Creating church in the forest

There is something sacred, imperfect and beautiful when you take church into the forest. To walk along a path with a group of people, who have rooted themselves in prayer and scripture at the mouth of a pathway, looking for a place to rest ourselves and open a backpack filled with the makings of an altar and Holy Eucharist.

This is what the community of Christ Church Bells Corners (CCBC) decided to do this summer. We have joined a growing number of church communities from across the world who have launched a ‘Forest Church’ as a unique expression of our faith tradition that takes place outdoors.

The Diocese of Norwich (U.K.) defines Forest Church in this way; “Forest Church is a type of outdoor worship and spiritual practice that emphasizes connecting with nature and finding spiritual meaning in the natural world. It’s a contemporary movement with roots in Christian traditions that highlight nature and creation, like Celtic and Franciscan approaches, and aims to engage with God through the natural world.”

On the last Monday of each month, 15 to 20 people have gathered at one of three different NCC trails to worship and share Holy Communion. We have been joined by newcomers who have heard about Forest Church through social media (including a young man who had never been to a church service before in his life), fauna (including an amazing encounter with the Barred Owl seen in the picture above), perplexed onlookers, trees and wildflowers.

We gather first in the trail parking lot and ensure that we have bug spray and water and hand out bulletins. We then chat about existing shared knowledge about the trail that we are about to embark on. We don’t pre-plan where our altar will be but discuss as a group what makes sense in light of the temperature and the abilities of those who have gathered on any particular evening. We adapt as we go (even if it means stopping because someone finds a rare wildflower, pausing the Eucharistic prayer on account of the beautiful snakes curling around the bullrushes, or taking a different path because someone knows that there are nesting owls that we might catch a glimpse of).

With an opening prayer and a reading from scripture we enter the trail with intentions to observe the space around us and to walk together in fellowship and friendship. When we find a place to create an altar (usually at about the half-way mark of our walk) we prepare the elements and circle around to participate in the rhythm and ritual of our tradition. After the meal is shared, we head back and conclude with a closing prayer, blessing and dismissal.

The origins of Forest Church are often attributed to Bruce Stanley who is author of a book entitled; Forest Church: A Field Guide to Nature Connection for Groups and Individuals in which he provides an overview of an emerging trend that began in the U.K. in 2012 to take Christian worship outdoors. My own introduction to Forest Church happened when I met the Rev. Stephen Blackmer at the Re:Generate Fellowship Program through Wake Forest Divinity; a program that brought together church leaders interested in creation spirituality, environmental concerns, and food justice. Stephen created the Church of the Woods, a ministry connected with Episcopal Church of the United States that defines 106 acres of wild woods and wetlands in Canterbury, New Hampshire as an outdoor church. Today, Forest Church communities connect together through a Facebook Page with close to six thousand members from across the world.

Bells Corners is often referred to as an ‘island’ due to the community’s three-sided boundary created by the Stony Swamp Conservation Area of Ottawa’s Greenbelt. The fourth side of the suburb is Highway 417, stretching across the north end. This unique boundary has influenced the context and culture of Bells Corners since its inception in the early 1800s and continues to influence the use of community space today. During the COVID pandemic, the many NCC pathways that are accessed via Moodie Drive became a place of safe refuge for outdoor community gathering and connection. For parishioners at CCBC, the surrounding path network has been a place of spiritual connection for many years, and so the thought of using these lands for outdoor Anglican worship was an exciting idea that pulled together 16 individuals for the initial brainstorming meeting. Each service has been an amazing opportunity to use the richness of our tradition in the midst of creation.

Originally our team committed to four Forest Church services beginning in May and we have now extended to six services by adding September and October to the calendar (with hopes and prayers that we will not hit the 39-degree temperature we experienced at our July service). All are welcome at Forest Church and information can be found on our website: https://christchurchbellscorners.ca/forestchurch/. We promise it will be sacred, imperfect and beautiful and that together we will worship God, share bread and wine, and pray together.

For a bit more inspiration, here’s a link to Wendell Berry’s reading of his poem ‘The Peace of Wild Things.’