near you?

WILD CHURCH PROFILES & STORIES

Every Wild Church reflects the unique gifts of the leader, intention of the community, and particular gifts of the land. Learning about the movement is not about learning creeds or rules, rather it's about listening to stories. The diversity of the movement becomes clear as you read through the different types of services, denominations, practices, geography and people behind each Wild Church.

A sample of wild church communities:

WENDY JANZEN, Burning Bush Forest Church & Wilmot Forest Church in Kichener, Ontario (Mennonite)

VALERIE LUNA SERRELS, Shenandoah Valley Church of the Wild, Harrisonburg Virginia (Celtic)

LEANN BLACKERT, Wild Church BC in Kamloops and Okanagan, British Columbia (United Church of Canada)

STEPHANIE PRICE, The Land, Aurora, Colorado (United Methodist Church)

Order the book through your local bookseller.

The Wild Church Network is here to encourage and support people who are starting Wild Churches. The Church of the Wild book offers inspiration for those who feel the call from Spirit and Earth herself to create a spiritual community that reconnects us to the rest of the alive and sacred world.

“This book will be of great use to all who feel a little broken by the world right now—those of a Christian heritage especially, but really everyone yearning to reconnect with something larger. I think the wisest course of action would be to slip it into a knapsack and remove yourself outdoors to read it.”

—Bill McKibben, author of Falter, Eaarth, and The End of Nature

“Victoria Loorz compassionately explores the people and ritual practices that remind us how sacred our planet is, for it is our first and foremost holy scripture. Her deep thinking and grand language offer us a great gift: the chance to renew our spiritual relationship with all of creation through exuberant and ethical engagement.”

—Gary Paul Nabhan, aka Brother Coyote, Franciscan brother and author of Jesus for Farmers and Fishers

Interested in Wild Church?Join us on our new free platform hosted by Mighty Networks

Join a Welcome Call

We gratefully and gladly welcome donations! If you DON'T need a tax-deductible receipt, you can share a financial gift with us by clicking the button below. If you need a tax-deductible receipt, please get in touch with us here. Thank you for pollinating the movement!