Guest Blog by Katy Taylor

As I walk out the door, I begin to move and breathe differently. I slow down, notice my body, start noticing what’s around me.

I’m going on a wander, one of the main practices of eco-spirituality workshops I’ve attended and a core part of Wild Church.

I let my feet – not my head – guide me toward the entry I’ll take today into one of our forest paths. As I step in, I cross a threshold and consciously mark it. Sometimes, I say a few words about my intention; sometimes, I ask for guidance; often, I ask just to be present and receive what the living earth wants me to know.

Today, the sunlight is slanting through the forest at just the right angle to catch all the spider webs. I’ve never noticed them before. I see three different active webs with spiders in the middle and lots and lots of old webs in the branches of the cedar. The old ones are collecting things – twigs, moss, fronds, needles, bits and pieces… They look like little hammocks of support. I am surrounded by support and grandmother spiders weaving the world. The synchronicity of this? Not only is support something I am opening more to these days, but I pulled the Spider Medicine Card this morning!

In my desire to feel like the earth being I am, I have been practicing, wandering, singing, reading, attending eco-spirituality workshops, etc. One of the books I devoured in the last year was by Victoria Loorz called Wild Church. This book describes her path from traditional Christianity into Wild Church, a way of meeting in community to practice being and communing with creation, outside in all weather. I found it so welcoming and affirming of my own yearning to reconnect that I got on her email list.

A while later, I heard that there was a Wild Church Network and that they were offering a training to learn to facilitate Wild Church. During this time, Rev. Kate Kinney had also found Wild Church and it had been recommended to the Board. A group of us met to talk about bringing a Wild Church experience to QUUF – Virginia Nixon, Sherry Maddow, Susan Levitt, Dave Covert, and Rev. Kate. We didn’t want to have a book group, but a real, live experience of Wild Church.

Since I have been leading Winter Solstice rituals for 15 years and am ordained as an Interfaith Minister, it seemed like a good fit to help bring Wild Church to QUUF. It was later decided that QUUF would pay for my training, which happened last Fall (thank you!), and now it’s time to get started with this new offering!

We will begin meeting once a month on the 4th Saturday from 10-11:30am, starting February 25 at Fort Townsend. See more details in the Upcoming Event, but just so you know what to expect, there are three mostly equal parts: Greeting/Grounding, Wandering/Wondering, and Circling-Up/Sharing. We will meet in circle under a big Doug Fir, share some opening words, songs, and practices, and then go off individually to wander in silence. We then reconvene to share our experience. Children are welcome, but parents need to help guide them. If wandering is not accessible, remaining in the circle under the Doug Fir is an option, too.

I look forward to being your guide and sharing this with you! Feel free to reach out with any questions and to get on the Wild Church email list: Katy Taylor’s email.

Late Note: To view the February 12 Sunday service about Wild Church, click here (or click here to read the reading and sermon).