UP WILD CHURCH
Behold
& Awaken Wonder
BE
TOGETHER
AWAKEN
THE WONDER IN OUR LIVES
PRAY
IN NEW WAYS
WELCOME TO U.P. WILD
U.P. WILD is a diverse faith community that cultivates the roots of Christianity recognizing that the wilderness has always been and still is a place of holy connection, revelation, wonderment, & healing.
We also recognize that many of us have been hurt by church and won't step back into one.
U.P. Wild meets outdoors and our gatherings are marked by levels of spiritual language.
You can choose any gathering that you feel comfortable with & be met on your journey.
Why We Exist
Our world entices us to consume & divide while our faith teaches us to be mindful & loving of all. Our churches have an agenda that can hurt us while nature freely teaches us about our Creator. Where do the misfits go who have a spirituality? Where do the church-goers go to supplement their spiritual practice? Where do the lonely go to find community? Indeed, it is as if Spirit is stripping us of our man-made divisions by reconnecting us to the soil, the watersheds, the oak tree, the caterpillars, as if there, we will find ourselves again.
Who We Are
You are welcome whether you are Christian, questioning your faith, in recovery from wounds inflicted by religious trauma, simultaneously receiving nourishment from other faith traditions, or simply on your journey. We create a space to resonate with each other no matter our background, skin color, ethnicity, economic status, gender, or cat/dog preference. We don't talk politics and we don't shame/blame. Instead, through the sharing of our own experiences while outdoors in nature we see we all have much in common.
Sharing Our Stories
We all have a story to tell. We have all had a moment of reverance and awe in the natural world. We love stepping out to the bird songs in our garden. We know the peace found on the lake while the sun sets. We invite you into conversation. We invite you into a Wander & Ponder to awaken your sense of wonder & awe. We invite those who carry around wounds to find that a next right step towards healing is through each other. We invite you to participate in wild school, prayer & pilates, coffee, mindful mending in the park +.
Exploring the U.P.
We live amongst a glorious cathedral of trees stretched between the Great Lakes. Millions of acres of holy ground within a unique bioregion and watershed unlike any other on the planet. Our wilderness walks explore new trails in Marquette County but branches are spreading in the four directions. Check out the Branches page to see if a U.P. Wild group is in your area.
Join us for:
☕️ Coffee @ The Crib : Learn more about us
✄ Mindful Mending : Public Living Room
🦉 Elders Speak : Social Group for Seniors
💔 Story Groups: Healing Trauma
👟 Wilderness Walks @ locations meant to engage our sense of wonder & awe
🐝 Wild School: Every Monday run by Parents
📗 Wander & Ponder: At Home Resource
🌲 Nature Prayer Services across the U.P.
✨ Prayer & Pilates : @ the Stained Glass Chapel
❄️ Year-Round Service such as:
Pine Sunday, Ascension w/ Frogs, Ice Cave Praying,
Kids Foraging, Blessing of Monarchs + more!
MISSION:
Because caring for creation is a matter of faith. Gathering together we bear witness to the holiness around us & place ourselves as God's stewards within a living breathing eco-system. We challenge the emptiness of our culture of consumption and experience the fullness of living in right relationship with the Earth and our Creator.
THE PRAYER OF THE BEE:
God, let my small span of ardent life melt into our great communal task; to lift up to Your love this temple of sweetness, a citadel of incense, a holy candle, myriad-celled, moulded of Your graces and of my hidden work.
PRAYER OF MECHTILD OF MAGDEBURG:
The day of my spirtual awakening was the day I saw, and knew I saw, all things in God and God in all things.
PRAYER OF THOMAS MERTON:
What a thing it is to sit absolutely alone, in the forest, at night, cherished by this wonderful, unintelligible, perfectly innocent speech, the most comforting speech in the world, the talk that rain makes by itself all over the ridges, and the talk of the watercourses everywhere in the hollows! Nobody started it, nobody is going to stop it. It will talk as long as it wants, this rain. As long as it talks I am going to listen.
PRAYER OF SAINT BASIL:
God teaches us through creation. [The natural world] is the supreme icon
of Christian faith which leads to knowledge of the Supreme Artisan.
PRAYER OF HENRI NOUWEN:
I am afraid that in a few decades the Church will be accused of having failed in its most basic task: to offer people creative ways to communicate with the source of life." (1972)